My System Today

[RankStranger]

Late in 2018 I sold nearly my whole stereo system - amp, turntable, cart, phono pre, only keeping the speakers and matching sub - and a couple of other bits and pieces to fund the purchase of a new whiz bang all-in-one Naim Uniti. Then work went bad and my wife got sick and all that money went bye-bye. No music. 

 

Around the middle of last year I upgraded my old AV receiver to a bigger 2nd hand one capable of driving my speakers. I had my 5.1 system and was using the 2nd zone for stereo, fed music from my NAS via a raspberry pi with a cheap USB dac. It took me more than a week of fiddling to get the network, playback software, control and settings dialled in and that worked really nicely for all of three days before one of the 2nd zone channels sh@t itself. No music. 
 

i bought a lovely 70s English Armstrong receiver to recap and try to learn a bit about electronics and I thought I could use it in my main system. It took me months to work out what I was doing, work out what I needed, order the parts, replace all the caps and once I got it running the balance was waaay out. Dropped it off to my brother-in-laws dad to troubleshoot. He knows his stuff but he’s real slow. No music. 

 

Now the good news. last week I came across a Rotel RA04 on gumtree and a raspberry Pi with a Boss Allo DAC hat on eBay and was able to negotiate pretty good prices for both. No remote on the Rotel but a really solid 40 wpc which drives my speakers just fine for what I use them for. So I’m running the RPi into the AV receiver again with the zone 2 pre-outs driving the RA04. I have remote volume control through the AVR, Moode running on the Pi that I control from the iPad and you know what? Music!

 

So, to celebrate the resolving of my perfectly acceptable temporary for-now system today, here’s a pic. I’m not going to show you inside the cupboards because that’s a rat king of interconnect, ethernet, IR, power and speaker cables that I’d rather not acknowledge, let alone record for posterity.

 

Currently spinning (from my NAS in the linen press) is Kenny Burrell with Coleman Hawkins - Bluesy Burrell and it sounds just great. 

 

Edited January 8, 2020 by RankStranger

[mwhouston]

9 hours ago, RankStranger said:

Late in 2018 I sold nearly my whole stereo system - amp, turntable, cart, phono pre, only keeping the speakers and matching sub - and a couple of other bits and pieces to fund the purchase of a new whiz bang all-in-one Naim Uniti. Then work went bad and my wife got sick and all that money went bye-bye. No music. 

 

Around the middle of last year I upgraded my old AV receiver to a bigger 2nd hand one capable of driving my speakers. I had my 5.1 system and was using the 2nd zone for stereo, fed music from my NAS via a raspberry pi with a cheap USB dac. It took me more than a week of fiddling to get the network, playback software, control and settings dialled in and that worked really nicely for all of three days before one of the 2nd zone channels sh@t itself. No music. 
 

i bought a lovely 70s English Armstrong receiver to recap and try to learn a bit about electronics and I thought I could use it in my main system. It took me months to work out what I was doing, work out what I needed, order the parts, replace all the caps and once I got it running the balance was waaay out. Dropped it off to my brother-in-laws dad to troubleshoot. He knows his stuff but he’s real slow. No music. 

 

Now the good news. last week I came across a Rotel RA04 on gumtree and a raspberry Pi with a Boss Allo DAC hat on eBay and was able to negotiate pretty good prices for both. No remote on the Rotel but a really solid 40 wpc which drives my speakers just fine for what I use them for. So I’m running the RPi into the AV receiver again with the zone 2 pre-outs driving the RA04. I have remote volume control through the AVR, Moode running on the Pi that I control from the iPad and you know what? Music!

 

So, to celebrate the resolving of my perfectly acceptable temporary for-now system today, here’s a pic. I’m not going to show you inside the cupboards because that’s a rat king of interconnect, ethernet, IR, power and speaker cables that I’d rather not acknowledge, let alone record for posterity.

 

Currently spinning (from my NAS in the linen press) is Kenny Burrell with Coleman Hawkins - Bluesy Burrell and it sounds just great. 

 

Good story. Glad you have some music back. 

[KRSDarwin]

I have ended up with a collection of items that have found there way out of my other systems so I purchased a Rega Brio-R from a fellow SNA member (very smooth and pleasant transaction) to tie them all together.  I’ve put this system together in one of my son’s rooms (he mostly lives interstate - but is also into music and hi-fi). It has created a very intimate and enjoyable sound. 

 

I am waiting on a wall mount TT shelf for the Project Debut Carbon (MM). 

[awayward]

Hot day, room getting a bit hot with all the gear, no A/C so time to opened the curtain and door to let some cooler air in on sunset.

 

[PositivelyMusicallyGeared]

Totally shut down, along with all other devices/appliances that can be powered off, in anticipation of a very hot day. Believe a quiet day from time to time will actually enhance listening experience later.

[mwhouston]

1 hour ago, awayward said:

Hot day, room getting a bit hot with all the gear, no A/C so time to opened the curtain and door to let some cooler air in on sunset.

 

Artfully sculptured “listening”.

 

P.S. get an AC. $2200 go for hospital grade super low noise. You’ll never look back. 

Edited January 10, 2020 by mwhouston

[awayward]

10 minutes ago, mwhouston said:

Artfully sculptured “listening”.

 

P.S. get an AC. $2200 go for hospital grade super low noise. You’ll never look back. 

I live on the coast and the temperature rarely gets above 32 due to the sea breeze, and the music room is on the ground floor, I keep the blinds close and the inside temp is usually below 26, so not too bad, just a run of days above 28 and the room has warmed up a bit, just needed a bit of fresh air and circulation. Thanks for the suggestion, I didn’t know there was super low noise a/c. 

[mwhouston]

2 hours ago, awayward said:

I live on the coast and the temperature rarely gets above 32 due to the sea breeze, and the music room is on the ground floor, I keep the blinds close and the inside temp is usually below 26, so not too bad, just a run of days above 28 and the room has warmed up a bit, just needed a bit of fresh air and circulation. Thanks for the suggestion, I didn’t know there was super low noise a/c. 

I have a 7.1KW Mitsubishi Heavy Industry split system AC which features an inverter. The inverter runs more efficient than older systems. I would imagine all ACs feature inverters these days. There is greater electricity usage with the AC during somer but it is little price to pay for comfort and enjoyment of ones home.
 

We sleep cool and comfortable at nights and I listen to music in a cool and inviting environment. But even more than that I get to stick it up all those who sweat it out through somer for the sake of a few thousand dollars when they spend ten times that on commercial hifi gear. 
 

Put in AC and laugh at the others. Lol. 

Edited January 10, 2020 by mwhouston

[russell66]

Listening to my Mirage 959is Speakers. Unique with the driver configuration, each speaker has two tweeters and two woofers, one pair firing forward and the other, a mirror image firing backwards. Tempted to say Bi Polar but i'm sure that means something else. Listening to the wonderful Youn Sun Nah - Same Girl. 

[Hydrology]

2 hours ago, russell66 said:

Listening to my Mirage 959is Speakers. Unique with the driver configuration, each speaker has two tweeters and two woofers, one pair firing forward and the other, a mirror image firing backwards. Tempted to say Bi Polar but i'm sure that means something else. Listening to the wonderful Youn Sun Nah - Same Girl. 

Used to have the same cabinet back in the day!

[gillmaverick]

Sunday Arvo Listening session.Also forget about tele....Its Mute and is there for something to look at while I listen to tunes..

Edited January 12, 2020 by gillmaverick

[mwhouston]

Speakers? 

you are just down the road from me. Love to hear your system. 

Edited January 12, 2020 by mwhouston

[metal beat]

1 minute ago, mwhouston said:

Speakers? 

 

in his signature - Paradigm Tributes

[gillmaverick]

4 hours ago, mwhouston said:

Speakers? 

you are just down the road from me. Love to hear your system. 

More than welcome Mate , Speakers are Paradigm Tributes and Amplification is ATC Pre / Pro.....Source is Naim XS172 Streamer...Let me know When you are free. Cheers

 

[mwhouston]

6 hours ago, gillmaverick said:

More than welcome Mate , Speakers are Paradigm Tributes and Amplification is ATC Pre / Pro.....Source is Naim XS172 Streamer...Let me know When you are free. Cheers

 

As an earlier list pointed out it was in your signature. I must of done a blokes look. Thanks for the confirmation. As I said I liked to them. 

[RankStranger]

16 hours ago, gillmaverick said:

..Its Mute and is there for something to look at while I listen to tunes..

I sometimes do this to give my eyes something to do while I listen. Oddly, helps me focus on the music and stops me from looking at my phone or iPad.
 

Apple TV screensavers are good. As are city flyover and walking around videos on YouTube 

[MrRogers]

On 16/11/2019 at 7:32 PM, kab said:

Back to Tube pre & SS power.

The FVP is one of the great valve pre-amps.

[stevoz]

My humble but very satisfying set up in the lounge/ Music and HT room.

 

 

The room is mudbrick, timber and glass on a slab floor. Ceiling rises to a 4.5m high gable and the room is 8m x 5m. It's very good acoustically.

 

All my LP's are stored in another room (on the floor....need a decent shelving unit!.

 

That's a circa 2003 Philips 42" HD Plasma TV (not even FHD) sitting on the Aaron CC240 centre speaker and it's still being used today. Blurays look insane on it (and the CA Bluray player upscales DVD's very nicely). I love this TV and while I do want a bigger screen, I find it hard to part with.....to me, Plasma has the best picture.....I wish they still made them. Alas, too power hungry.

 

The bottom pic is a close up of my Grace Level II RC cart in action on my replinthed CEC BD3200 TT with it's newer look CEC badge.

 

Cheers.....

 

 

Edited January 13, 2020 by stevoz

[BuzzzFuzzz]

@stevoz Bloody lovely mate.  Looking at the first pic I was wondering where the records were.

[Guest Muon N']

Grabbed a larger CD rack for $8 so everything is a bit tidier and haven't got CD's all over the system rack.

 

[JukKluk2]

On 13/01/2020 at 1:31 PM, stevoz said:

All my LP's are stored in another room (on the floor....need a decent shelving unit!.

I got one of these and a couple of single towers, they house almost 3000 LP's with ease, have a high WAF and aren't too expensive either.

 

https://www.bunnings.com.au/flexi-storage-clever-cube-146-x-39-x-146cm-4-x-4-storage-unit-white_p2583383

 

[stevoz]

1 hour ago, JukKluk2 said:

I got one of these and a couple of single towers, they house almost 3000 LP's with ease, have a high WAF and aren't too expensive either.

 

https://www.bunnings.com.au/flexi-storage-clever-cube-146-x-39-x-146cm-4-x-4-storage-unit-white_p2583383

 

That looks excellent. Is that similar to Ikea Kallax and the other Ikea model?

 

Also, are there smaller versions? I have nowhere near that many LP's......

Edited January 15, 2020 by stevoz

[JukKluk2]

13 minutes ago, stevoz said:

That looks excellent. Is that similar to Ikea Kallax and the other Ikea model?

 

Also, are there smaller versions? I have nowhere near that many LP's......

I'm not familiar with the Ikea models, so am unable to answer that question. As for smaller versions, yes, there's a single tower (if you stand it on end) that has four shelves, that's what I referred to in the first post. You will find them on the shelves in Bunnings. Mine are in a white finish, and there is an oak finish as well.

[stevoz]

11 minutes ago, JukKluk2 said:

I'm not familiar with the Ikea models, so am unable to answer that question. As for smaller versions, yes, there's a single tower (if you stand it on end) that has four shelves, that's what I referred to in the first post. You will find them on the shelves in Bunnings. Mine are in a white finish, and there is an oak finish as well.

I should read posts properly. Two oak singles screwed together might be the go.

 

Edit: I now see they have oak 2x4 units.....perfect.

Edited January 15, 2020 by stevoz

[unclemack]

On 24/12/2019 at 1:38 PM, joz said:

A few things missing

What the hell is going on there? Clearly I’ve missed something.