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

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

Author
Discussion

dvshannow

1,580 posts

135 months

Tuesday 19th April 2022
quotequote all
bigandclever said:
carlymart said:
I’ve often wondered how far people might go to get optimal performance from their gear smile
This guy not so far , doesn’t look like he even left the room

loughran

2,731 posts

135 months

Tuesday 19th April 2022
quotequote all
carlymart said:
I thought I would add my system in to this
I have enjoyed music and Hifi since I was 13 when I left collage I worked in hifi sales for 10 years full time selling everything for Panasonic hifi to Naim meridian martin Logan etc. and loved it but left to move to pastures new 21 years ago.
But my passion for listening to music and enjoying hifi has never stopped. Having owned full naim systems to meridian active speakers , sonus faber linn lp12 and loads more beside. I am now at what I feel is the end game hifi wise.
There will be further changes but it will be thing like source or maybe adding a analog preamplifier

I am running a Apple Mac mini i5 2.6 with 16gb and. 1 tb ssd I use Apple Music for playback and I have Dirac live running across all audio
USB to topping 10s usb to spdif converter into a meridian 562v that is used to switch all the digital and analog sources. Digital out to an Rme adi2 fs dac preamp into a xlr switch to switch between hifi and AV
Xlr Pre out to a Lyngdorf 2200 power amplifiers.
Then qed qx16.4 speaker cable, one set of 4 to the positive and negative. This works out at around 9 awg as it has to run 12m to the speakers in the next room
The speakers are PMC fact 8

I also have a dab radio and a project turntable on the hifi

Av wise I run a Yamaha rxa850 av receiver, sky q, Apple TV and a Panasonic uhd blue ray and a LG lcd. And recently added a Optoma 1080p projector and screen
If you don't mind, I have questions.

I've enjoyed Hi-Fi for many years but my only concessions to the new world order are a Bluesound Node and Spotify. I read through your spec and think perhaps I should be more adventurous.

First off, what part does the Apple Mac Mini play in your setup ?

Then, the Dirac. How are you running Dirac across all your audio ?


carlymart

603 posts

213 months

Wednesday 20th April 2022
quotequote all
loughran said:
If you don't mind, I have questions.

I've enjoyed Hi-Fi for many years but my only concessions to the new world order are a Bluesound Node and Spotify. I read through your spec and think perhaps I should be more adventurous.

First off, what part does the Apple Mac Mini play in your setup ?

Then, the Dirac. How are you running Dirac across all your audio ?
Hi The mac Mini basically streams music like you blue sound, from apple music to the dac its used headless without a monitor, and i use the apple remote app on my phone to control it.
Dirac Live runs on the Mac Mini as well and all the sounds from the Mac be it video or audio go though Dirac Live program i can also route any other source though to the Mac as well as it has an optical in, and i use a program called loopback that sends it through Dirac live, i don't do this often as i tend to listen mostly to the mac and its a bit fidaly, at somee point i will buy a standalone Dirac Live processer form MiniDSP

Groat

5,637 posts

110 months

Friday 6th May 2022
quotequote all
Well I'm now running a Linn Selekt which has just had the amp and Katalyst DAC removed as it's now paired with a splendid set of Akudoriks whose stands contain the amps and katalysts etc. And that's.....it. Not even any speaker wires any more.

Sound is just wunnerful!! Can't really see me changing anything for years now. Hifi journey over! beer




skylarking808

778 posts

85 months

Friday 6th May 2022
quotequote all
We all say that...;)

theboss

6,878 posts

218 months

Friday 6th May 2022
quotequote all
Groat said:
Well I'm now running a Linn Selekt which has just had the amp and Katalyst DAC removed as it's now paired with a splendid set of Akudoriks whose stands contain the amps and katalysts etc. And that's.....it. Not even any speaker wires any more.

Sound is just wunnerful!! Can't really see me changing anything for years now. Hifi journey over! beer
Didn't you say on another thread you had moved from floorstanders? Is this in the same room?

I'm running an Akurate DSM which I just had upgraded to Katalyst DACs (before the price increase) through A4200 and passive Akubariks but am sorely tempted by an Exakt setup as you have done.

Funk

26,254 posts

208 months

Friday 6th May 2022
quotequote all
Don't think I've posted my setup for a while, have made a few changes.

Currently I have a (nearly) silent PC running MusicBee as the front end - this outputs into a Topping D90SE DAC, I have a Topping A90 headphone amp running off the D90SE's balanced outputs. The RCA outputs are running into the same XTZ Class A100 D3 amp I've mentioned in the past and I ended up sticking with the Kef Ref 3.2s which ousted the A3s (potentially for sale if anyone's interested).

I had a fling with a Bluesound Node (the 2021 N130 version) as I had plans to use that with a NAS and a tablet to control it. It wasn't a good experience - click for rant:

The Node and its app were a complete pain in the arse and I ended up selling it wiithin a week. Primary complaints were that all my music folders have a 'folder.jpg' cover art - Bluesound doesn't recognise that, it wants 'cover.jpg'. Not only that, it refuses to display a cover over 600Kb so I spent a weekend re-naming and re-sizing album art. Which upset MusicBee - so I spent ages having to redo the cover art in that as well.

The Node then kept failing when trying to index the library (around 85,000 tracks - it should do 200,000). It would get to around 50k and restart indexing from scratch. I then tried getting it to do a letter at a time to see what was wrong, however it won't just look for new additions/deletions, it wants to re-index everything, every fking time. MusicBee in contrast just constantly monitors the Music folder, adds anything new and alerts you if something's been deleted to confirm if you want to remove it from the library.

Once I got the Node to index some stuff, I had to go back and re-size cover art some more - however you can't do this on a per-album basis within the app of course; no, you have to reindex the entire library just to update one album's cover art. In MusicBee you can click to update, select from a local file or a selection of online cover art databases and 'apply'. It's a doddle.

The final nail in the coffin was the way the Node handled artist names. I want to see 'The Allman Brothers Band' under 'T' but the Node puts it under 'A' as in 'Allman Brothers Band, The'. There wasn't any way of changing this behaviour that I could find.

The app also looked like it was a 6th form college student's design project, very ugly and janky which didn't help. I had comments on PFM that I should try the Node as a Roon endpoint but then I don't need a £500 device to do that - a RPi will do exactly the same job. So the Node got sold, thankfully it went quickly and I recouped my money.


Edited by Funk on Saturday 7th May 02:18

dontfollowme

1,158 posts

232 months

Friday 6th May 2022
quotequote all
I find myself very wedded to musicbee. I definitely don't use it's full functionality but I do like the interface combined with the remote mobile app.

Stick Legs

4,821 posts

164 months

Saturday 7th May 2022
quotequote all
Nothing too expensive here, but sounds nice and is well weighted.

Lounge.

Rotel RA940BX amplifier.
Yamaha CDX-596 CD Player
B&W DM601S2 speakers on Atacama floor stands.
Chord Silverscreen cable, banana plugs.

I bought this new in 2000 with my first post qualified pay packet and apart from new cables a few years ago enjoy it as much now as ever.

Home office.

Yamaha CDX N470D Music Cast receiver (mostly used to play music off phones or stream spotify)
Sony book shelf speakers from the mid 1980's with upgraded connections, Chord carnival cable with banana plugs.

This was specifically designed to provide a warm sound and to make the home office a mice environment as opposed to chasing HiFi perfection.
It works brilliantly and flatters even bluetooth connection into sounding richer.








Harry Flashman

19,282 posts

241 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
So I got a bit tired of the Sonos system in the house, or listening to music in the TV room. So I have dusted off my ancient but excellent Musical Fidelity A3.2 amp and matching CD player.


I then added some Sonus Faber Cremona M speakers.

The CD player sounds brilliant, but as you can see the amazon Echo Dot streaming solution is a bit, well, underwhelming. And I have used streaming for many years, so a streamer will be the primary music source.

So NAD C658 is incoming, along with a switch from Spotify to Tidal. I looked at the Minidsp SHD which has better DIRAC implementation than the NAD; then I read the SHD manual online and thought "sod that". It appears I need to be a programmer to be able to use it, and the NAD should work out of the box and not be a science project.

I then have to make it all look nice, as Lady F is getting a bit annoyed with the experimental stage of this journey.


Elegantly presented and tidy separates system with high end music streamer and a well sorted power supply solution. Not.



At least these (below) are pretty. The tensioned string grilles and leather baffles are as nice as the perfectly finished, curved maple cabinets. And they sound incredible. Sensitive enough and a 4ohm speaker, so the old Musical Fidelity drives them beautifully, with a lovely, rich, musical sound. My old PMC TB2+s never really complemented the amp, but are now in service as (excellent) front speakers in the TV room, where they seem to absolutely nail it for TV and sing with my low-spec Sony Str Dn1080 receiver- go figure. Also, my wife hated the PMCs in a reception room as they are so wilfully ugly, and the matching XB1-P sub is as ugly and the size of a table. And the amp didn't have the bones to drive that huge passive sub, I think.

Meanwhile, these new additions below and the MF3.2 appear to be a match made in heaven, and perhaps more importantly, Lady F thinks they are pretty.

All of this said, I am a bass head, and after some room correction, if I'm not getting my fix, I suspect I'll have to audition a KEF KC62. Again, a nice looking thing that apparently happens to sound great as a music sub.





Will update as I add things and tidy this mess up.



Edited by Harry Flashman on Monday 16th May 01:34

outnumbered

4,067 posts

233 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
The NAD seems like a good option. I have the MiniDSP SHD, and it does work very well, I can’t live without room correction… but the whole software environment for it is not really consumer level, it’s a bit amateurish from a useability perspective.

NDA

21,479 posts

224 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
Harry Flashman said:
So I got a bit tired of the Sonos system in the house, or listening to music in the TV room. So I have dusted off my ancient but excellent Musical Fidelity A3.2 amp and matching CD player.
I have the MF CD Pre-24 CD player - but not currently used... I have MF X-A200 mono blocks fed by a NAD M10 streamer into Ruark speakers.

Have been a fan of MF gear for a long time - in fact I bought their first product 'The Preamp', it's in a box somewhere.

Harry Flashman

19,282 posts

241 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
Good taste! I love their stuff, it just sounds very musical. And the design of the A3.2 is very special, and has stood the test of time.

The amp is perhaps a bit too focussed on classical/acoustic instrumentation and vocals, as I like my electronica. But even crisply produced electronic music (especially wide, cinematic trance tracks that I like) benefits from my amp's slightly tube-esque warmth, and a good streamer/DAC/DSP will give the sound the attack it needs: hence the NAD.

I looked at the Masters series like the M10, but despite them being beautiful, the sheer functionality of the C658 at its price point won me over. I wanted to use my old amp, but also to have DIRAC to play with, and a proper DAC and subwoofer pre-out, preferably in one upgradeable box. So it was basically the Minidsp, or the C658.

Edited by Harry Flashman on Monday 16th May 13:07

NDA

21,479 posts

224 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
M10 has DIRAC and sub outs. smile

To be honest, I can't tell the difference between the M10 and the Bluesound Node I had before - also I am not using the M10 as it should be used, as I am only using the pre amp stage.


Harry Flashman

19,282 posts

241 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
Are you using hi res music? If still streaming Spotify at 320kbps, instead of Tidal at 1100, this may explain it! That said, the uesound would probably have delivered the same sonic difference...

NDA

21,479 posts

224 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
Harry Flashman said:
Are you using hi res music? If still streaming Spotify at 320kbps, instead of Tidal at 1100, this may explain it! That said, the uesound would probably have delivered the same sonic difference...
I use Amazon HD - which is why I went with the Bluesound internals - both the Node and the M10.

Funk

26,254 posts

208 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
I really didn't get on with the Bluesound Node - and the comments on PFM were to run it into my D90SE DAC anyway. That, combined with the interface being an utter pain in the arse was what led me to flog it. I'm thinking about setting up something cheap as a Roon endpoint and going that route instead.

Harry Flashman

19,282 posts

241 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
One of the reasons I'd just like to be able to use Tidal Connect. Avoiding aggregator interfaces/apps.

Music should be convenient, not a chore. As so. Eone once said to me about home automation: "if you need to go through menus to switch on a light, as opposed to using a switch, you're not winning'

toon10

6,140 posts

156 months

Tuesday 17th May 2022
quotequote all
Funk said:
I really didn't get on with the Bluesound Node - and the comments on PFM were to run it into my D90SE DAC anyway. That, combined with the interface being an utter pain in the arse was what led me to flog it. I'm thinking about setting up something cheap as a Roon endpoint and going that route instead.
I've not tried the Node but I did buy a Bluesound Pulse Mini 2i during lockdown for my home office and it was awful so it's put me off the company. It took about 30 seconds to turn on and off and whatever network receiving kit it had, it always struggled to pick up my Wi-Fi. The app kept failing and the sound was truly shocking for a £500 speaker. I wasn't expecting hi-fi quality but my £500 Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air is leagues above dynamically. I sold it after 3 months.

ben5575

6,213 posts

220 months

Tuesday 17th May 2022
quotequote all
Harry Flashman said:
Elegantly presented and tidy separates system with high end music streamer and a well sorted power supply solution. Not.

Stunning biggrin

Like you I have decided that I (or actually my children who have grown up on sonos and bluetooth speakers) deserve some better quality music in our lives. Your picture has just reminded me of the pain of cables!

Anyhow several drunken nights on ebay later I've ended up with a Cyrus DAC based system, via a sonos connect playing through Spendors. I've even bought me an old AR EB101 turntable that I used to have as a teenager having been so totally underwhelmed by the Rega I picked up a month or three ago.