Room Revamp & Dont throw away your cables

[crusaderlord]

I have finally completed a complete overhaul of the dining room area of our through lounge/dining room to create a proper listening area down one end of the room. Despite my reservations on space i am delighted that i achieved my aim. Out went a PC desk and chair into the small cellar as an office space.

So the hifi separates now proudly sit on the sideboard and the speakers finally are off a shelf and onto some Soundstyle Z2 stands. I also have a new easy chair to listen to music with and a new cd rack.

The sound, especially the bass definition is much improved i am delighted to say - honestly the Epos M5 which is generally classified as relatively lean, sounds anything but to my ears now. Interestingly i tried my old Van Den Hul 'The Name' cable after the move and it added more clarity to the overall system than the Cobra 3 so whew i am really glad i kept it for once and didnt offload on ebay.

I cant help but feel my speakers could do with an upgrade although i am still not sure what to get though - Spendor SA1 maybe or Dali Mentor 1 are the most likely (if anyone else can recommend them).

 

[crusaderlord]

I have placed a couple of pictures on my website if anyone is interested.

http://www.crusadersgolf.co.uk/html/latest_news.html

 

[Anonymous]

Looks great crusaderlord, can't really tell from the photos but is that chair in a 'sweet spot' position? I'm sure it's easy to lose plenty of time on a boring Saturday afternoon!

 

[Anonymous]

Looks great! Do you find any sound imbalance with the right speaker adjacent to a wall? My room layout is unsymmetrical and highly reflective so I need a new house now!

 

[crusaderlord]

The chair is placed in the corner when not in use, but when i sit to listen i just slide it a couple of feet away from the wall to get to a midpoint between the speakers so it does hit the sweet spot very easily - hence i got a chair which is easy to move about by sliding it as there are no legs to it.

As to the speaker being close to a wall - i do not notice any imbalance to be honest but I do imagine that it probably does squeeze the soundstage towards the centre rather than allowing it to extend naturally outwards but given the speakers used to be on shelves and way above earheight and also still close to a wall either side of a fireplace then you can see this is definately the much better option and the sound is much improved. Any loss of right side extension is more than made up by extra bass depth and overall clarity and reduced shelf vibrations.

You can only do so much if you have a wife and kids to work around. But here is the final solution - we are saving for a conservatory which would enable the dining table and chairs (just out of view in the picture) to move out of this living space and give me the whole room to work with !!!!

In the meantime the next addition will be a small 2 shelf glass hi-fi rack to mount the separates on. Little by little the upgrade goes on with the Spendor SA1 also high on my wish list.

 

[Anonymous]

A whole room to play with has to be the best upgrade. A decent rack might improve the sound too. Excellent. Have you got a Tacima CS929 (£20 on ebay) to surge protect the kit? They have a small mains filter on too that might improve things yet further. Good luck with it...

 

[crusaderlord]

I do have a Tacima in my system already and did notice a difference a few months back when i added it.

As well as the rack i will probably get a couple of powermax plus mains leads just to finish off the improvements.

After that i will save for speakers although have no real complaints with the Epos. Upgrading is just fun to do.

I notice a new cd player igglebert.

 

[Anonymous]

crusaderlord:I notice a new cd player igglebert.

Was going to get a DAC but found this MF player instead. I nearly got the FMJ32 but decided to draw the line at the slightly cheaper MF. Hard life. Need to find a suitable amp now, maybe a Quad 606 or 909.

I'll be curious to see what difference powermax mains leads make.

 

[crusaderlord]

I am interested myself to see if the mains upgrade is worth it - it is one i have avoided as forum wise i havent seen much evidence of its performance really.

I have toyed with the positioning today and edged the speakers out a little more into the room and they are reallying singing at the moment.