Signing Off...

[Kvn_Walker]

Living room is coming along nicely. It's my favorite part of the rental house. The missus will have her soaping and crafting station on the high part and can watch the rugrats or play Netflix when she's not babysitting.

Can't wait to be able to sit down and enjoy a movie on the 280F's.

 

[Kvn_Walker]

My "man cave" bedroom is a bit smaller than before (they always look bigger who empty!). The desk I'm getting will be wider too, so space-wise I'm kinda screwed. I'm just going to put them in the corners angled in. At least they aren't ported. It will be fine until we get our forever home someday.

Getting the speakers upstairs was... painful. Our next home will be a ranch for many reasons. This was just another brick in the wall.

Pardon me while I put this chair together. I'm tired of kneeling to use the computer.

 

[Pogre]

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/414-t-a-criterion-tcd-110-s-loudspeakers

Judging from the review, whatever Outlaw amps he had that apparently are no longer working right, the speakers probably deserve better amps anyhow.

I found that same review when I looked them up earlier! They look like some really good speakers, if a little tough to drive.

 

[highfigh]

My neighbor across the street has a 100+ year old beech tree. It was condemned over 10 years ago because of rot, having dropped a major limb that ripped power lines down including service to my house that cost $1100 to repair. He's a f'n bum and won't do anything about it.

I have such a small lot that I own zero trees yet have to deal with them from him and my equally lazy and cheap slob to my right.

Be a good neighbor and keep trees healthy and trimmed.

I had three Elm trees that had grown along the lot line between my place and my neighbor- I'll assume some seeds landed there and everyone let them grow because they were too lazy to pull the saplings out. Fast forward to a few years after I bought the place, when my neighbor startled me by coming into my garage to ask if I knew the main limbs were splitting where they meet the trunk. I called around to get estimates on dealing with it and the problem took care of itself- one of them fell and took out his power & phone, my power, landed on the top rail of his fence and the gutter of the garage two doors away. Eight hundred for the emergency electrical repairs and eleven hundred bucks for cutting the tree down and nobody would know, right?

The power company sent their A Team- one of the guys looked at the limb as he walked into my yard and asked "What happened?".

 

[Kvn_Walker]

Nice lavender flip flops.



I'm surprised you held out on your own up until now.

Tell you what, Oofos are incredible! I usually wear out sandals within months but I bought that pair 4 or 5 years ago. That's some quality rubber. Pricey but they've been well worth it.

 

[slipperybidness]

My neighbor across the street has a 100+ year old beech tree. It was condemned over 10 years ago because of rot, having dropped a major limb that ripped power lines down including service to my house that cost $1100 to repair. He's a f'n bum and won't do anything about it.

I have such a small lot that I own zero trees yet have to deal with them from him and my equally lazy and cheap slob to my right.

Be a good neighbor and keep trees healthy and trimmed.

I hate to say it, but you could get those trees trimmed to protect your property.

 

[Kvn_Walker]

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/414-t-a-criterion-tcd-110-s-loudspeakers

Judging from the review, whatever Outlaw amps he had that apparently are no longer working right, the speakers probably deserve better amps anyhow.

Ya, Ampsanity 2.0 will be underway soon... once we get the rest of the house sorted and organized!

 

[Kvn_Walker]

Signing back on!

Hooked up the receiver last night and we kicked back and watched Logan, like I had been wanting to. Wow those Klipsches rocked it! I doubt I will even use the sub, at least for as long as we're living here. I was happy with the bass from four 8's down there. She kept telling me to turn it down anyway. This is a male hobby for sure.

Upstairs isnt going quite as planned, in some ways. I do have the speakers in place. Corner placement is fine mostly. But I remembered why I had them slightly toed out at the last house. I really wish these had been made with a selectable treble attenuator. I EQ'ed them a little.

 

[Kvn_Walker]

Bought a Pangea Vulcan amp stand for my computer. Gets it off the floor and out of the way. Only time I need access to it is if I have to press the power button.

 

[Kvn_Walker]

Now for the sad part... I had Ampsanity 2.0 all set up, only to have my dreams crash and burn! What was to be a 3 amplifier showdown wound up with two disqualifications.

Vincent SP-331... TKO right out of the box!

 

[Kvn_Walker]

Adcom GFA-555Mk2 at least made it into the ring, but he showed up with a broken wrist and bloody nose:

I double checked the eBay listing and that gash in the metal face was definitely not there.

I've filed claims for both of those amps.

 

[Kvn_Walker]

So, the winner, without even throwing a punch... is the Parasound HCA 1200Mk2!! Time to kick back and enjoy some tunes. Laterz!

 

[Kingnoob]

Signing back on!

Hooked up the receiver last night and we kicked back and watched Logan, like I had been wanting to. Wow those Klipsches rocked it! I doubt I will even use the sub, at least for as long as we're living here. I was happy with the bass from four 8's down there. She kept telling me to turn it down anyway. This is a male hobby for sure.

Upstairs isnt going quite as planned, in some ways. I do have the speakers in place. Corner placement is fine mostly. But I remembered why I had them slightly toed out at the last house. I really wish these had been made with a selectable treble attenuator. I EQ'ed them a little.
View attachment 31770

Which speakers and sub are you using very excellent amps!!! Nice set up wish My room was clean and organiZed .


Ultimate bass lover !! si ht15 dvc.
Free the reptile aliens

 

[Kvn_Walker]

The living room speakers are Klipsch RP-280F's. Sub is an Acoustic Research PR1010. My best friend bought it like 15 or 20 years ago on my recommendation, and it's traveled the country with him. Sold it to me a few years ago and I keep it in the family. It has served us well.

 

[slipperybidness]

I'

So, the winner, without even throwing a punch... is the Parasound HCA 1200Mk2!! Time to kick back and enjoy some tunes. Laterz!

View attachment 31777

I'm still rocking a Parasound 1206! A beastly amp!

 

[Kingnoob]

I'

I'm still rocking a Parasound 1206! A beastly amp!

Wow hope I find a job soon so I can save up for a amplifier like that , so you hook it to a avr or directly to speakers??? Must be so clear


Ultimate bass lover !! si ht15 dvc.
Free the reptile aliens

 

[slipperybidness]

Wow hope I find a job soon so I can save up for a amplifier like that , so you hook it to a avr or directly to speakers??? Must be so clear


Ultimate bass lover !! si ht15 dvc.
Free the reptile aliens

Input to the amp right now is from Emotiva USP-1 Stereo Pre-amp. Output is to the speakers.

 

[Kvn_Walker]

I did spend some time with the Adcom while I'm waiting for the claim to be processed. I wasn't afraid to turn it on, unlike the Vincent amp which had serious chassis damage and the power button was stuck in the on position. I didn't even dare plug it to power.

Between the Adcom and Parasound, the Parasound would have won anyway. Both deliver the goods, but a couple build details on the Adcom turned me off to it. The hole in the binding posts for raw wire are WAY too small, and I couldn't get me 12AWG Belden through it. I'm honestly not sure 14AWG would have fit that hole:

I bi-wire my speakers (for no other reason than I have spare wire) but In order to use the Adcom I had to cram both wires into a single banana plug. Didn't have this problem with the Parasound:

Pictures might not show it too well but it's a much more accomodating size. Ugh I gotta go back there and separate my speaker wires. eventually...

Another turnoff was that the Adcom doesn't have a relay tied to the power switch. When you turn it off, the capacitors discharge over the next 15 or 20 seconds, and the speakers aren't isolated. Well last night I had forgotten this, and shut down and unplugged the amp to switch cables, and got a very unpleasant pop out of a speaker when I pulled one of the RCA cables.

The RMA for the Vincent was processed last night so I shipped it back today. I wish I had gotten a chance to play with it some.

I've spent a good few hours fighting a nasty buzz emanating from my sound card. It was a grounding issue for sure, but the noise was bad enough that I could hear it from my sitting position ~5 feet away from the speakers. The Adcom only has a 2-prong cord and made no noise, but the 3-prong Parasound did. With the computer off, both amps were whisper quiet, even with my ear to the tweeters. Turn on the PC and the Adcom stayed quiet but the Parasound was picking up all kinds of noise.

After much googling and troubleshooting with no results, I made a cheater cord by pulling the ground pin out of a power cord. This made the noise go away but I'm not a fan of gambling with electricity. You know what fixed it? I swapped in a pair of Amazon Basics RCA cables! The buzz is now only faint when my ear is at the tweeter and inaudible any further away. I guess the older cables didn't have the best shielding. I never had this issue with my monoblocks though- I wonder if them having complete power and signal isolation from each other prevented this.

 

[Alex2507]

. I never had this issue with my monoblocks though-

I would think a bad cable would be a problem on any amp, not just the Parasound. I also would like to understand what happened there.

 

[Kvn_Walker]

I would think a bad cable would be a problem on any amp, not just the Parasound. I also would like to understand what happened there.

Been busy all day, but funny you mentioned that. As it turned out, the Amazon cables helped but only conditionally. I got to playing a video game Saturday night and the noise came back full force. Again bad enough to hear at my seating position. Out of frustration I went back to the cheater power cable. The amp is grounded via the RCA cables going to the PC (verified with my multimeter), so it's electrically safe as long as I remember to turn off, unplug and disconnect things in the right order.

Essentially the amp is reproducing EMI and RF noise from the computer itself. That noise is traveling on the - wire of the cables while the music is traveling on the + wire. High CPU usage, high GPU usage (hence when I fired up a game) are creating this whine, and I suspect this house we moved into has crap electrical wiring which is leading to ground issues. I'll be researching this further and trying to find a solution that doesn't involve pulling ground pins out of power cables.