XEagleDriver's 2-Channel Room

[XEagleDriver]

Now that it has been a few months since the youngest child moved out (college junior), my wife suggested we turn his room into an office for me. In turn, I suggested a 2-channel room instead, paperwork is so 80's LOL. She is a wonderful lady and got fully on board.

Please see attached pictures.

Overview

Sans Grills

Sierra 2 closeup

Pangea Equipment Rack

The Sweet Spot with "RCA Pitty" (aka Mogli)

Built on a relatively modest budget with the following equipment:

Speakers - Ascend Sierra 2s (recent B Stock sale, ~$1200) on 28" Pangea stands (~$70)
AVR - HK 3485, stereo only ~120W/ch (used from ebay a couple years back, ~$300)
Source 1 - Oppo 980H (B-Stock several years ago, ~$200)
Source 2 - NFC Bluetooth (Amazon, ~$35) from wife's old NookHD (~??)
Rack - Pangea 400 (AAdvisor sale, ~$150)

Future plans: add a sub (probably a SVS SB1000 or Rhythmik F12 ?), modest room treatments.

XEagleDriver

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[Goodband]

Hope it sounds as good as it looks ... nice setup ... enjoy!

Out of curiosity what are the room dimensions?

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[XEagleDriver]

Goodband,
Thanks, it sounds real sweet, particularlly with SACD. I believe this is due to the S2's RAAL tweeters.

I have been very impressed with the S2's bass in this small a room.
The AVR does not have EQ ability or any bass management.
Cheers,
XEagleDriver

It is a small room at 10' × 9' × 8'H

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[Jaybeez]

Nice room!

S2's are on my short upgrade list. Hope to stop in their shop soon to hear for myself which may well accelerate the purchase.

You can make your own room treatment pretty cheaply if you don't have a local source. Shipping can get expensive.

Enjoy!

 

[KEW]

S2's are on my short upgrade list. Hope to stop in their shop soon to hear for myself which may well accelerate the purchase.

I bet the New Philharmonitors sound better - same tweeter, better mid/woofer, and Dennis Murphy's crossover design!
http://philharmonicaudio.com/

 

[XEagleDriver]

UPDATE: Just scored a SVS SB12-NSD sub on eBay for under $400 delivered (new unit, open box, from OneCall) to complete the 2-channel setup, pretty jazzed about this find.
It should arrive early next week.

I needed to find a sub with HPF outputs, since the HK does not have bass management, which narrowed the field and was only interested in a sealed box design for this music only application.

During my research, I was very impressed with the Rthymik F12 (~$875) and the SVS SB2000 (~$700); but the SB12-NSD provides ~80% of the capability of these current models at ~1/2 the cost since it is an older model; too good to pass up.

Cheers,
XEagleDriver

 

[afterlife2]

Cool setup! What are the headphones make?

 

[XEagleDriver]

AfterLife,
They area pair of Sennheiser Momentum closed back and Phillips Fidelio F1 open back.
XEagleDriver

 

[afterlife2]

Great phones there. You got great taste. Which do you prefer. I have a feeling which one you will say. They are both closed phones though.

 

[XEagleDriver]

AfterLife,
Headphones are an area I am just beginning to explore, so from my inexperienced perspective I find the Philips more enjoyable by a small margin, and this maybe due more to comfort than sound. Did you guess correctly?

Thanks for the correction on the type back, I incorrectly interpreted the Philips small grate on the ear piece as an opening. LOL, a "cans noob" for sure. InnerFidelity has been a good source of reviews.

The next pair I am looking for will be Audio Technica ATH-M50x once I find a good deal on them (Massdrop, etc).

Any other suggestions in that general price range?

Cheers,
XEagleDriver

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[afterlife2]

Yep Philips. People sleep on them, but they make good phones. There are three I'd suggest. Pioneer SE-A1000(Open back. Great for music and movies, which for dialog can't be beaten IMHO), JBL S500(Open back. Great with music) and Philips SHL3300(Closed back. Music. Just got these and burned them in for 70 hrs Fantastic!) You can get them all under $60 and sound better than most $200 and up phones. I have the AT M50's and really like them, but the JBL S500 beats them hands down.
Yep InnerFidelity, TheGamingAudiophile, Z Reviews, lachlanlikesathing, UrAvgConsumer and HiFi Heaven are my go to for reviews those guys go deep in the SQ.

 

[XEagleDriver]

Yep Philips. People sleep on them, but they make good phones. There are three I'd suggest.
Pioneer SE-A1000 (Open back. Great for music and movies, which for dialog can't be beaten IMHO),
JBL S500 (Open back. Great with music) and
Philips SHL3300 (Closed back. Music. Just got these and burned them in for 70 hrs Fantastic!)
You can get them all under $60 and sound better than most $200 and up phones. I have the AT M50's and really like them, but the JBL S500 beats them hands down.
Yep InnerFidelity, TheGamingAudiophile, Z Reviews, lachlanlikesathing, UrAvgConsumer and HiFi Heaven are my go to for reviews those guys go deep in the SQ.

Thanks!

 

[XEagleDriver]

UPDATE: The SVS SB12-NSD sub arrived and is integrated into the system using the HK Stereo AVR's preamp outputs into the sub's line-level inputs, and then from the sub's HPF outputs (80Hz and above) back into the HK Stereo AVR's main amp inputs. This is the only level of bass management available in the setup. Also installed, SVS isolation feet to help decouple the sub from the floor (crawl space construction).

The sub is located about 1/3 the distance from the side wall just behind the front right speaker. Also tried it in the front right corner, but felt the response was a too boomy in that location.
Sub settings are: GAIN set to ~11 o'clock (experimented between 9 and 1 o'clock), XOVER set to ~90Hz (experimented between 75 and 120Hz), and PHASE set to 0 degress (experimented between 0 and 180 degrees).

Next Step: Studying up on REW and am considering getting a compatible laptop/mic to run the tests, make adjustments and develop a plan for room treatments. Logical, but a bit intimidating of a time commitment to learn/execute.

Cheers,
XEagleDriver

 

[JWH5173]

Hey XEagleDriver I am an XEagle Maintainer and Intel guy. Enjoy your post.

 

[XEagleDriver]

Hey XEagleDriver I am an XEagle Maintainer and Intel guy. Enjoy your post.

JWH5173,
Thanks for supporting the war effort. Won't get airborne without maintainers and won't know who to splash without intel!
Check Six,
XEagleDriver

 

[XEagleDriver]

UPDATE #2: An early Christmas gift of a second SVS SB12-NSD from SVS's Black Friday special arrived yesterday and was integrated into the system last night at 3:00 AM .
- System picture is below.
- Connected as follows: L/R stereo channels are sent individually from the HK 3485's L/R pre-amp output to only the sub input on the respective side, with the sub HPF (80Hz) output returned to the respective L/R main amplifier input and hence to the respective L/R Sierra 2.



- Initial testing is impressive (Yusef Lateef's Complete Recordings 1959-1962).

Cheers,
XEagleDriver

P.S. The Wharfedale 10.1 speakers on the subs are being used as an experimental additional mid-bass sub (~80Hz to 1.8kHz) by removing the input bridge to their tweeters.

 

[lovinthehd]

3am, eh? LOL! Are you doing "stereo" subs or do they just work best there? What are the speakers sitting on the subs for?

 

[XEagleDriver]

Yes to stereo subs, one per L/R channel using each sub's HP filtered output as the input into the AVR's main amps.

The speakers on top of the subs are experimental mid-bass woofers (disconnected the bridge to their tweeters).
- Similar in concept to Rythmik's F8 mid-bass sub, except they cutout at~250Hz and since I am using the speaker's xover my upper limit is at~1800 Hz.

Provides an interesting effect, my wife prefers it with male vocals (like songs by The Chairman of the Board).


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[3db]

Nice looking system

 

[XEagleDriver]

Nice looking system

3db,
Thanks, my new favorite de-stress activity is a session of 2-channel bliss with a real tasty port wine.
Cheers,
XEagleDriver