My system and how i got there (for whoever is interested)

muziekfreak

Active Member
Introduction

Hi there, this is going to be long and perhaps for some boring but perhaps for some interesting to see my journey to where i am at now. I was a die hard 2.0 guy and i shifted over to the home theater world cutting down in what i spend previously. And above all i learned a great deal about equipment, choices, and that it does not always have to be extreme.

The dream

I am from the Netherlands, so please bare with my grammar mistakes and poor writing skills. I started to become serious with audio when i was about 20 years old. I saved up my money, and came out of a audiophile family. I remember when i was a teen, going to my uncle house seeing those huge STAX DMA-X1 hooked up to a B&W nautilus 801 was the highlight of my month. I wanted it, badly, so badly that i put every dime aside i had just to realize entering the store "Son, you will not make it with 5000usd, those speakers cost well pass that price point"

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Photo: The monster receiver, loving it still no need to upgrade as of yet.

Where my love, for Arnie nudell speakers got born

MY dream got pretty much destroyed, by getting rubbed in with the fact "If it looks/sound great, it's probably out of your budget" Here i am with a pocket full of money, overthinking my steps. My dad had an amazing setup too Sphinx project 12 mono blocks , Sphinx project 8 pre amp hooked up to a Infinity Kappa 9RS heavily modified, granite feet, rewiring, the works. I did him a offer, and he sold it all to me! And anyone who knows the Kappa series or any older Infinity, it's a speaker you either hate or love. In my case i loved them especially when driven well.. however i had to sell those, i was a 20 year old dude, in the prime of my life. And i had only a small apartment. But my love for them never died and never will..

Long story short

What followed was a plethora of equipment, Sony TA-N series, Vincent, Mark Levison, Krell, you name it i had it once i settled down i had a entire Mcintosh setup at the age of 25ish, were most adults would commit a serious crime for to obtain. I became something else, i no longer was in it for the music and i totally lost myself in buying the most exotic and rare equipment money could buy. I spend 1500usd on RCA and speaker cables?! do not even go there *coughs audioquest*. I was ignorant, young, plenty of money to spend and this was my hobby no matter what people said.

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Photo: I always loved Pioneer Elite products, Blu-ray and DVD/CD used as transport stack.
Audiofreaks.nl , HIFI.nl , HEAR.NL reviewer

On that age, i caught the attention of many forum going people like yourself, and i started to venture into a world of meetings, and open minded debating which i had to learn. Mind you i was a young guy with little knowledge but i did had some fine taste in audio equipment. So i had plenty of visitors coming over from all over the country, as did i do the same visiting them. I soon realized that i loved to review, so i did, i wrote about 100 reviews by now on those sites. Then i quit...and i emigrated out of the country and my hobby died off with me marrying, kids, house, work, and living in the USA. Where i after a decade, started it back up but this time i took a different course.


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Photo: Love it , or hate it but try to find a 775w per channel @ 2ohm stable amp for this price...i dare you.

My setup

If you made it this far into my story, i admire your patience as here i will reveal my current setup, and how much i learned and how little i actually had to spend to get to a really good quality setup. I learned not to be hasty in decisions, listen, admire and understand that cheaper does not have to be bad. I have also a fantastic audio buddy i met through LETGO that is not a social media attached person at all. But we both share ideas, experiment, blind test, and share above all good times aside from music! It's about the music, i felt my background (very partially) needed to be said and understood. Understand, i have been down that high end rabbit-hole and that my today's choices might strike some as odd. Until you sit here and experience it... so here we go.

I went the Home theater route, with the demand of having a very good stereo quality to it.
It took time, research, trying and luck to find all this together but it works. It works really well and sounds absolutely above average in stereo mode (as i listen to music pure direct stereo no processing)

IMG_20180530_150546.jpg Photo: This is what it looks like when i listen to music or watch a movie.

Fronts: Boston acoustics Lynnfield vr40 3 way, + Each channel has one Boston Acoustics Micro90pv active sub, stacked no crossover on those, purely supporting low/mid range.

Center: Boston acoustics Lynnfield VR-10 3 way,

Side channels: Boston acoustics Lynnfield vr20 2way

Rears: Boston acoustics VRS Dipole 2 way

Subs: 2x JBL JRX 100 18inch subs

Receiver: Pioneer Elite VSX-82TXS 140watt nominal @8ohm per channel 20-20khz tested.

Sub Amp: Crown XLS 1502 in bridged mono, low pass filter 47.5hz, 1025watts @4 ohm do drive the JBL's

Blu-ray: Pioneer Elite BDP-95FD

DVD/CD transport: Pioneer Elite DV37 , which i use as dedicated CD transport, will be upgrading DAC soon.

Power: Monster HTS3600 Power conditioner (underway)


Wait what? PA and HI-FI are you crazy

As you can probably imagine not your normal home theater setup, especially if you consider i use a CROWN XLS drivecore 2 amp to drive my JBL subs. I was skeptic, until i realized to get an amp with that control/power, you will have to spend a small fortune to get it in the high end world. And even then, 1025watt @4OHM is like trying to find a unicorn. I do not think i ever had a more stable amp than this one, it's impressive what today's technology can do. And yes, i need that power these are subs that dwarf 15 inch SVS subs to give you an mental pic there 750watt each with a minimal recommended spec of 375watt EACH. They need control and the Crown is doing that (as the old amp i had? Fried itself driving them)

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Photo: Boston Acoustics Lynnfield vr40 with Micro90PV sub working in unison.

Why change from 2.0 to Home Theater?

The Boston acoustics Lynnfield series, needs little introduction i am sure, in stereo the sound wraps around you. Staging is absolutely amazing, voices in the middle and it places sound behind you even *e.g. Roger waters- Amused to death recorded in Qsound. The reason why i went this route is simple, with a good receiver (not the junk they sell now with skewed specs) but a good top of the line one can be an older one. You can adjust to much and fix many room correction needed issues.

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Photo: 2x18inch JRX 100 JBL subs,with granite plates on top.

With calibration and equalizing it properly, the results are amazing especially with the speakers i currently own. That's why i decided to walk away from 2.0 stereo, i did not want to break the bank no more on it. And i really know from experiences now, that today you can get a very good stereo sound out of a good HT setup. 20 years ago that was totally no the case, but some will hate it where they can and that's fine. It's amazing that all the tuning you want in a stereo, can be done with a good receiver without changing hardware.

I thank you for reading my story, i felt i needed to make clear that i am not gone deaf or crazy. My entire audio hobby has been a blast so far, i went from being ignorant. To knowledgeable, i learned to listen and understand there are more choices out there. I learned, you do not have to spend thousands upon thousands to get a good quality sound in your home. Above all, i enjoy music it comforts me, i excites me, and it moves me...i found back what i lost enjoyment in what i am listening too.

- Michel

If some-one could tell me how to insert some images that would be great. As all my attempts totally failed thus far.
 
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Sweet! I have a lot of those same Bostons - I've got VR40s and a VR12 in my home theater (as well as CR75s and CR6s). I also have VR20s, VR10s, and a bunch of others from another setup that isn't set up right now. Very nice sounding speakers for both HT and music. They're on my short list of speakers I don't want to sell ever.

You should be able to press "Upload a file" (right next to "Post Reply" at the bottom right of the textbox) and get some pictures up.
 
Sweet! I have a lot of those same Bostons - I've got VR40s and a VR12 in my home theater (as well as CR75s and CR6s). I also have VR20s, VR10s, and a bunch of others from another setup that isn't set up right now. Very nice sounding speakers for both HT and music. They're on my short list of speakers I don't want to sell ever.

You should be able to press "Upload a file" (right next to "Post Reply" at the bottom right of the textbox) and get some pictures up.


Let's see if this works ...
 

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Michel,
Nice system. But you may need a larger sofa, if your dog won't move over! Looks comfortable.
 
Interesting that your uncle had the DMA-X1 driving the N801. Different eras and very different sonic signatures. I have the X2, it’s more of a class H design, although the class A part runs to about 100w before the switchover.
Welcome to AK, there’s lots of stories and fans hifi.
 
I've had the Pioneer Elite equipment, superb, some of my favorites. You've done very well. Congrats.
 
This looks great. I have sort of found myself in a similar place right now. I have a system that works and sounds nice; that's all I need. Now, I haven't had quite the same level of gear (not quite as high end) but I have decided to stop chasing and just enjoy what I have.
 
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