Over time I?ve come to realize just how much I still have to learn. I also realize how much I have learnt too.
Reflecting back on so many builds over the years, always diy, always experimental... with so many lessons learnt through each success, and just as much through the failures. I?ve honestly lost count.
The last year has been incredibly rewarding. Everything I had learnt though the many years was brought together into two wonderful setups - a separate stereo room and the completion of the home theatre I always wanted.
The family spends vast amounts of time enjoying the systems. In the past two years especially, every evening enjoying music or movies has become a significant part of our lives, and not just mine.
Some time ago, I visited Johan and Francois of Audio Exchange, and left with a new vision of what I wanted to accomplish in a Music system. With their help and that of other forum members valuable inputs and suggestions, a system came together that stirs my emotions each and every time I play it. I?ve visited many, listened to many too, and I still get goosebumps every time I return home to my own. I welcome anyone to take a listen should they be interested.
The down side of the room? My HT system sounded awful playing music by comparison. This was more than partially responsible for what prompted the complete rebuild that has taken place over the last few months. The HT enjoys around 80 or 90 % of our time, so it felt like the effort was needed. The recent completion of the project has yielded better results than I had hoped for. Atmos configured correctly is truly something to experience. Anyone still thinking stereo for movies is a preference... enlighten yourself.
Music on the other hand, was still not up to scratch. It not an easy thing to achieve either, given the mostly inflexible positioning of speakers within a HT room, the AVR and amplification used. Using the tools and skills I had acquired, I now set off on a quest to silence the nay-sayers, that have so often insisted that HT rooms are cr@p for music.
Without going into too much info, I can solidly advise this.
- Forego AVR amplification for the front L&R. It?s not good enough. Adding any decent power amp to your front end is worthwhile.
- Stop all the processing. Forget Audyssey, any form of compression, equalization, dynamic range control etc. Direct mode, nothing else. With smaller bookshelf type speakers that may require subs, you would need some processing to phase align subs, but keep the rest out of the equation.
Source... I cannot stress this enough, get a decent DAC, and let the AVR do no more than control an analogue inputs volume output.
I run both Roon and Amarra on separate MacMini?s in each room, supported by a ROCK configured NUC and Tidal HI-Fi. I borrowed my Perreaux Pre-DAC from the stereo room to manage the decoding pre the AVR in the HT, and the difference was phenomenal... So good that I was devastated to have to put it back where it belongs.
The two systems are still worlds apart when it comes to music, but at least now it?s for reasons one can appreciate, and not for anything lacking as one typically gets with stereo over HT. I now can appreciate the character qualities of each system, and actually enjoy their differences.
So the quest is still on to find that last vital piece of kit being a suitable DAC to complete the system. Looking forward to experiencing the iFI range arriving in the next week or so at Audio Exchange.
J
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Reflecting back on so many builds over the years, always diy, always experimental... with so many lessons learnt through each success, and just as much through the failures. I?ve honestly lost count.
The last year has been incredibly rewarding. Everything I had learnt though the many years was brought together into two wonderful setups - a separate stereo room and the completion of the home theatre I always wanted.
The family spends vast amounts of time enjoying the systems. In the past two years especially, every evening enjoying music or movies has become a significant part of our lives, and not just mine.
Some time ago, I visited Johan and Francois of Audio Exchange, and left with a new vision of what I wanted to accomplish in a Music system. With their help and that of other forum members valuable inputs and suggestions, a system came together that stirs my emotions each and every time I play it. I?ve visited many, listened to many too, and I still get goosebumps every time I return home to my own. I welcome anyone to take a listen should they be interested.
The down side of the room? My HT system sounded awful playing music by comparison. This was more than partially responsible for what prompted the complete rebuild that has taken place over the last few months. The HT enjoys around 80 or 90 % of our time, so it felt like the effort was needed. The recent completion of the project has yielded better results than I had hoped for. Atmos configured correctly is truly something to experience. Anyone still thinking stereo for movies is a preference... enlighten yourself.
Music on the other hand, was still not up to scratch. It not an easy thing to achieve either, given the mostly inflexible positioning of speakers within a HT room, the AVR and amplification used. Using the tools and skills I had acquired, I now set off on a quest to silence the nay-sayers, that have so often insisted that HT rooms are cr@p for music.
Without going into too much info, I can solidly advise this.
- Forego AVR amplification for the front L&R. It?s not good enough. Adding any decent power amp to your front end is worthwhile.
- Stop all the processing. Forget Audyssey, any form of compression, equalization, dynamic range control etc. Direct mode, nothing else. With smaller bookshelf type speakers that may require subs, you would need some processing to phase align subs, but keep the rest out of the equation.
Source... I cannot stress this enough, get a decent DAC, and let the AVR do no more than control an analogue inputs volume output.
I run both Roon and Amarra on separate MacMini?s in each room, supported by a ROCK configured NUC and Tidal HI-Fi. I borrowed my Perreaux Pre-DAC from the stereo room to manage the decoding pre the AVR in the HT, and the difference was phenomenal... So good that I was devastated to have to put it back where it belongs.
The two systems are still worlds apart when it comes to music, but at least now it?s for reasons one can appreciate, and not for anything lacking as one typically gets with stereo over HT. I now can appreciate the character qualities of each system, and actually enjoy their differences.
So the quest is still on to find that last vital piece of kit being a suitable DAC to complete the system. Looking forward to experiencing the iFI range arriving in the next week or so at Audio Exchange.
J
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
