Originally Posted by Punzabi

That is one nice and loud (by the look of it) setup. Honestly its an eyecandy for me. Hope it sounds sweet enough to make your neighbor knock on your door and request you to turn the volume down

it is definitely loud, i dont play it loud normally, i only play it loud when i demo it and the sub is normally at a volume level of around 1 or 2 out of 10 so that it sounds tight and solid but if i pick up the levels it definitely is capable of ratlling the windows but the low end is not as controlled as i would like it to be then

remember though its in a huge room ie the lounge and dining room is one huge open plan room so for it to be capable of rattling the windows it has to play loud so yes its very loud - but i am afraid of permanent ear damage if i play it loud all the time, so that is reserved for when the visitors arrive and when i want to show-off a bit and the demo's dont really last too long usually only 5 minutes of a blu-ray being played, and maybe a bit of stereo music - though while i have my buddies Martin Logans in there i will have to be extra careful because the amp/receiver is only officially stable to 8 ohm and those are 4 ohm speakers so i dont want to damage anything

So I have not really updated this thread at all so now i need to really update it to account for the many changes I have made since i started my audio adventure so here is a full disclosure of every change that has occurred to the system and there have been many

Lets start with the speakers. I had an offer from my dealer buddy to get some Dali Ikon speakers at ridiculous prices that were below dealer/supplier cost because the importer of these speakers was discontinuing the brand so i managed to sell the Acoustic Research speakers at not too much of a loss ie i got around 80% of my money back (which is a decent return after having used them for around 2 years)

so off i went to pick up the speakers and heres a picture of them in my car as i picked them up from the dealers place



then heres all the boxes of the stuff that arrived before i excitedly unpacked the lot



so the front speakers are now Dali ikon 7's which are still short of being as good as Martin Logan speakers but these are normally around half the price of Martin Logans and i managed to get them at around 30% of their regular price in my country so its a substantial speaker upgrade at almost no cost to my pocket



so whats the big deal about these speakers you may ask? ... well they use a ribbon tweeter as well as a conventional dome tweeter and that makes the high frequency response really smooth and lifelike as well as very natural, Here is a picture of the tweeters



so i really wanted to have a separate stereo and home theater arrangement so i needed a stereo amplifier that was capable of doing an HT bypass (i will explain that later) so the amplifier i chose for stereo purposes was a Denon PMA2000AE which is a comparatively highish end amplifier. I costs more than my multi-channel reciever and combined with these speakers it makes for a convincing and muscular high end audio experience and i got myself a Pioneer PD-D6s cd player for the stereo setup as well



so this is what the rack and front stage of the HT setup looked like now - the mats under the speakers are because i did not want to damage the floor tiles with the speaker spikes



heres what the Dali spikes look like - they come in their own box



so the front stage also has a centre channel speaker and this is the Dali Ikon Vokal 2



then for the rears here where it becomes interesting from my side. I decided that due to the lack of being able to get decent speaker stands in my area i was going to manufacture my own and start a company to this end - so the stands you see these speakers on are my design

here are some short ones



but i eventually settled for the taller ones for my own system



and to make the system 7.1 i continued using the Sony speakers i Had previously because surround back speakers do not need to be powerful so here is what the rear part of the setup looks like



Okay so now onto the sources of the setup. I have a Denon 1930 dvd player which i kept and then i sold my Pioneer blu-ray player and replaced it with a Denon BDP1610 blu-ray player whcih i got for second hand at 1/4th of its regular price and i also got myself a mede8er HD media player



to feed the media player i needed a few hard drives so i also got an internal drive docking station as well some external chassis units that accept E-SATA cabling for quicker data transfer



then to power the rear speakers as well as control the HT stuff i needed a reciever and i kept my Denon 2808 in the loop for this - the front pre-outs are connected to the stereo power amp which is capable of working as a power amp only to form a Home theater bypass ie i use it in power amp mode for HT and in integrated mode for CD playback. Then above that is my HD sattelite TV set-top-box - mainly for HD sport



now my next purchase has to be a universal remote because here are all the remote controls i have to chose from ... I have decided to get a Logitech Harmony one which should do the job of replacing all of those with one unit

one small change i made though also was when i got the stereo amplifier when you compare the rack to the setup above i had to place the centre channel to the very top and slip in the stereo amp on place so here is the final rack configuration



in stereo mode the system sounds as high end as many more expensive systems i have listened to and i attribute that partly to my MIT cables i use (MIT are not like conventional cables - they have a box in the middle with some circuitry that affects the sound)

In Hometheatre mode it also sounds excellent ... for example in the movie Avatar during the scene when Jake is saved from those doglike creatures and he speaks to the girl who saved him - the insects that are buzzing around their heads on the screen sound like they are buzzing around your head which is a very convincing surround soundstage ... also in the scene just before that as the dog like creatures climb up the trees when they are following him it sounds like they are actually climbing around you and above you in the trees just above your head and this i attribute to good speaker placement ie if the rears are higher then head level it makes for very good surround sound

so yeah i am a happy chap right now and the audio system is really, really excellent and heading in the high end direction i would really like to finish up in. All i need now is a better CD player so i am looking for a Denon DCD2000AE second hand to match my Denon PMA2000AE amplifier and then the system is close to finished

I also purchased a basic turntable which i am going to probably replace soon (even though i only have around 20 to 30 albums in vinyl form) but heres a pic of the old unit i purchased (it is around 20 to 30 years old)



i might just get a Pro-ject Debut 3 with an Ortofon red cartridge as a replacement for this - I definitely do not need a better turntable than that

EDIT : I forgot to mention that for the moment i am using a Sony SAW70ES dual 8" subwoofer for stereo music and a pair of Denon subwoofers for Home theatre - i may just land up using the sony for HT and get rid of the Denon subs and get a Velodyne DD10 for the stereo setup which will then elevate it to a far higher end status.

on the off chance that anyone is reading this I have also updated my PC setup and this doubles up as a bedroom HT setup. For now I am using this in stereo mode because i only have a stereo amplifier but i will soon get the stereo amplifier sold and will purchase a cheap AVR to replace this and then i will add the centre and surround speakers

here is a pic of the secondary setup ... note i will also eventually replace the 27" monitor with a bigger screen, probably maybe get my 50" TV into this room and get a projector for that main system in the lounge



the bed is directly opposite the rack and when i sit on the bed i use this keyboard/mouse/remote control combo to control the PC



it works well when using XBMC and using the PC as an HTPC

[kevintomin]

Amazing set of speakers. Dali speakers are very musical. It is very much value for money compared to Dynaudio and B & W.

I think you should now change your AVR to 3008/5008. Also how about getting Oppo-95.

Originally Posted by naughty001

on the off chance that anyone is reading this

Originally Posted by kevintomin

Amazing set of speakers. Dali speakers are very musical. It is very much value for money compared to Dynaudio and B & W.

I think you should now change your AVR to 3008/5008. Also how about getting Oppo-95.

Yes indeed - in stereo mode with the Denon stereo amplifier the Dali speakers sound as good as many systems that i have heard that cost way above what i have spent

About the AVR - i dont think i will actually change it for now because the Denon 2808 actually does all I need done for now. I will probably not go the 3D route until i can get 3D which does not need glasses hence i will probably change the AVR for that generation of HDMI functionality so I reckon i will probably use the AVR for around a year or two yet

I considered the Oppo BDP-95 since many of my local friends have gotten one and it was definitely a contender but it only made sense if i got rid of every source that I have - the problem for me is that currently the DVD player I have is probably as good as the Oppo as a DVD player and the Blu-ray player I have is also probably close to the Oppo as a Blu-ray player (probably just slightly behind in performance) and then my CD player is also probably going to give me similar performance as the Oppo when used as a CD player, so the only benefit i get is to replace three items with one. The problem then is that if the Oppo gets damaged I lose all functionality whereas if one of my current sources gets damaged then I still have other items to use while i replace only one item ... so I decided against the Oppo.

What also aided my decision is that i use those sources far less than i use my media player because I have backed up all my blu-rays and DVD's onto a NAS and lots of external drives and im using the digital backups far more than i use the actual players with physical discs nowadays, so it probably makes more sense for me to upgrade my media player from the current Mede8er med500x to possibly an AC Ryan Fluxx or possibly an Extremer Pro because of the E-Sata ports on those and im also looking at something with a gigabit Lan connection for multiroom streaming capability ... for now though the mede8er does a superb job with HD video together with HD audio playback ie DTS-HD(ma) is unbelievably good but i am sticking to doing research as to which media player will land up being a good upgrade from what i have now

All i need now is a better CD player so i am looking for a Denon DCD2000AE second hand to match my Denon PMA2000AE amplifier and then the system is close to finished

righto in case anyone is following this thread at all - the statement above has been prophetic - the guy i managed to get the Denon amp from has decided to purchase an Audiolab 8200CD because that combines a high end CD player with a 32 bit ESS sabre Dac which also has external inputs which utilise the DAC for external sources

hence his Denon CD player has become available - this means i have been placed in the position to acquire this unit - here is a picture of what the unit looks like when combined with the amplifier



this is not a picture of my units but a random picture i found on the internet - then theres also this picture from AVLAND UK



and finally heres the picture of my units - the Pioneer A-A6 player has been replaced by the Denon in my rack - this also means that i will be doing some repositioning of everything in the rack



I have also realized during my research on sound treatments that i have everything placed in the wrong directions - so i will also be repositioning the room before i start doing the treatments which will depend on how things sound after the repositioning. The room treatments will most likely consist of

1) a rug on the floor to prevent reflections from the floor
2) diffusors on the side walls at points of first reflectio
3) similar diffusors on the ceiling to prevent reflections from the cieling specifically at the seating position
4) will do room measurements with a behringer microphone and sound card with RTA analysis to see if i need any bass traps or helmholtz resonators (to absorb specific low frequencies)
5) the rears and rear surrounds will also be repositioned and mounted higher up ie at almost ceiling level which creates an intensely transparent soundfield for movies and they will also be moved to far more advantageous positions to create a proper surround soundfield

I have some visitors around from the UK for this coming week but I will probably start the repositioning project sometime after next weekend when they leave ..... I have spent a fair amount on the project so far so i might as well go all the way to make sure it works as well as it possibly can but the stereo sound is still my main priority and i am trying to get an entirely three dimensional soundstage or as close to it as i can ie last week I listened to a system that sounded as realistic to the extent that i felt i could actually stand up and go and shake hands with the performers and walk around amongst them - and that was in a fully treated dedicated sound room that is way larger than my room BUT im confident i can reach close to that level with some room treatment and more sensible speaker positioning

right now my two biggest problems preventing good soundstaging and stereo imaging is that the seating position is too close to the speakers and i need to sit further away and secondly i need to also not have the rear wall as close as it is to the seating position so that reflections are not so prominent and one more small factor is to have the equipment rack a lot further behind the speakers so that it also does not prevent that soundstage from being able to form - if i can sort those three things out then the rest will just be fine tuning and my sound will definitely improve to the level that im after

[Bass&Trouble]

Good going. Do update the thread as you start work.