What stereo(s) do you listen to? What do you want?

[Andrewc2232]

Currently running the following setup:

Yamaha NS-1000M
Yamaha MX-1000U
Yamaha CX-1000U

Listen to mostly .flac through an Icon uDAC 2 or vinyl on a Miracord 760.

Also have some EPI 90's and Bolivar 18's hooked up in my office through some HK 770 monoblocks and a Nakamichi 610 pre.

Right now I'm actually in the market for a subwoofer on the cheap. Any recommendations are appreciated. I'm so close to being satisfied with the bass from the NS-1000's, but just not quite. Many times when I have people over a lot of the music played is electronic/dubstep etc. People tend to turn things up louder to get the bass they expect from a sub when it just isn't going to happen.

Anyone have a recommendation for a sub in the sub $500 bracket? Definitely willing to go used as well.

 

[Bartolo]



Currently running the following setup:
Yamaha NS-1000M
Yamaha MX-1000U
Yamaha CX-1000U
Listen to mostly .flac through an Icon uDAC 2 or vinyl on a Miracord 760.
Also have some EPI 90's and Bolivar 18's hooked up in my office through some HK 770 monoblocks and a Nakamichi 610 pre.
Right now I'm actually in the market for a subwoofer on the cheap. Any recommendations are appreciated. I'm so close to being satisfied with the bass from the NS-1000's, but just not quite. Many times when I have people over a lot of the music played is electronic/dubstep etc. People tend to turn things up louder to get the bass they expect from a sub when it just isn't going to happen.
Anyone have a recommendation for a sub in the sub $500 bracket? Definitely willing to go used as well.

My limited experience with trying to add a relatively inexpensive sub to a 2-channel audio setup is 'be careful.' I'm particularly sensitive to timing issues, and I often hear the bass as being "behind" the rest of the music. Technically, I'm not sure what causes this -- just a slow-responding driver, or what. But I find it really annoying. A cheap sub is fine for adding some BOOM to an av setup, but it's not all that simple for good-sounding 2-channel stereo in my limited experience.

 

[Bartolo]



Bartolo,
This link has a quide to some good music as recommended by the editors of Absolute Sound, the other big US magazine besides Stereophile.
http://www.avguide.com/buyers-guide...e-cables-power-products-accessories-and-music
I also recommend a great e-zine: http://www.positive-feedback.com/

Thanks

 

[idfnl]



Yeah my Naim Nait XS integrated amp seems to be missing tone controls!!!

Reminds me of a dumbass friend that passed on a high end component and bought some POS Yamaha or something because it had 'so many more buttons to do stuff with'.

Tone controls are worthless. Oh, 'loudness', that's my favorite button ever.

 

[Artisan Fan]



Reminds me of a dumbass friend that passed on a high end component and bought some POS Yamaha or something because it had 'so many more buttons to do stuff with'.

Dumbass is definitely the right term here.

 

[Bartolo]

In the same vein, I see that some higher-end integrated amps and preamps DO have balance controls. What are the plusses and minuses of having a balance control? My amp doesn't have one, but Naims up the range do. (None have tone controls . . . )

 

[patrickBOOTH]

The only thing I could possible think of is if you are having issues with speaker placement or something. I still wouldn't mess with a balance control, I would just try to find better placement forthe room/ listening conditions.

 

[pscolari]



Reminds me of a dumbass friend that passed on a high end component and bought some POS Yamaha or something because it had 'so many more buttons to do stuff with'.
Tone controls are worthless. Oh, 'loudness', that's my favorite button ever.

My old Luxman receiver (R-115) had a 'loudness' button. Not sure if it was meant to compensate while low-level listening. It seemed to muddy everything together.

 

[Bartolo]



My old Luxman receiver (R-115) had a 'loudness' button. Not sure if it was meant to compensate while low-level listening. It seemed to muddy everything together.

I remember "loudness buttons" from the 1970's. They are/were meant to compensate for low-level listening, as you stated. It's just eq -- turns up the bass and some treble.

 

[A Y]

Balance controls can be helpful for recordings that don't quite have the same levels on left and right channels. It's not common but it happens. Also, speakers generally aren't very well-matched pairwise, so one speaker may be louder than the other, and a balance control may be helpful there, too. If you have a room issue, as suggested above, try to fix it with placement or treatment instead.

Loudness controls are a good idea in theory, but don't work in most implementations because the magnitude of a loudness control's effect must depend on how loudly you're playing your music. That means you have to calibrate it for your particular combination of amp and speakers because different amps have different gains and different speakers have different sensitivities, so you don't know how loudly someone will be playing their music.

I know of only two implementations that have a chance of working, and that's in the Lexicon and Meridian products, and that's because you do a level calibration and they vary the effect with your volume control.

 

[jakejake]

[ATTACHMENT=1358]IMG_0005.jpg (173k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT][ATTACHMENT=1359]IMG_0005.jpg (173k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT]

Anyone recognize who makes this loudspeaker? It's a scene from the What Women Want (Andy Lau)

 

[idfnl]



[ATTACHMENT=1358]IMG_0005.jpg (173k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT][ATTACHMENT=1359]IMG_0005.jpg (173k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT]
Anyone recognize who makes this loudspeaker? It's a scene from the What Women Want (Andy Lau)

First thought was that that it was a Klipsch Klipschorn but that woofer config on the front threw me off. Unless that is some much older version I am not aware of.

 

[jakejake]



First thought was that that it was a Klipsch Klipschorn but that woofer config on the front threw me off. Unless that is some much older version I am not aware of.

Yeah that was my first thought too.

 

[stevent]

Wilson Audio Watt Puppy, nuff said.

 

[Bartolo]



[ATTACHMENT=1358]IMG_0005.jpg (173k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT][ATTACHMENT=1359]IMG_0005.jpg (173k. jpg file)[/ATTACHMENT]
Anyone recognize who makes this loudspeaker? It's a scene from the What Women Want (Andy Lau)

In my experience, women do NOT want big honkin' loudspeakers in their living room ;-)