blue72
Active Member
The origins of my audio journey are posted in my introduction thread:
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/the-story-aka-the-3-month-snowball.681195/
Here is my setup as it sits currently:
This is a difficult room, but the only one I’ll allow myself to set this all up in. It is 10' in one dimension, and roughly 20' in the other, but it opens up into other spaces in a very willy-nilly fashion. If I ever want a traditional, rectangular room, I'm going to have to knock down some walls and re-jigger the configuration.
There are two separate systems cohabitating in this cramped space; the stereo listening setup, and the 5.1 home theatre setup. Everything except for the NAS, the Blu-ray player, and the TV were acquired secondhand.
The stereo listening setup uses a NAS and a couple of turntables as sources. The NAS is an older Synology model with redundant twin hard drives in a RAID 1 array. All of my CDs are ripped in the Apple Lossless format and available instantly from anywhere. It streams music over a wireless 802.11n network to the Sony BDP-S590 Blu-ray player’s DAC. Luckily, this Blu-ray player was made before the ‘analog sunset’ and has a stereo pair of RCA jacks on the back. A shielded, 12’ Acoustic Research RCA cable ($2, thrift) carries the stereo signal to what I consider to be the crown jewel of the collection, a completely original, fully functional, Sansui G-8700DB receiver ($10, thrift). At first I had the monster Sansui out in front of the speakers, but it took up too much precious floor space. To get around that, I built a table out of pallet wood for it to sit on. I stained and styled it to match the existing TV table and sized it to fit a subwoofer underneath with tight, but adequate clearance.
I built the table using an antique combo table saw / jointer that I got for free from Craigslist. On top of the Sansui I’ve got a Concept 2QD turntable ($10, thrift) which came with an ADC Digital Series cart but no needle.
Yesterday, in the mail, I received a NOS ADC Series III stylus. It sounds wonderful.
The Concept will now serve for critical listening duties. I’ve also got a Panasonic RD-720 rim-drive table ($10, thrift) in this same room, with an AT11E cart / ATS12 stylus that’s around for testing used vinyl and background listening.
The stereo listening speakers are a lovely, completely original pair of Series 1 Bose 10.2 towers ($35, thrift). They’re a super weird ambient reflection setup, with each enclosure having two 8” drivers and two 3” tweeters. One of the 8” drivers fires directly at the opposite speaker, the other driver fires straight forward, and the two tweeters each fire forward at opposing 45 degree angles. The boxes are internally ported and vent out the side through a faux t-line slot.
It works though. It has normal stereo imaging with a hint of extra ambiance in this room. My speaker cables all around are fancy-dancy, genuine 16 ga. lamp cord from a late summer rummage sale at the church down the street from my house ($2 for 60’+). The Sansui is fully capable of running these 4 ohm speakers without even getting warm, despite the user’s manual stating that the minimum load should be 8 ohm speakers.
A period article from the April 1986 issue of Stereo Review magazine showed that the Bose towers could reach down to 53 Hz before steep rolloff occurred. For extra reinforcement of the lowest frequencies, I’m using a pair of powered subwoofers crossed over at around 70 Hz. On the right, underneath the Sansui’s table is an NHT SubOne (came from my folk’s house). I pull the right channel signal to its control box from one of the tape outputs on the Sansui. The left channel signal travels over to a Klipsch Sub 10 ($25, thrift) on the other side. The subs may not be an exact match, but they’re the same driver size, their amps make similar power, and they have the same basic overall frequency response. I’m just happy to get true L and R channel low frequency sounds with good SPL down to 25 Hz. I live comfortably with the mismatch for now, because when your only source of ‘new’ equipment is other people’s castoffs and thrift stores, you make the best of what’s available. Plus, having stereo subwoofers is so much less annoying than hearing bass notes coming from only one side of the room.
Oh, and the piece of rack-mount equipment on the floor is a Klark Teknik DN60 real-time spectrum analyzer which I happily paid $25 for when it showed up at a thrift store. It comes in handy to adjust levels now and again. I just need to buy a calibrated microphone to take full advantage of its capabilities.
The last thing in here is the multi-channel surround sound setup. Again, we’re using the Sony Blu-ray player as our source, with the audio signal passing over a coax connection to a B&K AVR307 receiver ($20, thrift) that I just picked up this weekend. The B&K was in a pile together with a 4 channel PA mixer ($35) and THX certified, 350 watts x 2 into 8 ohm or 500 watts x 2 into 4 ohms amplifier ($35) which I also nabbed. The toroidal transformer inside the B&K is impressive, but the blue caps flanking it on either side are just plain huge! Unfortunately, the B&K has an early decoder chip that can’t handle 1.5 mbps streams. It works fine for most DVDs, but can’t handle downconverting lossless multi-channel surround formats. If I can’t somehow upgrade it, I plan to buy a HDMI decoder to feed DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD into the 5.1 analog inputs on the back. HDMI Pre-Pros that handle uncompressed multi-channel audio aren’t exactly lining the racks down at the two thrifts in town, but I was still quite pleased when I got the B&K home and realized just what it was.
The front speakers are a pair of Boston HD10s ($20, thrift) that I picked up with some foam rot.
Here’s one are after I refoamed the passive radiators:
The Boston 525v center channel I actually found on ebay as a ‘for parts/as-is’ for $6 + shipping. The seller didn’t hear any sound out of one side and assumed it was busted. I knew about it having a passive radiator on one end, and ordered confidently. I did have to refoam the 5.25” woofer and 5.25” passive radiator, but that was an easy fix. The rear speakers are a pair of Cerwin Vega! HT-SAT4 satellites ($7, thrift) that came from another town down the road, already with some wall mounts attached. I wound up replacing a bad tweeter in one of them. The subwoofer is a Boston CR400 ($20, craigslist) with a cute 8” woofer and 75 watt amplifier. It works great for watching TV shows and lighter viewing. I can switch the NHT and Klipsch subs on at any time to add extra oomph to movies if the mood strikes. Having decent sized speakers and subs that can handle explosions, etc… has changed the way I watch movies. I used to turn down the volume during big action scenes because it was too much. I didn’t realize that the part that was too much for me was all the distortion I was hearing from small drivers being pushed to their limits. Hearing action come through clearly, with a punch befitting of the situation unfolding on screen is a bit of a revelation.
Other equipment is stashed wherever I can find space. Some of it I plan to keep unless better things come along. There’s a full stack of Onkyo separates ($20, thrift), Polk monitors ($35, thrift), Paradigm SB-100 passive sub ($15, thrift) and Sylvania linear tracking turntable ($15, thrift + cart/stylus + belt) which are currently my backup system / may eventually go in my office when I get it set up. I’ve got two working tube powered speaker extension cabinets, other receivers, integrated amps, turntables, PA and stage equipment, and random speakers sprinkled throughout the house now. Things constantly move into and out of the living room as I acquire, clean, repair, and re-sell, so sometimes it gets kinda full.
We’re currently restoring the house itself to the former glory it had 75+ years ago, so it’ll be a while before any of the other rooms will have dedicated stereo systems. The closest thing right now is a Fisher 170 ($15, thrift) and pair of Infinity RS1000 bookshelves ($3, thrift + re-foam kit) in one of the upstairs bedrooms. I’d love to find some 1940s vintage Altec horns, Western Electric behemoths, or Klipsch speakers for the living room, and power them with an equally vintage-looking pair of mono tube amps. The beauty of thrifting, Craigslisting, and yard/estate sales is that you never know what will show up. In June of 2015 I didn’t have any of this equipment. The remaining 11 months of 2016 could yield many more pleasant surprises.
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/the-story-aka-the-3-month-snowball.681195/
Here is my setup as it sits currently:
This is a difficult room, but the only one I’ll allow myself to set this all up in. It is 10' in one dimension, and roughly 20' in the other, but it opens up into other spaces in a very willy-nilly fashion. If I ever want a traditional, rectangular room, I'm going to have to knock down some walls and re-jigger the configuration.
There are two separate systems cohabitating in this cramped space; the stereo listening setup, and the 5.1 home theatre setup. Everything except for the NAS, the Blu-ray player, and the TV were acquired secondhand.
The stereo listening setup uses a NAS and a couple of turntables as sources. The NAS is an older Synology model with redundant twin hard drives in a RAID 1 array. All of my CDs are ripped in the Apple Lossless format and available instantly from anywhere. It streams music over a wireless 802.11n network to the Sony BDP-S590 Blu-ray player’s DAC. Luckily, this Blu-ray player was made before the ‘analog sunset’ and has a stereo pair of RCA jacks on the back. A shielded, 12’ Acoustic Research RCA cable ($2, thrift) carries the stereo signal to what I consider to be the crown jewel of the collection, a completely original, fully functional, Sansui G-8700DB receiver ($10, thrift). At first I had the monster Sansui out in front of the speakers, but it took up too much precious floor space. To get around that, I built a table out of pallet wood for it to sit on. I stained and styled it to match the existing TV table and sized it to fit a subwoofer underneath with tight, but adequate clearance.
I built the table using an antique combo table saw / jointer that I got for free from Craigslist. On top of the Sansui I’ve got a Concept 2QD turntable ($10, thrift) which came with an ADC Digital Series cart but no needle.
Yesterday, in the mail, I received a NOS ADC Series III stylus. It sounds wonderful.
The Concept will now serve for critical listening duties. I’ve also got a Panasonic RD-720 rim-drive table ($10, thrift) in this same room, with an AT11E cart / ATS12 stylus that’s around for testing used vinyl and background listening.
The stereo listening speakers are a lovely, completely original pair of Series 1 Bose 10.2 towers ($35, thrift). They’re a super weird ambient reflection setup, with each enclosure having two 8” drivers and two 3” tweeters. One of the 8” drivers fires directly at the opposite speaker, the other driver fires straight forward, and the two tweeters each fire forward at opposing 45 degree angles. The boxes are internally ported and vent out the side through a faux t-line slot.
It works though. It has normal stereo imaging with a hint of extra ambiance in this room. My speaker cables all around are fancy-dancy, genuine 16 ga. lamp cord from a late summer rummage sale at the church down the street from my house ($2 for 60’+). The Sansui is fully capable of running these 4 ohm speakers without even getting warm, despite the user’s manual stating that the minimum load should be 8 ohm speakers.
A period article from the April 1986 issue of Stereo Review magazine showed that the Bose towers could reach down to 53 Hz before steep rolloff occurred. For extra reinforcement of the lowest frequencies, I’m using a pair of powered subwoofers crossed over at around 70 Hz. On the right, underneath the Sansui’s table is an NHT SubOne (came from my folk’s house). I pull the right channel signal to its control box from one of the tape outputs on the Sansui. The left channel signal travels over to a Klipsch Sub 10 ($25, thrift) on the other side. The subs may not be an exact match, but they’re the same driver size, their amps make similar power, and they have the same basic overall frequency response. I’m just happy to get true L and R channel low frequency sounds with good SPL down to 25 Hz. I live comfortably with the mismatch for now, because when your only source of ‘new’ equipment is other people’s castoffs and thrift stores, you make the best of what’s available. Plus, having stereo subwoofers is so much less annoying than hearing bass notes coming from only one side of the room.
Oh, and the piece of rack-mount equipment on the floor is a Klark Teknik DN60 real-time spectrum analyzer which I happily paid $25 for when it showed up at a thrift store. It comes in handy to adjust levels now and again. I just need to buy a calibrated microphone to take full advantage of its capabilities.
The last thing in here is the multi-channel surround sound setup. Again, we’re using the Sony Blu-ray player as our source, with the audio signal passing over a coax connection to a B&K AVR307 receiver ($20, thrift) that I just picked up this weekend. The B&K was in a pile together with a 4 channel PA mixer ($35) and THX certified, 350 watts x 2 into 8 ohm or 500 watts x 2 into 4 ohms amplifier ($35) which I also nabbed. The toroidal transformer inside the B&K is impressive, but the blue caps flanking it on either side are just plain huge! Unfortunately, the B&K has an early decoder chip that can’t handle 1.5 mbps streams. It works fine for most DVDs, but can’t handle downconverting lossless multi-channel surround formats. If I can’t somehow upgrade it, I plan to buy a HDMI decoder to feed DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD into the 5.1 analog inputs on the back. HDMI Pre-Pros that handle uncompressed multi-channel audio aren’t exactly lining the racks down at the two thrifts in town, but I was still quite pleased when I got the B&K home and realized just what it was.
The front speakers are a pair of Boston HD10s ($20, thrift) that I picked up with some foam rot.
Here’s one are after I refoamed the passive radiators:
The Boston 525v center channel I actually found on ebay as a ‘for parts/as-is’ for $6 + shipping. The seller didn’t hear any sound out of one side and assumed it was busted. I knew about it having a passive radiator on one end, and ordered confidently. I did have to refoam the 5.25” woofer and 5.25” passive radiator, but that was an easy fix. The rear speakers are a pair of Cerwin Vega! HT-SAT4 satellites ($7, thrift) that came from another town down the road, already with some wall mounts attached. I wound up replacing a bad tweeter in one of them. The subwoofer is a Boston CR400 ($20, craigslist) with a cute 8” woofer and 75 watt amplifier. It works great for watching TV shows and lighter viewing. I can switch the NHT and Klipsch subs on at any time to add extra oomph to movies if the mood strikes. Having decent sized speakers and subs that can handle explosions, etc… has changed the way I watch movies. I used to turn down the volume during big action scenes because it was too much. I didn’t realize that the part that was too much for me was all the distortion I was hearing from small drivers being pushed to their limits. Hearing action come through clearly, with a punch befitting of the situation unfolding on screen is a bit of a revelation.
Other equipment is stashed wherever I can find space. Some of it I plan to keep unless better things come along. There’s a full stack of Onkyo separates ($20, thrift), Polk monitors ($35, thrift), Paradigm SB-100 passive sub ($15, thrift) and Sylvania linear tracking turntable ($15, thrift + cart/stylus + belt) which are currently my backup system / may eventually go in my office when I get it set up. I’ve got two working tube powered speaker extension cabinets, other receivers, integrated amps, turntables, PA and stage equipment, and random speakers sprinkled throughout the house now. Things constantly move into and out of the living room as I acquire, clean, repair, and re-sell, so sometimes it gets kinda full.
We’re currently restoring the house itself to the former glory it had 75+ years ago, so it’ll be a while before any of the other rooms will have dedicated stereo systems. The closest thing right now is a Fisher 170 ($15, thrift) and pair of Infinity RS1000 bookshelves ($3, thrift + re-foam kit) in one of the upstairs bedrooms. I’d love to find some 1940s vintage Altec horns, Western Electric behemoths, or Klipsch speakers for the living room, and power them with an equally vintage-looking pair of mono tube amps. The beauty of thrifting, Craigslisting, and yard/estate sales is that you never know what will show up. In June of 2015 I didn’t have any of this equipment. The remaining 11 months of 2016 could yield many more pleasant surprises.
