Headphones & speakers

[69CamaroSS396 0]

Very fortunate to own some "old school" JBL floorstanding speakers. Amplified by Denon. My headphone set-up cannot match the impact of those, of course, but headphone listening has its place. I currently am using a Millett Hybrid on the night stand with Grado60s and a vintage Sony D-5 PCDP. Very nice. I'm looking to upgrade the Grados, as I'm growing a bit tired of them. Very uncomfortable for one thing, and quite harsh with anything besides the Millett. AKG K501s may be in my future.

[absolut 0]

I use my Shure e5 with my iPod on the go but at home i tend to rely on my speakers. I own a pair of LX-series floorstanding JBL's and two Control bookshelf speakers fed by a Harmon/Kardon receiver as well as a massive PSB Subsonic subwoofer. The e5c is great but truly cannot compete with the sheer impact of my speaker setup. Plus, I can't really bring a record player around

[av98m 0]

In case anyone thought I was kidding about placing my speakers on my desk......

 

 

 

 

The Big Ben is now doubling up as a preamp

 

[Mackie 0]

Seems to me you had the study desk tailor made for you hifi rack and not the other way round. You really fully utilized your space well.

Edited June 29, 2006 by Mackie

[cmk 0]

av98

Thought that you got the Diva amps? Has Stephen delivered them yet?

[av98m 0]

av98

Thought that you got the Diva amps? Has Stephen delivered them yet?

 

No, I'm exploring other options. In the meantime, rotel cd player, the bbamp partnered with the rotel power sounds pretty good too. Heck, I could actually stop here.

 

Seems to me you had the study desk tailor made for you hifi rack and not the other way round. You really fully utilized your space well.

 

 

I had no say in the design of my room, it was done while I was still a student

 

This is a case of me stubbornly shoe-horning a speaker system into my room

[wil 0]

av98

Thought that you got the Diva amps? Has Stephen delivered them yet?

 

No, I'm exploring other options. In the meantime, rotel cd player, the bbamp partnered with the rotel power sounds pretty good too. Heck, I could actually stop here.

 

 

This is a case of me stubbornly shoe-horning a speaker system into my room

 

stop here?! famous last words..............

Edited June 29, 2006 by wil

[cmk 0]

One of the reasons I setup this poll was to see how many use speakers here. Of course most of you would have headphones here.

 

Now of those of you who do use speakers, I just took a look at the setup pictures thread, and most just put their speakers next to their equipment along the front wall. I've discovered that for any speaker to reproduce scale and a sense of "being there" at the performance, the speakers need to be at least 4' into the room, firing straight with very little/no toe-in. In this position, the speakers disappear and the soundstage comes into the room up to the front plane of the speakers. Of course the main drawback is that you lose the use of a big part of the room, but getting the performers into the room is worth it. I've also noticed that there is more detail being presented in the mids. Also as the speakers are away from the wall, there is less likelihood of overloading the room with bass. This is only a suggestion for those of you who may be so inclined to gain a lot more music with this simple tweak.

[Mackie 0]

Agree with cmk on all accounts. A big however is space. Maybe there should be another poll on the types of housing members are living in. For those who have ample space and married, the other deterent is the wife factor. I won't be surprised the results could be far and few; extremeplace, echoloft and this forum combined. The situation is worse in HK where living space, even in expensive areas such as Mid-levels and Happy Valley, are below 1000 sq ft.

[av98m 0]

Well, I actually have my own place but its rented out since it'll be wasted with only one person living there. Hence my small bedroom in my parent's place (Note to self: need to get a wife)

 

Seriously, my setup does not sound as bad as it looks.

[Rameish 0]

Yeah space can be a PITA. I still prefer a speaker set up but ouch goes the wallet. Headphones are still the best way to get into high end without going broke. For 2 to 3k you can get a pretty top notch headphone system but the same money only buys a very average speaker system.

[lengcm 0]

On top of space, room treatment is another big headache as well!

[cmk 0]

On top of space, room treatment is another big headache as well!

 

While at it pulling my speakers from the wall/into the room, I had a chat with the guru, TS Lim. He advocates less "treatment", instead, just fill your room with ordinary stuff, bookshelves, CDs, LPs, desk, chair, etc...

 

The reasoning behind this is what some call "room re-enforcement" effect, ie the room reflects certain frequencies more, such that you get the 3D effect, the sense of performers in the room. When sound bounces off the walls, this gives out an echo/a secondary reflection, which the brain as being in space. If you take the extreme case, when you listen to a performance in an old church, the high ceiling and big space gives you a sense of the hall.

 

Coming back to our room, with the speakers away from the walls, sound is allowed to bounce off them and thus create a better sense of space. Lim describes the front plane of the speakers as a mirror - the further you bring the speakers away from the back wall, the deeper your soundstage. Of course each room differs and some treatment is usually necessary in corners, but his point makes perfect sense and flies in the face of commonly held notions of room treatment. I did not believe it at first and thus avoided doing it for years, but now after trying it and hearing the effect, I wouldn't go back.

 

In practice, with the room reflection - you do not need to turn up the volume as much to get the same relative loudness. Also each room will reflect certain frequencies more than others, so some experimentation is required to fine tune and get the right balance. I found that a slight toe-in from direct forward was necessary to get more treble energy to the listening position. Too much toe-in and the soundstage collapses and becomes 2D. With my room, I got more detail in the mids and the bass was re-enforced despite being further away from the wall. The instrumental separation was also much enhanced with voices being clearly distinguished where they appeared as a bunch before.

 

I would conclude by saying that together with (a) clean power supply and ( equipment isolation on footers, © speaker positioning away from walls - rank as the most important tweaks to maximise audio reproduction.

[[J]-ohn 0]

In case anyone thought I was kidding about placing my speakers on my desk......

 

 

 

 

The Big Ben is now doubling up as a preamp

 

 

 

The speakers look like a Dynaudio confidence 3 lookalike, don't see such driver config in many bookshelf speakers.....

[Mackie 0]

Room treatment is necessary if one's room suffers from huge spikes and notches in room modes. But over treat it and say hello to a dead sound. Be it a small or big room, I concur with cmk that the initial speakers positioning must be optimal, at least to minimize the concerned room mode (usually bass boom around 63Hz in a small hdb room). If no amount of furnishing can address the problem, introduce room treatment but gradually. I use the clap test to hear for liveliness, too much and too little shall not bode well for the sound presentation.

 

Once upon a time, I came across an article that suggests splitting the room into thirds and quadrants (that address different room modes) and position the speakers in these imaginary squares for the optimal presentation. I tried and employed it for my speakers with rather surprising and pleasant effect. However, I can't find the link to this article....shall try to seach for a hardcopy.

 

Anyhow, here's a start?

http://www.tnt-audio.com/casse/waspe.html