I'm more triggered by your space to put a rack of gear and not have it in the lounge. Because I want a space like that.
My ongoing DIY project, speakers are currently in bits patiently waiting to be 'finished', although now I'm getting the urge to build something new... my name is Trance and I'm a DIY audioholic. 20181007_103304 by Trance posted 17 Jun 2020 at 07:19
Do you have any random nooks of cubbies that you can board up? Because that's what this is. Black lines are original walls, red is what I've done. I've seen a windows bench built to house AV gear to good effect as well. Looking pretty sharp as is... though suspect bare MDF doesn't stand up as well to physical inspection as it does in photos. What finish are you going for?
Sadly, no. The closest is were the vaulted ceiling gets down to the floor behind the sofa - But that's on the other side of the room (Not insurmountable by itself), and where we sit. So device noise doesn't appeal. Although when we buy somewhere, I'll definitely be looking to abscond with a section of the lounge for all the tech crap. At that point I'll almost certainly be looking at changing speakers and whatnot too, seeing as I'll have much more leeway for controlling the room than I have in rental places. At the moment I'm limited to designing TV stands with cable hiding sections!
Have you seen the Bill Fitzmaurice stuff? I've only had experience with the live sound cabs but fwiw they are fantastic, I'm sure the home theatre stuff would be just as good.
Living Room. Hisense 65" "monitor" Xbox One X PS4 Pro w/ PSVR Amazon stick Humax Freesat (it's a dumb TV it doesn't even have a tuner) Surround system (WIP) Tag Mclaren F3 surround pre Fatman tube (front speakers) Bose soundbar (will be centre, it's active) Scandyna Smallpods (front) Scandyna Bass Station (active) Rear - TBD. Maybe another soundbar, but something active. Bluetooth trans/rcv for rear (not wired yet) DAB tuner With BT in. Still working on this. Current pic. Bedroom 55" Toshiba 4k small amp hidden Scandyna Micropods Echo Show 5 Bose Soundtouch 10 (linked to Echo Show 5) Man cave (bedroom at mother's) Xbox One X Ben Q 4k 28" monitor Cheapo sound bar Xbox One X tuner (for freeview)
Yeh, they are definitely 6 foot away speakers at the moment. Just focusing on getting them sanded and smooth atm, the finish constantly changes, but nothing too expensive if I ever want to get away with building something else in the future
I think I have seen the site, but I hadn't bookmarked. I'll have a read through what he has plans for.
I recently sidetracked from my long, long standing AKG k702 headphones to the famous and oft-celebrated Chinese knockoffs, the Superlux HD681s. I legit cannot believe how good they are. For reference, the k702s are a bit too tight and thin in the bass but otherwise widely regarded as one of the most detailed and accurate open headphones sub £300, and are a popular reference pair. They originally retailed for £250 and still go for about £120 new. I did the well documented bass mod to try and free up the bottom end a bit because the bass is lacking, but otherwise they've been wonderful. The Superlux HD681 is £25 and comes on a flea market style cardboard retainer. It looks tacky and I expected them to break as soon as I handled them. And they're honestly amazing. I wanted to get some Philips Fidelio X2s or X2HRs as they're super hyped as a k702 successor, but £150 is too steep for me. So in the meantime I thought I'd slum it. The Superlux have been a joyous adventure in value for money. I still can't believe how good they are. I actually prefer their profile to the AKGs despite their being less accurate and not positioning stuff quite as well. I'm now using them for pretty much everything other than classical music. For general entertainment, they're great. Only issue with them is the cheap tacky pads are pleather and get hot, but apparently any eBay velour pads fit the AKG 240s will also fit these, so I'mma try that. Other headfi related news, I had to source a Fiio k3 dac/amp for a customer, and naturally gave it a go with my headphones while I had it. It was lovely, such a well made and tiny bit of kit. Really don't need one, really can't justify spending £90 on one when I already have an O2 amp, but really want one now.
I've been really interested in trying a tube based portable headphone amp. The elekit one appeals, but there doesn't seem to be a ready supply of DIY, and I really want to diy.
I bought a Fiio E10K a few months ago, for video and game sound instead of ropey onboard sound. It works very well for the ₤60 I paid for it. I have the Shure SRH1540s I upgraded from this year, plugged into them. Overkill but, although I offered them for sale a while ago, I don't want to part with them now.
oooh, these look very similar to the AKG 712's I had my eye on. How's the top end? Not too splashy? I really should get some closed backs next but I keep seeing open backs that I want & I shouldn't get any more kit this month
They're not as good as the premium cans, obviously. But no, the top end is pretty tight, no messy distortion, they're really clear. Quite prominent top end, like the k702s, which bothers some people but I've been used to that sound profile for years now. They don't have the same super-super-high end responsiveness that the k702s have which is actually a plus for me - the k702s respond really well to the very top of human hearing, the horrible whistly frequencies they use to deter teenagers from hanging around in parks. I still hear that range and hate it, so I like that the Superlux don't have it. I'm not aware of any end-user advantage to being able to hear it and it's always annoyed me on the k702s. Most importantly though, they're £25. My reasoning is, at that price, everyone may as well own a pair "just cos".
I was thinking the same thing - I've never bought headphones because I assumed I'd need to spend a fortune to get anything that I would enjoy, and because that's not compatible with the "probably won't use it, but hey why not because" I might let @saspro buy them first just for a second opinion though
I only got my DT990's the other day so I'm still breaking these in. A lot of top-end on these, might need to add a bit of felt to tame it down. Although I did just "accidentally" order an iFi Zen (as the hip dac keeps moving round my desk to easilly) and a small balanced valve headphone amp along with the required balanced cables to make it work. Maybe I'll grab a pair to test and if the DT990's aren't massively better they can go back EDIT: OK, they arrive tomorrow
I think with headphones, more than any other hifi gear, it is difficult to find the ones that are just right for you. I bought my first pair of decent headphones, Beyerdynamic DT880 Studio, back in 1984 or 5. Now, after at least 35 years and several pairs (I had those Beyers for a looong time but my priority was cycling not music) including the Beyer T5Ps I sent back to Amazon, I have finally found the ones that hit the nail right square on the head.
Oh an enabling thread, I'll join in! Main hifi Simaudio Moon MiND Streamer > Chord 2Qute DAC Michell TecnoDec > Creek OBH-15 Naim Nait 5i integrated amplifier Ruark Sabre III speakers Stax SRS-2050II earspeaker system Bedroom Marantz MCR511 (coz it's got an alarm function!) Linn Kan IV Portable A&K Jr. B&W P5 All of which is fed from my NAS (in RAID5) running OpenMediaVault with Plex server. I ripped about 600 or so CDs to FLAC and keep them on there (plus a few hundred DVDs); I've also started buying FLACs for all my vinyl on 7Digital. I back the NAS up to Google cloud every so-often just in case! I recently upgraded to the Moon from a RaspberryPi with iFi Power and Hifiberry Digi Pro, it's so much better, it's shocking. I really didn't think the upgrade would be worth it, as it's just slinging digitial data from one place (NAS) to another (DAC), but it really is an extraordinary upgrade!
I was thinking the same thing with @jinq-sea as well - why a high-end streamer to then dump the output to a standalone DAC? Especially if a Pi & something like RoPieee is so slick, and lets you attach via USB. What led you to upgrade if you didn't think it would be worth it, and have you taken steps to ensure that confirmation bias ins't creeping in? (not trying to call anyone out here, this is something I've pondered myself) I've gone back and forth between a Node2i and Pi, and I'm damned if the Pi doesn't sound better with the 2Qute - which I attribute to using the USB input vs optical/coax rather than anything on the transport side.
I had been contemplating it for a while, the Pi always just felt a little too "DIY". I had been using a Hifiberry DAC for a while, then upgraded to the 2Qute but I just always felt it wasn't that big of an upgrade in sound quality, so I just had that nagging feeling something wasn't quite right. I saw the Moon on the FS forum at Pinkfish and had got my train season ticket refund so had the cash to spare so figured I'd try it out. Honestly it's like night and day the difference, it's what I always hoped to get by moving to the 2Qute originally really. To be transparent, I also switched from wireless on the rPi to ethernet on the Moon, so there may be something there, but can't imagine it would be that big, maybe I'll test it out at some point. It was also quite an old rPI, a B+ if memory serves. I have some more upgrades planned in time, currently using optical between the Moon and 2Qute (that's what I used on the rPi too, so maybe something there...) but that I understand is limited to standard def audio, I've got some higher def FLACs that I've been buying so make sense to move to SPDIF to take advantage of that.
I think I've decided to ignore HDMI 2.1. It seems, mostly to be some features that I don't believe I'll miss in my gaming sessions, and I'd be willing to wager the up from 18gbs bandwidth to 48 is to cope with 8k - Which is not on the cards for my home entertainment any time soon. With that in mind I've been looking at an LG 43UM7500PLA. It's not fancy, it's not massive (I'd struggle to get something massive past the lady. She's not a fan of a room being dominated by a screen, and given she watches VHS rips of The Nanny, I'm not convinced she cares much for visual fidelity..). It does appear to have ARC, there's some guff about HDR, but I'm not sold on my experiences with HDR thus far. I have seen some mention of HDMI 2.1 on LG 2019 TV's, but given the frustrating "pick and choose" approach to HDMI feature support, I don't imagine that's of any interest. And I don't give a doodle about any of the smart TV junk.
