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qirex posted:Never forget the comedy "throw it all out and get a soundbar" option! 
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Oct 3, 2018 23:33
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I was also gonna say you need a rack mount power amp like an iNuke. They make low profile preamps with remote control. Outlaw has one that's not insanely expensive. All my stuff is in the basement with an IR repeater and I couldn't be happier. Alternatively, don't put the receiver near the TV. Put it in an end table next to your couch and fish the wires.
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Oct 3, 2018 23:49
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n.. posted:Er, you know you have to tell it what device to play on, right? "hey google, play music on the living room TV" (or whatever you named the particular chromecast). Or maybe I'm not understanding your use case. Of course it's just going to play on whatever device heard you if you don't tell it where to play. I tried that and I get a mix of "I don't understand" and it just plays on whichever device heard me. qirex posted:All these super complicated solutions but what if you replaced the furniture with something that could fit an actual sized component? Then you could get something like an Outlaw RR2160. Also most Onkyo/Integra receivers have a default power-on volume available, maybe other companies do as well. If I had the option to replace that stupid console I wouldn't even be having this conversation.
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Oct 4, 2018 01:45
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I tell my Google home to play stuff on my Chromecast all the time. You have to set up the home app first and name all your devices.
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Oct 4, 2018 03:38
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KillHour posted:I tell my Google home to play stuff on my Chromecast all the time. You have to set up the home app first and name all your devices. I have the home app. I'm thinking I might need to set it all up from scratch and rename everything? I think part of the problem is I have way too many google home devices within earshot of one another.
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Oct 5, 2018 15:46
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Nah, I have one in my living room and one in my dining room. The first one to hear you turns the other ones off.
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Oct 6, 2018 04:08
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Does anyone know if there's a way to remove the little volume display that pops up on the tv when adjusting the volume of a yamaha rx-v483? Just got one and I'm really liking it except for that one thing and after going through the menus and manual I couldn't find anything.
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Oct 18, 2018 04:33
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So, bi- and tri-wiring - anyone here do it in a pure audio set up? I'm home demoing some ATC SCM40s and the guy is pretty certain they should be tri-wired (single wired at the amp end splitting into three connections at the speaker end), although he has agreed to supply some normal wire too so I can try both ways. I read lots of conflicting stuff, and even speaker manufacturers themselves seem divided on it. Another question: for practical reasons, I'm aiming to put the amp and CD player (Naim Supernait 2 and CD5X) on one of my book shelves. It's one of those where you insert little metal pegs in the sides and rest the shelves on them to adjust height. The guy thinks sound will be improved by putting them on a dedicated hi-fi stand to provide greater inertness, but this would have to sit in front of the shelves and would hamper access to books. So, does a good stand really make a difference? My other option is to put the stand further away to the side, but then I'd need longer cables and it will be more of a hassle to run them to the speakers in a tidy way. I've no idea if longer cables are detrimental to sound, and if so whether this makes more of a difference than a hi-fi stand over the book shelf. Help me navigate the difficult decisions to avoid snake oil and achieve good sound and reasonable practicality, knowledgeable goons!
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Oct 18, 2018 12:15
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OneSizeFitsAll posted:So, bi- and tri-wiring - anyone here do it in a pure audio set up? Absolute nonsense and bullshit, peddled by cable sellers. quote:Another question: for practical reasons, I'm aiming to put the amp and CD player (Naim Supernait 2 and CD5X) on one of my book shelves. It's one of those where you insert little metal pegs in the sides and rest the shelves on them to adjust height. The guy thinks sound will be improved by putting them on a dedicated hi-fi stand to provide greater inertness, but this would have to sit in front of the shelves and would hamper access to books. Also completely bullshit. "Vibration damping" for solid-state components is deep into woo-woo audiophile territory. As for the CD player, as long as it's not skipping, don't worry about vibration and "inertness". Also don't worry about cable lengths, unless you do something silly like running it all the way across your house, it won't make a difference. Wire the speakers normally, put the components on your shelf. Don't worry about it.
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Oct 18, 2018 12:48
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If a company is saying you need to bi or tri-wire their speakers then they're just admitting their internal crossovers are trash. I've bi-wired before but it's more hassle setting poo poo up and life is too loving short. Do it if you honestly have nothing better to do with your time than sit for hours and tweak constantly rather than listen to music. *edit: oh poo poo he doesn't mean speakers on stand but the components? Yeah, put them wherever the gently caress you want, that's going to make zero difference. Shout out to that sales guy trying to gently caress you over for money though... Olympic Mathlete fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Oct 18, 2018 |
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Oct 18, 2018 12:52
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Thanks for the responses, and they're pretty much what I expected but wanted a sanity check. To be fair, ATC have told me that they don't think it makes a difference - I think they provide the extra sets of plugs on their speakers due to market demand. And to be fair to the sales guy, I think he genuinely believes both the tri-wiring and stand make a difference. Like most users, he's an enthusiast, and people can make themselves believe, and hear, all sorts There's so much woo and snake oil in this area that it's hard to make good decisions when you really appreciate good sound but don't have much expertise in physics and electrical engineering
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Oct 18, 2018 13:17
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OneSizeFitsAll posted:Like most users, he's an enthusiast, and people can make themselves believe, and hear, all sorts Like most users, he's a loving bullshit artist. OneSizeFitsAll posted:There's so much woo and snake oil in this area that it's hard to make good decisions when you really appreciate good sound but don't have much expertise in physics and electrical engineering This is the thing though, if these people had any expertise in physics or electrical engineering they'd instantly see this for what it is, bullshit. Just fleecing people because they can. I'll call it out every single time because it's just a scam.
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Oct 18, 2018 16:42
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Most audio bullshit has a long-lost tiny iota of truth in it. There was probably back in the '70s some kind of speaker setup that needed to be bi or tri-wired and because the average high end audio customer is over 60 those conventions have stuck to this day. When Monster Cable launched the average speaker wire was 18 gauge or worse so Lee's huge 13 gauge cables probably did make a bit of a difference. The problem is people just sort of accepted that "speaker cables matter" and ran with it because the whole ecosystem of magazines and hifi shops makes all their money off that stuff. Same with isolation, early CD players were super finicky so it might have actually helped to stick half a racquetball under the feet. 30 years on cd lasers are now bulletproof but you can buy $500 feet made out of weird space gels.
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Oct 18, 2018 16:43
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Olympic Mathlete posted:Like most users, he's a loving bullshit artist. quote:This is the thing though, if these people had any expertise in physics or electrical engineering they'd instantly see this for what it is, bullshit. Just fleecing people because they can. I'll call it out every single time because it's just a scam. Yeah, maybe you're right. I just get the sense that he does believe it, but I could be being naive - he is trying to make a living after all. On the last paragraph, I was referring to my own lack of such expertise and commenting on how it can be a bit frustrating to me when making decisions (without having yet heard the results*), rather than referring to him and making excuses for him. *I have a pretty good ear and have reasonable confidence in my ability to make sensible decisions based on actual demoing. With the caveat that I'm human and thus like anyone else am susceptible to confirmation bias and all the logical fallacies and perceptive errors that can afflict our brains.
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Oct 18, 2018 17:07
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OneSizeFitsAll posted:Yeah, maybe you're right. The one thing when it comes to audio you should trust is your own ears. If you're getting a demo of kit and the difference isn't night and day to you then whatever they're pushing at you isn't better. The audiophool industry relies on you questioning whether you can hear a minute difference or not, I mean you must do, right? You want to believe you do so you do and then the pointlessly expensive cabling you've pissed money away on is the best thing ever and everyone else is a fool because they can't hear what you hear. There's an awful lot of psychology involved in selling things, I've been through the training for it (in the audio world specifically) and man, a good salesman will take your money because he'll get you saying "yes" to questions so your brain goes 'I can accept this'. So when you're both listening to the more expensive bit of kit or interconnects he'll point something out in the music "can you hear x thing?" and you'll say yes because you don't want to not hear that and look like you're an idiot and then you're agreeing with him "wouldn't it be awesome if.....?" and then you say yes some more and end up buying more overpriced tat that's no better than the cheaper stuff. It's a scummy tactic and I honestly hate that it's used when associated with my favourite thing in the world; listening to music.
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Oct 18, 2018 18:23
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Bi-Wiring is manifestly bullshit, but Bi-Amping is, like, actually good, right?
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Oct 18, 2018 18:33
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qirex posted:There was probably back in the '70s some kind of speaker setup that needed to be bi or tri-wired Weak tube amps and inefficient speakers is still the perfect combo to bi-wire. Or I suppose it's bi-amping, really. Other than that, it's mostly convenient if you want to check for a blown speaker element and can't be bothered to get of your rear end. Makes no real difference otherwise. For damping I use felt pads if I feel I need them or if wife feels equipment will leave scratch marks otherwise. Rubber or spikes for speakers (hard or soft floor, respectively).
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Oct 18, 2018 20:47
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Olympic Mathlete posted:There's an awful lot of psychology involved in selling things, I've been through the training for it (in the audio world specifically) and man, a good salesman will take your money because he'll get you saying "yes" to questions so your brain goes 'I can accept this'. Then there was the guy when I first was looking to buy a stereo system that looked at me, decided I was poor, and spent zero effort. He let me use his listening room, but when I tried asking questions he just said "buying a stereo for the first time is like buying your first computer, you don't know what you're doing so just buy whatever and learn from there". There's an audiophile shop in Santa Monica, the guys there are pretty cool, the dude that helped me let me listen to a variety of speakers and never tried that "can you hear this?" poo poo. He just swapped the cables blind for me and let me figure it out. But when I was done he said, hey come with me for a sec, and took me into a separate room where they had a setup for some rich dude they were testing- $250,000 price tag all told- and we hung out listening to a bunch of stuff; and the difference in fidelity was stunning. I don't know that it was 250k stunning, but yeah, best system I've ever heard. Radiohead's "Reckoner" was seriously transcendent, close my eyes and I could have sworn Thom Yorke was in the room. The salesman joked that he just ruined me on anything else and he was sorta right. There's another high end shop in Scottsdale where the sales staff were really cool and didn't push anything or try to upsell.
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Oct 19, 2018 01:50
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Deadule posted:Bi-Wiring is manifestly bullshit, but Bi-Amping is, like, actually good, right? ...it's honestly down to what kit you've got. If you're lacking on amps to the point where one channel can't power a single speaker properly (in 2018 this is really hard to achieve), knock yourself out. The benefits of bi-amping are that you have the scantest of control over the input attenuation, that's about it. Listerine posted:Then there was the guy when I first was looking to buy a stereo system that looked at me, decided I was poor, and spent zero effort. He let me use his listening room, but when I tried asking questions he just said "buying a stereo for the first time is like buying your first computer, you don't know what you're doing so just buy whatever and learn from there". Finding a decent stereo shop is loving hard, man. The places that flog high end gear tend to look down their noses at customers who don't look like they've got cash or ask questions they deem under them. Shout out to shops that like demoing kit just to demo it though, particularly if it's stupid expensive and belonging to someone else (this will be them 'burning' the kit in, no doubt an extra cost on top  ). There's definitely levels to it all but the higher you go up the scale the less you're getting for your money so that $250k setup will be microscopically better than something probably even costing $20k these days and $20k is a LOT to be spunking on sound gear. $250k is a decent PA rig level of money so you can just have live concerts in your back yard on the weekends... 
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Oct 19, 2018 09:07
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Olympic Mathlete posted:The benefits of bi-amping are that you have the scantest of control over the input attenuation, that's about it. The biggest benefit is that it lets you run active crossovers, and has the drivers directly connected to the amps, which does slightly increase control over heavy speaker cones in particular. For a home setup, we're talking very marginal benefits, of course. quote:$20k is a LOT to be spunking on sound gear. My setup cost around $2.5K, mostly second hand. That includes active monitors, subwoofers, DSP crossover/EQ, a hi-fi preamp and various other bits and bobs. And it sounds a-loving-mazing.
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Oct 19, 2018 09:32
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Well, speakers are in situ. Naim stuff didn't fit on the shelf properly in the end anyway so it's on the stand to the side at the moment. Didn't bother trying the tri-wire cables; even if I'd been motivated to they were way too thick. First thing I'll say about the SCM40 is the detail is astonishing. This is great for me as I'm a detail freak; the main question for me to decide over the next week is whether they're too transparent. They definitely don't tart up weaker recordings in any sense. Wifey's first reaciton was that they were too bright, but she does make snap judgements and was a in poo poo mood at the time. So far I'm most impressed by the way they play piano and strings. Beethoven's string quartet recordings by the Quartetto Italiano sound astonishing - the realisation of the timbre of the instruments is just amazing. Similarly Rubinstein's final recordings of Chopin's nocturnes are an absolute dream. Most of the prog albums I've played through them so far sound pretty great, which is a good sign for me. Definitely less "polite" than in any other setup I have, but so far not in any way which fatigues. Will give them a really good going over this week and hopefully be in a position to make a decision either way by the end. OneSizeFitsAll fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Oct 20, 2018 |
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Oct 20, 2018 22:06
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Olympic Mathlete posted:There's definitely levels to it all but the higher you go up the scale the less you're getting for your money so that $250k setup will be microscopically better than something probably even costing $20k these days and $20k is a LOT to be spunking on sound gear. $250k is a decent PA rig level of money so you can just have live concerts in your back yard on the weekends... Yeah, this was one of those situations full of snake oil- I think the sub had a $10k power source? The salesman was open about it too, but the client wanted what the client wanted, including the speakers which he had ordered without ever listening to them first. Must be nice to be rich.
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Oct 20, 2018 22:18
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If you had two fiddy for the system, you probably already have an idea of what you want. Including visuals. Not saying it's cost effective, but it sure is easy and pretty and sounds good.
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Oct 20, 2018 22:52
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Want the absolute best possible system ? Pay a cabinet builder to assemble a SEOS diyaudiogroup setup. You'll be spending under 10k for a full surround setup and I don't care who you compare it to. Danley soundlabs, JTR, JBL cinema. They're the only speakers I've heard that sound good over YouTube from a cell phone. https://youtu.be/NEK5T7C1UyI
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Oct 20, 2018 23:38
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The lack of politeness on the SCM40s was concerning me a bit. I did say in my previous post that it wasn't fatiguing, but I was beginning to feel that it might be. Then yesterday it started to come together for me. I don't know if it was because the amp had warmed up (it had been off for a couple of years and most people recommend keeping Naim components on all the time), the speakers had broken in (ATC say this makes no difference so doubtful on this) or my ears have adjusted to the sound signature, but I was really enjoying them last night. To the extent that I started to think, what would my eventual upgrade path be if I bought them. Naim's higher level amplification is stupidly expensive, and a lot of people swear by the active ATCs, which the company itself puts a lot of stock in too. But even though they would be much, much cheaper than a Naim 500 and 552 power and preamp (and possibly perform better than the passives would with those units) I'm not sure I want to spend the extra money at the moment. So going to keep listening to the passives over the weekend and make a decision by Monday, but if I keep enjoying them as much as yesterday I think they may be staying with me. The detail is crazy, and they're feeling just that bit smoother now too, whatever the reason.
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Oct 26, 2018 14:50
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jonathan posted:They're the only speakers I've heard that sound good over YouTube from a cell phone. Thread title please
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Oct 26, 2018 15:10
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OneSizeFitsAll posted:The lack of politeness on the SCM40s was concerning me a bit. I did say in my previous post that it wasn't fatiguing, but I was beginning to feel that it might be. Then yesterday it started to come together for me. I don't know if it was because the amp had warmed up (it had been off for a couple of years and most people recommend keeping Naim components on all the time), the speakers had broken in (ATC say this makes no difference so doubtful on this) or my ears have adjusted to the sound signature, but I was really enjoying them last night. To the extent that I started to think, what would my eventual upgrade path be if I bought them. Naim's higher level amplification is stupidly expensive, and a lot of people swear by the active ATCs, which the company itself puts a lot of stock in too. If they were brand new when you got them, they'll sound smoother because the physical material suspension around the voice coils will have loosened up. You can't 'burn in' cables or amps or transport, that's utter toss but speaker drivers are still mechanical devices and if sat unused will need a kick up the arse to loosen them up. It was the same when I got my headphones, I thought I'd made an awful mistake and was ready to send them back. I decided to blast them with pink noise for an hour or so at a decent volume, after that they sounded I guess as they were supposed to, so much better. When I build subs I always hit the drivers with a good few hours of sine waves at 10v in free air before loading them in the enclosures to loosen them up.
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Oct 26, 2018 17:45
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Hola thread, just upgraded to a decent 4K tv and want to have an audio system to match. I've been looking at Bose/Sonos soundbars but figure I should consider a legit system instead. So I'm trying to figure out what is a good audio setup for <$800. Any suggestions would be appreciated, the easier the set up the better!
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Oct 31, 2018 02:33
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The full Sonos 5.1 setup is a good sounding system with very flat tone and good off axis tone. However it's very expensive for what you get and the supported audio formats are limited to Dolby from your tv. Bose is a trash company and doesn't deserve your money. For $800 I would find a receiver from accessories 4 less that suits your needs (something recent with auto calibration and 4k video pass through) And then spend the rest of your budget on the 3 front channel speakers by browsing Craigslist. Then down the road get a couple subwoofers when the budget allows, and then surround speakers. A used good condition set of Klipsch synergy speakers can be had for dirt cheap and sound great for the price.
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Nov 2, 2018 03:22
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I just got an ELE EL-D01 USB DAC/soundcard from eBay. Having a pretty low-rent setup (small Trends T-amp, old Tannoy speakers, high-level signal to an SVS sub and using the audio output from a monitor etc), this is a nice little upgrade. Going to test it with my headsets this weekend, and depending on that I might get one to keep at the office too 
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Nov 2, 2018 16:50
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bug chaser chaser posted:Hola thread, just upgraded to a decent 4K tv and want to have an audio system to match. I've been looking at Bose/Sonos soundbars but figure I should consider a legit system instead. Speakers: Canton Chrono 502/GLE 426 [accessories4less.com], Polk S15, Chane A1.4, Q Acoustics 3020i, JBL Studio 230, Ascend CBM 170, pretty much anything with a 5" or larger woofer Receiver: Denon X1400, Yamaha V385 Sub: Hsu VTF-1, SVS 1000, Emotiva BasX 10
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Nov 2, 2018 21:17
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About 16 years ago I brought a demo model Onkyo TS DX484 reciever. It finally seems to have poo poo the bed and died so I'm looking to replace it. All it has to do is take the signal from an old mac-mini I'm using as a media server and power a pair of Heco bookshelf speakers. I did lots of research 16 years ago, but I've forgotten all of that  Where should I be looking?
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Nov 3, 2018 12:21
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yaffle posted:About 16 years ago I brought a demo model Onkyo TS DX484 reciever. It finally seems to have poo poo the bed and died so I'm looking to replace it. All it has to do is take the signal from an old mac-mini I'm using as a media server and power a pair of Heco bookshelf speakers. I did lots of research 16 years ago, but I've forgotten all of that What's your budget? Do you need a remote control? There's a bunch of cheap T-Amps now that sound pretty good at normal volumes. This is the one I've heard a lot of talk about but there's dozens. If you want something more traditional Onkyo, Yamaha and Sony still make stereo receivers.
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Nov 3, 2018 17:23
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qirex posted:What's your budget? Do you need a remote control? There's a bunch of cheap T-Amps now that sound pretty good at normal volumes. This is the one I've heard a lot of talk about but there's dozens. If you want something more traditional Onkyo, Yamaha and Sony still make stereo receivers. Hmmm, my budget is smallish and I don't need a remote, will that little thing really work?
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Nov 3, 2018 18:58
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yaffle posted:Hmmm, my budget is smallish and I don't need a remote, will that little thing really work? Here's a review: https://www.headfonia.com/review-smsl-ad18/
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Nov 3, 2018 19:47
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There's a tone of 50w X2 no-frills class D mini amps on eBay Amazon and AliExpress now if you don't mind taking a gamble. Most will run well off a 19v laptop supply, but some need 24/36V to actually come close to their rated wattage (and usually do so at like 1% THD)
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Nov 4, 2018 02:06
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yaffle posted:Hmmm, my budget is smallish and I don't need a remote, will that little thing really work? I have this little dude: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M0SL7YC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It's powering 5.25" woofer bookshelves and I never have it over 50%. Sounds good, well built, and looks good. They also have a version with a DAC for $20 more, can't comment on the DAC quality tho, I'm using a separate one.
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Nov 6, 2018 17:07
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ddogflex posted:I have this little dude: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M0SL7YC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 In the same vein I got this https://www.amazon.com/SMSL-50Wx2-TDA7492-Amplifier-Adapter/dp/B00F0H8TOC/ and I'm pretty happy with it. It's got a couple of quirks but it isn't bad. It gets along better with some speakers than with others and for some reason it sounds a lot better running off this giant 24v battery pack I bought than the lovely power supply that comes with it. Also the power supply throws a bunch of sparks when you plug it in. All in all though, it does the job well.
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Nov 7, 2018 17:26
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Is the Sonos Play:1 going to be the cheapest way for me to get a stand alone audio device that can do Airplay? I'd like something for the bedroom and would prefer Airplay over bluetooth.
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Nov 7, 2018 17:31
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Teabag Dome Scandal posted:Is the Sonos Play:1 going to be the cheapest way for me to get a stand alone audio device that can do Airplay? I'd like something for the bedroom and would prefer Airplay over bluetooth. If by stand alone you mean all-in-one then yeah. Otherwise no, there's a bunch of options for a cheap AirPlay receiver including a raspberry pi, or this nifty device; the Anewish AudioCast and a ton of similar devices in the $30 neighborhood. You'd still need speakers but your options are now limitless. You can get a number of active speakers for less than $100. https://www.amazon.com/Studio-Monitors-50-100-Recording-Equipment/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A11974991%2Cp_36%3A1253547011
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Nov 7, 2018 17:49
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