Pics of fledgling system from RugbyNewz

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Well it has been about 20 years in the making! In that time the front room has been decorated several times and not so long ago made into a thru lounge. 2 nippers born and grown up in the house and now less of a cost burden so at last found that I had the funds to endulge a little more seriously a hobby that in the past I could only play around the edges with. When last decorating I had the forethought to drill holes for cabling so that everything is nice and tidy and even the wife is pleased with the way it has turned out, result! Can't persuade her to let me keep the speaker grilles off and reveal the yellow bits of the Bowers & Wilkins though!

Not sure that we will be using the gas fire much!

Having the sub and speaker on top of the cabinet works perfectly except when using the turntable. I have used rubber matting to try and dampen the vibration but at even moderate volume suffer badly from acoustic feedback. This is an issue that still needs to be resolved, if you have any suggestions I would be pleased to receive you advice. The sound that the B&W's produce are superb both musically and for sound effects and I consider these to be the jewel in my set up and I think they look great too.

Having the HP slimline computer right next to my A/V kit and displaying it's output on my LCD is really handy especially for playing my stored library of MP3's. Also convenient when updating the controls for the Harmony One remote and viewing photos. Very pleased with the Sony amp, STR-DA 2400ES, first dedicated amp that I have ever had and it compliments the B&W's well.

At the moment I don't have a dedicated CD player and just use the Blu-ray player for the purpose. If I were to spend say a couple or three hundred quid on a CD player, do you think that I would get much better sound quality over the Blu-ray?

I have pre-ordered the Battle of Britain on Blu-ray, being released later this month. Can't wait to hear those Rolls-Royce Merlin engines roaring up and down my lounge!

Thanks for looking, any tips for this rookie please post.

 

[True Blue]

Nice kit. Have you tried the subwoofer on the floor just to the right of the visible settee?

 

[Torres09]

Im with True Blue, id defo get the Sub on the floor, also how far back are you viewing the LCD from? Just, from the photo it looks very high/straight on the wall?

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Torres09:Im with True Blue, id defo get the Sub on the floor, also how far back are you viewing the LCD from? Just, from the photo it looks very high/straight on the wall?

Nice looking set up but I have to agree, the sub on the floor would make so much difference and the screen looks neck achingly high. However, I will not show these pictures to my other half as she would love the way it's "all out of the way"!!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks chaps. I will have a go at repositioning the sub when I get home.

Viewing distance is about 12-13 feet. When deciding where I would put the screen I worked out what I thought would be the best height to view from a semi-reclined postion directly in front of the screen. It works very well with visuals, head naturally nestles into the leather settee at just the right angle. On the flip side, with feet up, put any easy listening on after a hard days graft and bang, you are asleep in no time! Pure pleasure!

Any thoughts re: Blu-ray v dedicated player for listening to CD's?

Cheers.

 

[Torres09]

RugbyNewz:

Thanks chaps. I will have a go at repositioning the sub when I get home.

Viewing distance is about 12-13 feet. When deciding where I would put the screen I worked out what I thought would be the best height to view from a semi-reclined postion directly in front of the screen. It works very well with visuals, head naturally nestles into the leather settee at just the right angle. On the flip side, with feet up, put any easy listening on after a hard days graft and bang, you are asleep in no time! Pure pleasure!

Any thoughts re: Blu-ray v dedicated player for listening to CD's?

Cheers.

If you listen to alot of cd's id go with a dedicated cdp................

For your budget £200-300 check out CambridgeAudio Azur540 or 640 and Marantz5003/6002, as far as i can remember they got 5 stars................im no expert on HiFi but just my 2c..........

 

[True Blue]

If i were you I would look into buying an external DAC and using your BR player as a transport for playing CD's. Will allow you to connect up PC as well.

Secondly try placing the subwoofer on a granite chopping board (tesco / asda £10 ish) when moving onto the floor as this will isolate the vibrations further IMO

 

[Anonymous]

True Blue:

If i were you I would look into buying an external DAC and using your BR player as a transport for playing CD's. Will allow you to connect up PC as well.

I agree with True Blue - you said earlier about spending £200 - £300 on a CD player. You'd get far better results for your money by hooking a DAC up to your Blu-ray player and using it as the transport.

 

[Torres09]

Torres09:RugbyNewz:

Thanks chaps. I will have a go at repositioning the sub when I get home.

Viewing distance is about 12-13 feet. When deciding where I would put the screen I worked out what I thought would be the best height to view from a semi-reclined postion directly in front of the screen. It works very well with visuals, head naturally nestles into the leather settee at just the right angle. On the flip side, with feet up, put any easy listening on after a hard days graft and bang, you are asleep in no time! Pure pleasure!

Any thoughts re: Blu-ray v dedicated player for listening to CD's?

Cheers.

If you listen to alot of cd's id go with a dedicated cdp................

For your budget £200-300 check out CambridgeAudio Azur540 or 640 and Marantz5003/6002, as far as i can remember they got 5 stars................im no expert on HiFi but just my 2c..........

Like i said i know nothing about HiFi or DAC for that matter

I'll get my coat.......

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks to those who have offered advice, greatly appreciated. Here is an update:

I was in the process of moving the sub onto the floor and my misses caught me in the act and a bit of a barney followed. You guess it, she did not want any "clutter". Thinking about it I returned the sub to it's original position, had I left it where intended no doubt it would have received frequent attacks from a mad woman with a Hoover!

OK the turntable was bargain bucket but being convinced that it should be able to play my long un-heard collection of vinyl much better, I started off trying one of the suggestions made by True-Blue. I obtained a sample of 30mm thick granite worktop from the local Kitchen showroom, wrapped it in a non slip black rubber and placed it under the turntable in my display unit having removed the plastic feet from the t/table. The sub and left front speaker have now been put on mats on top of the cabinet. This action resulted in a considerable improvement and volume could be increased by about 50% from before, any higher and that horrible wobble came back.

Still not being content with these modifications I thought that I would experiment with the connections/settings. The phono out on the turntable having obviosly been connected to the phono in on the amp. On the bottom of the turntable is a button that you can switch between "MM AMP" on or off. I changed this to on and re-connected the phono jacks to CD input on the amp. Well this produced a remarkable change and volumes can now be set to a neighbour unfriendly level without distortion. Can anybody explain why this should be so?

Having read all I can about DAC's, in particular the a CA DACMagic which has a conversion rate of 24 bit/192kHz, I have decided to keep my powder dry and save up for a dedicated CD player, possibly the CA 840C which can up-scale to 24-bit/384kHz. If anybody can recommend an alternative CD player for a similar budget please let me know.

Battle of Britain on Blu-Ray arrived yesterday, awesome!

 

[idc]

RugbyNewz:

I was in the process of moving the sub onto the floor and my misses caught me in the act and a bit of a barney followed. You guess it, she did not want any "clutter".

I would suggest that you could remove unessecary clutter by popping the misses ontop of one of these (available from B&Q, all good garden centres and Roman ruins)..........................

and putting the subwoofer on the floor..............................

 

[Anonymous]

Nice looking system there. But, I agree with some of the others about the sub being moved pronto.
I cringed big time when I realised where you had put it. You really gotta be brave and nestle it next to your seating postion (down the side maybe on a bit of granite.) Will improve your sound no end I would think and you should notice it straight away. cheers

 

[Anonymous]

RugbyNewz:
Still not being content with these modifications I thought that I would experiment with the connections/settings. The phono out on the turntable having obviosly been connected to the phono in on the amp. On the bottom of the turntable is a button that you can switch between "MM AMP" on or off. I changed this to on and re-connected the phono jacks to CD input on the amp. Well this produced a remarkable change and volumes can now be set to a neighbour unfriendly level without distortion. Can anybody explain why this should be so?

Possibilities:

The MM preamp stage built in to your turntable is considerably better quality than the the one built into your amp (unlikely, I think).

The MM preamp stage in your amp is malfunctioning (possible, but again unlikely)

Whatever is causing the feedback / distortion in your setup is having less effect when the turntable is doing the preamp work compared to when the main amp is left to do it. This may have something to do with the positioning of your turntable relative to your other kit.

Anyway, if you've found something that works for you, I'd stick with it.

 

[Anonymous]

With consideration to the considerable quantity of MP3's residing on my PC, the ease of streaming new material and taking into account advice, I have had a change of heart regarding awaiting a dedicated CDP. Today I hooked up a new DacMagic. Wow! I am delighted with the enhanced SQ and the flexibilty that the DacMagic brings to my system.

I have used the USB connection between the DAC and the computer however wonder if even greater improvement to SQ would result if the link were by the other option I have i.e. using a S/P DIF coaxial cable?

As ever advice greatfully received.

 

[Anonymous]

The more I listen to FLAC converted Audio CD's played thru the transport of my PC, jiggled around with by the DACMagic and amplified by the STR-DA 2400 and ultimately delivered to my ears by the B&W's, the more convinced I am that the decision not to spend big bucks on a dedicated CDP was a wise one.

I have to say that I was rather sceptical about the benefits a DAC may bring but I guess the numerous very positive posts on this forum about these little boxes of tricks suggested to me that they must truly deliver noticeable improvement. Cor I'd say so! Just been listening to the Who's Ultimate Collection, great music delivered crystal clear, punchy and vibrant. Add me to the list of DAC fans.

BTW after experimenting with the type of connection between the PC and the DAC I have settled with a SPDIF cable at the expense of the USB connector. To my ears sounds better but I don't know why this should be so? No doubt I'll be using dbpoweramp to rip more of my CD collection to FLAC and using MediaMonkey to organise and play it back tonight. Happy bunny!