Sunday 11 November 2012

Any audiophile in the room?

I'm sure you all have a neat setup with foobar installed and remotely controlled with your smartphone or tablet, but who of you is a real audiophile??

What's your speaker setup? What's amplifying your nice music? Or what cable wires the whole thing?

Do you have a great dedicated room for your listening delights?

Do you have a $50K setup and play mp3s with it?

I don't have a really expensive system, but here it is:

  • Amp: 
    • Yamaha RX-V671
  • Speakers:
    • FR, FL: Tannoy Mercury V1
    • C: KEF iQ2c
    • SL, SR: Canton Movie 60 CX (I've left them from my previous setup)
    • SW: None
  • Cables: 
    • QED Silver Anniversay XT for FR, FL and C.
    • A normal one for SL and SR.
  • Music Source: 
    • HTPC with HDMI output (192kHz / 24-bit) + foobar2000 (of course)
  • Remote controllers:
    • Nexus 7
    • Samsung Galaxy SIII

It's not a great setup but it doesn't sound bad at all..
The music I try to have is always FLAC with a good sample rate and bit depth.
I have both stereo and 5.1 songs. 


I don't have a dedicated room for this, so I use the system for music, movies and TV.


Feel free to share your thoughts, ideas, pics or whatever here. 
Let's see who's got the best setup!



21 comments:

  1. Nice set!

    Here's my system:

    My Rega System.
    Rega Apollo-R
    Rega Brio-r
    Rega RS3

    Wirings:
    RCA: CD to ampli: MIT AVT 3-1
    Speakers: Rega FSC Quattro (not biwired, though)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is what I call a great steup!

      I've enjoyed it in person, but for those who are interested, you can see a video (you won't be able to hear how great it sounds..) of the setup.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN_kloFQDfo

      Delete
  2. It's my: )))

    Yamaha RX-V463

    Speakers:
    FR, FL: Yamaha NS-777
    C: YAMAHA NS-444
    SL, SR: YAMAHA NS-333
    SW: NS-SW700

    Music Source:
    PC with Audiotrack Prodigy HD2 Advabce DE (192kHz/24-bit)(RCA...PC to Yamaha RX-V463) + foobar2000

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I bet that setup has a good balance in every way given that Yamaha takes care of both amp and speakers.
      Are you using any special speaker cable? If not, think about it.. That would just be the icing on the cake!

      Delete
    2. RCA is cable handmade ))) But the speaker cables I do in thought what would take)How sound speaker with QED Silver Anniversay XT ???

      Delete
    3. The cable is great.. I can only recommend it.. Everything improved when I changed the old speaker cables for these..

      I was a bit skeptical with the whole wiring thing, but I must admit I was wrong and the cable does make a noticeable difference..

      Delete
  3. Just replaced my 2.1 pc speakers with these which I got cheap:

    Yamaha v667
    Denon sc-mx33 bookshelf
    Jamo Sub 650

    Running off PC HDMI as source.

    Using your app with Samsung Tab 8.9 and Xperia Arc S.

    Hoping to get better speakers soon :)


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good step! Removing PC speakers is a good choice.
      That setup looks good with that Yamaha and those speakers which don't seem cheap at all..

      Delete
    2. Thanks! Yes, the speakers do a fine job and look good to boot! But mids/highs can be scratchy on some tracks. For the equivalent of the usd40 price I paid for them, they're certainly keepers.

      I just recently saw the Tannoy V1s being sold here where I live, was a big fan of the Tannoy Fusion 2 a few years back. Might get those or Monitor Audio BX2s down the road.

      Forgot to add, using DIY interconnects and FLAC files as much as possible

      Delete
  4. My system enjoy foobar2000 controler !
    - Laptop : configured only for foobar2000 and Synology NAS
    - M2tech key
    - Audiolab Mdac (awesome !)
    - power amplifier Myriad T70 (bridged)
    - Loudspeaker : Mission M35i
    And Foobar2000 controler pro...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great! ANother nice system.
      That DAC looks really good, and according to Whathifi it's actually that good!

      Delete
  5. Mines sounding nice at the moment...might treat myself to a valve amp but not sure yet? At the moment......
    Onkyo TX-8050
    Marantz CD-63
    Pro-ject Debut III
    HTPC
    TDL Studio 0.5 (Absolutely amazing Transmission Line speakers!)
    REL Storm Subwoofer
    I use the QED SA XT as well
    Chord Cobra Plus cables

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey this is just getting better and better... I see there are some audiophiles here..

      I think I should come over and listen to each and every one of your great-looking setups.. :D

      Delete
    2. Aaahhh a CD63 what a great player. I was a bench tech with Marantz Australia when the CD73 and CD63 were released, DON'T sell it, a few tweaks and they can be a musical as anything this side of a Naim CD5

      Delete
  6. I have a HTPC with a new Foobar install. I have never been into highres digital but am now looking into this. Oh the rest of my system.
    Linn Sondek LP12 turntable
    Linn main Speakers
    Rogers LS3/5a speakers I need to build new cabinets for as they were trashed for the rear speakers.
    DIY monoblocks
    Pass B1 buffer preamp
    Pioneer CD
    Pioneer 5.1 receiver
    TT, CD and HTPC are connected into the B1 buffer preamp with only the TV for movies through the Pioneer receiver.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nice gear! I think people should start leaving pics of those great audio systems..

      Delete
  7. Ooops the HTPC will have and external USB DAC. After reading good things about the little cheapie Muse I bought one from eBay - hasn't arrived yet

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm on a stereo setup.

    Speakers: Wharfedale 60C

    Amp: Arcam delta 290

    Soundcard: good old ECS Juli@ studio card with RCA connectors

    Cable: QED

    Music: lossless, mainly classical, oldies and jazz

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ancient Toshiba Laptop...running Foobar (with Wasapi output)

    ...playing mainly 24/96 Flacs via Musiland Monitor 01 USD USB soundcard...thru spdif to

    Denon AVR1906 AV Amp then Speakers: Tannoy Mercury V4s and Tannoy TS2.10 Subbass
    ...plus Mercury Centre speaker plus SL/SR/SBL/SBR (7.1 setup) also used for good dub/ambient techno (16/44, DolbyDigital or DTS)

    (Since adding the Sub-bass...my neighbours no longer speak to me!)

    ReplyDelete
  10. PS. Just a wee note re. playing hi-res music on a PC with Foobar:

    Be sure to install and play using the WASAPI plugin as it plays bit-perfect, pass-through. I'm sure most know this already but there seem to be lots of folks playing 24bit thru less than ideal settings on Foobar!

    Cheers.

    ReplyDelete