What’s your Hi-Fi set up? spec and pictures please

[thebraketester]

Have you tried slightly moving your seating position back/forward to help with the 80hz issue?

(Serious question)

[wolfracesonic]

I saw the Woo headphone amp mentioned and didn’t connect it with the valve gear; are both units the headphone amp, like a pre/power set up? My Schiit Lyr looks a little bit undernourished now!

[peterperkins]

Impressively large valves to drive headphones.

But as we all know a big bulb doesn't necessarily equal big/good performance.
Give me a tiny but good Mullard EF86........


(Note I did see yours can drive speakers)

[ian996]

thebraketester said:

Have you tried slightly moving your seating position back/forward to help with the 80hz issue?

(Serious question)

Appreciate the suggestion but, yup, I covered that in the basic set-up. I set up roughly by ear, then used the XTZ Pro software to fine tune the speaker and seating positions. Best results came with the speaker front baffles pretty much spot-on one-third into the room, and my ears pretty much spot-on two-thirds into the room. XTZ Pro put the listening position back by a couple of cm against my "by ear" set-up.

Because of the 80Hz mode, I did also try walking the speakers back a couple of cm at a time to try a setting with them much closer to the wall. (Although this was largely a theoretical exercise, as I'd rather try and treat the 80HZ than lose the image scale of the current set-up.)

[ian996]

wolfracesonic said:

I saw the Woo headphone amp mentioned and didn’t connect it with the valve gear; are both units the headphone amp, like a pre/power set up? My Schiit Lyr looks a little bit undernourished now!

Yup, one chassis is a valve-rectified PSU, the other chassis is the amp proper. As per Peter Perkin's post, you don't need big valves to drive headphones, and I bet your Schiit Lyr sounds great. I went for the 300B approach, as I love the sound of them, and you avoid (most) of the downsides when you are only driving headphones.

[ian996]

peterperkins said:

Impressively large valves to drive headphones.

But as we all know a big bulb doesn't necessarily equal big/good performance.
Give me a tiny but good Mullard EF86........


(Note I did see yours can drive speakers)

To be fair, the Emission Labs are significantly larger than normal 300B, although even bog-standard versions are physically on the large side for a HPA.

Decision was driven by a love for the 300B triode sound (but an awareness of their flaws/limitations.) For me, the HPA application gives me the best of both worlds, but I absolutely accept that they are not everyone's cup of tea.

[Spleen]

I don’t know what people are talking about anymore, this is a level of geekery that is beyond me.

[MrThomo]

Spleen said:

I don’t know what people are talking about anymore, this is a level of geekery that is beyond me.

Glad I’m not the only one

[thebraketester]

ian996 said:

thebraketester said:

Have you tried slightly moving your seating position back/forward to help with the 80hz issue?

(Serious question)

Appreciate the suggestion but, yup, I covered that in the basic set-up. I set up roughly by ear, then used the XTZ Pro software to fine tune the speaker and seating positions. Best results came with the speaker front baffles pretty much spot-on one-third into the room, and my ears pretty much spot-on two-thirds into the room. XTZ Pro put the listening position back by a couple of cm against my "by ear" set-up.

Because of the 80Hz mode, I did also try walking the speakers back a couple of cm at a time to try a setting with them much closer to the wall. (Although this was largely a theoretical exercise, as I'd rather try and treat the 80HZ than lose the image scale of the current set-up.)

I think at 80hz wavelengths you'd have to move things a bit more than a couple of cm to make a significant difference which might not be practical.

I have the same issue is certain spots in my studio front to back hence the question/suggestions.

[hyphen]

MrThomo said:

Spleen said:

I don’t know what people are talking about anymore, this is a level of geekery that is beyond me.

Glad I’m not the only one

Makes kinda sense to me, as been down rabbit holes on hifi forums prior. And I went to a hifi show once, was in a hotel with brands and retailers setup in different bedrooms. It was full of bearded older men who had come on their own.

Jokes aside, some lovely setups and envy how good they probably sound.

[ian996]

thebraketester said:

I think at 80hz wavelengths you'd have to move things a bit more than a couple of cm to make a significant difference which might not be practical.

I have the same issue is certain spots in my studio front to back hence the question/suggestions.

Just to clarify: moving the listening position a couple of cm back provided the lowest reading for the 80hz "hump" using Room Analyzer , but was not readily noticeable against the original subjective preference. I moved the speakers almost a metre back in small increments (started at a couple of cm a time, but that probably grew a bit as I got pissed off with the process). That was to investigate whether a significant shift from my preferred "thirds" set-up would significantly banish the hump. There were options that had a slightly smaller hump at 80hz, but they brought their own issues, hence the decision to try and minimise/reduce the hump with room treatments.

I do appreciate the input though.

[Spleen]

hyphen said:

MrThomo said:

Spleen said:

I don’t know what people are talking about anymore, this is a level of geekery that is beyond me.

Glad I’m not the only one

Makes kinda sense to me, as been down rabbit holes on hifi forums prior. And I went to a hifi show once, was in a hotel with brands and retailers setup in different bedrooms. It was full of bearded older men who had come on their own.

Jokes aside, some lovely setups and envy how good they probably sound.

I have some speakers, an integrated amp, a streamer and a turntable. I can't deny that this simple set up cost me a pretty penny but beyond that my level of tweakery is non-existent. Not sure if I'm missing out on something!

[TonyRPH]

Spleen said:

I have some speakers, an integrated amp, a streamer and a turntable. I can't deny that this simple set up cost me a pretty penny but beyond that my level of tweakery is non-existent. Not sure if I'm missing out on something!

You're only missing out on something if you allow people to make you believe you're missing out on something....

That's the ultimate level of audiophoolery.

[Spleen]

TonyRPH said:

Spleen said:

I have some speakers, an integrated amp, a streamer and a turntable. I can't deny that this simple set up cost me a pretty penny but beyond that my level of tweakery is non-existent. Not sure if I'm missing out on something!

You're only missing out on something if you allow people to make you believe you're missing out on something....

That's the ultimate level of audiophoolery.

I bought a Russ Andrews extension thingy once, couldn't detect the slightest difference. Returned it successfully but bloke was surprised I couldn't hear an 'upgrade.' Maybe the difference could be seen on an oscilloscope but my cloth ears couldn't pick it up.

[TonyRPH]

Spleen said:

I bought a Russ Andrews extension thingy once, couldn't detect the slightest difference. Returned it successfully but bloke was surprised I couldn't hear an 'upgrade.' Maybe the difference could be seen on an oscilloscope but my cloth ears couldn't pick it up.

There would be no measurable difference either.

[P700DEE]

wolfracesonic said:

I saw the Woo headphone amp mentioned and didn’t connect it with the valve gear; are both units the headphone amp, like a pre/power set up? My Schiit Lyr looks a little bit undernourished now!

Spotted the Qutest, been really pleased with mine especially when run from a battery rather than the supplied charger.

[dvshannow]

P700DEE said:

wolfracesonic said:

I saw the Woo headphone amp mentioned and didn’t connect it with the valve gear; are both units the headphone amp, like a pre/power set up? My Schiit Lyr looks a little bit undernourished now!

Spotted the Qutest, been really pleased with mine especially when run from a battery rather than the supplied charger.

Did you have any background hum ever with the supplied charger?

[P700DEE]

No hum from the charger but then I use Balanced mains so this eliminates hum in almost all components.

[wolfracesonic]

dvshannow said:

P700DEE said:

wolfracesonic said:

I saw the Woo headphone amp mentioned and didn’t connect it with the valve gear; are both units the headphone amp, like a pre/power set up? My Schiit Lyr looks a little bit undernourished now!

Spotted the Qutest, been really pleased with mine especially when run from a battery rather than the supplied charger.

Did you have any background hum ever with the supplied charger?

Not that I notice, however being 54 my hearing is probably not the acutest anymore Is it a known issue?

[rjfp1962]

mwstewart said:

What a difference a week can make. The Tannoy's are really warming up. Out of mechanical sympathy I had stuffed some dusters in the rear ports to restrain things out a bit; very bright, very forceful, very tight. I've weaned them off of that temporay arrangement together with my imposed bass reduction on the amp controls, and it's now source direct. I can go up good amount on the volume knob: from roughly from 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock, and all is comfortable. The bass is deep, controlled, and the overall soundstage is extremely wide. Surprisingly so. The system is hugely enjoyable.

I have Tannoy speakers elsewhere in the house: M3s, and V4s, and both are fantastic - possibly the best VfM speakers around? I found the MX series to be a step in the wrong direction, but these Precision's are now something else. Initial disappointment over, and lesson learned (more like reminded!) about speaker bed-in

The A110 is 80 W at 8 Ohms but as per all quality components its feels a lot more than that. Quite something actually. I don't need anything more.

It's going to be a late one for me.

Enjoy.. My system is very modest compared to yours, Marantz CD 6004. PM 6004 and Montor Audio Bronze 5 floorstanders, but just enjoyed listening to The Beatles "Red" & "Blue" CD's tonight, though is true to say the experience was enhanced with a nice bottle of red wine......