Does Your System "Wow" or "Amaze" You? Looking to upgrade? Tell Us About It....

[ryanosaur]

...how you like your system and why. Is it doing "it" for you, whatever you were seeking? Does it ever wow? Leaving you shaking your head with amazement at the listening experience? Does it merely satisfy you? What are you getting out of your system?

I started building this rig in 2018. Coming from an old Onky-blow HTIB which killed my prior enjoyment of Music quite thoroughly.

I'll bypass the blow-by-blow story: this is version 2.5 of this system.

Philharmonic Audio Phil 3: L/R
BMR Monitors (ca. 2018): C, S-L/R, R-L/R
Outlaw Audio X-13
Marantz SR6012
Hypex NC-400 L/R and C/SR/SL (Monoblock builds in 2- and 3- channel chassis)
Outlaw Audio Model 2200 RL, RR

Room is 11x15'

Routinely stunned by what this system does. If I had one criticism of what I put together, it would be that the Speakers can be pushed up against their dynamic limits. It takes some doing, and truthfully, you can't really be in the room with them.

One of the most telling tests I've heard is what it sounds like from outside the room vs inside, and to me there is very little difference. Certainly one could nitpick an aspect, but overall SQ is clean and pure.
While not done side by side, I did get to hear Jim Salk's SS 9.5 and the overall differences were minimal enough that I would never question wanting to spend more on a pair of Speakers!

Main purpose of the build was Music first, Stereo and Multichannel Audio. HT and Gaming are also in the picture, but were very secondary.

If I had it to do all over again, I would repeat this build. If anything I would have bypassed the in-between stages not discussed and wish I had purchased 5 BMR Monitors at the time rather than 3.

 

[GXAlan]

This ear/brain system allows us to create the illusion of a 70 piece orchestra in our living room, create the auditory "image" of a singer standing before us in our listening room and it can also convince us we hear spectacular improvements in a playback system where non exists.

While most of us are after musical "truth", or accuracy, or transparency, I personally think taking all of this too seriously and analytically takes too much of the "magic" out of the listening experience. I think focusing entirely on the science can be a disservice, while leaving some room for a little "magic" can make the experience more musically rewarding.

+1. Along this line, I suspect this is why vinyl is so enjoyable (at times). The missing elements are filled in by our brain, and our brain fills the noise or distortion with our preferred interpretation.

The other analogy would be a nice recording of an artist being played back on a very good but not reference sound system versus a live experience with the artist, but someone is coughing or sniffling in the background. When someone coughs, we don't hear it like a skipping CD or a stylus that has jumped a groove (or a stutter as the stream is buffering). Our brain keeps the music going through the cough.

 

[Snarfie]

Yes my system wow's me despite it's a used modest system. However the big big game changer is my DSP Mathaudio Room EQ. Specific in my listening room it upgraded the sound at least with 60%.

System:
Mathaudio Room EQ (system wide Windows) - NAD C370 - DAC Topping D10 - DAT Tascam DA-30 - IMF Compact II Monitors - Vandersteen Model 1B - Allen & Heath Xone 4D

 

[Flexecutioner]

I don't have any local friends who are into hifi so I've always wondered what someone else would think of my setup.

Current setup:

DAC/Preamp: MiniDSP SHD
Amplifier: VTV Hypex NC502MP
Speakers: Ascend Acoustics Sierra Towers w/ RAAL tweeter (V1)
Subwoofer: HSU VTF-3 Mk5

My system still regularly "wows" me, but I feel like it has more to do with the recording than the speakers at this point. I've got a fairly reflective room with large windows both to the side and >7ft behind the listening position, but it's still very enjoyable. I've considered upgrading the towers to the ELX version, but I've managed to get very good subwoofer integration using REW and I'm not lacking for bass extension. Dirac is just the cherry on top. A second subwoofer would be nice, but the HSU is pretty big and the extension and output with a single sub is plenty for me. I'll echo what @MattHooper has said in previous posts about speaker isolation/coupling to the floor. My solution isn't quite as extreme, but I'm using some marble plinths to isolate/add mass to my speakers from my lively floor. I enjoy my system a lot more when my feet are off the ground (either on the coffee table or an ottoman) due to the decreased floor vibrations. I've tried removing the floor resonance via DSP, but it affects the sound too much.

At this point, I'm more curious about how something like horns or a cardioid speaker would impact my listening more than a strict "upgrade".

 

[dualazmak]

A second subwoofer would be nice, but the HSU is pretty big and the extension and output with a single sub is plenty for me.

Thank you for your sharing your nice and beautiful setup!

Yes, I highly would like to suggest you to have L&R two subwoofers and fine tune them, including precise time-alignments to your main SPs, at your listening position. Even if the gain (sound volume) of your subwoofers would not be so high, I assume you will achieve further excellent sound perspectives/imaging and much better "disappearance of SPs" with L&R two subwoofers.

Spoiler

- Perfect (0.1 msec precision) time alignment of all the SP drivers greatly contributes to amazing disappearance of SPs, tightness and cleanliness of the sound, and superior 3D sound stage: #520

- Not only the precision (0.1 msec level) time alignment over all the SP drivers but also SP facing directions and sound-deadening space behind the SPs plus behind our listening position would be critically important for effective (perfect?) disappearance of speakers: #687

 

[Flexecutioner]

Thank you for your sharing your nice and beautiful setup!

Yes, I highly would like to suggest you to have L&R two subwoofers and fine tune them, including precise time-alignments to your main SPs, at your listening position. Even if the gain (sound volume) of your subwoofers would not be so high, I assume you will achieve further excellent sound perspectives/imaging and much better "disappearance of SPs" with L&R two subwoofers.

Spoiler

- Perfect (0.1 msec precision) time alignment of all the SP drivers greatly contributes to amazing disappearance of SPs, tightness and cleanliness of the sound, and superior 3D sound stage: #520

- Not only the precision (0.1 msec level) time alignment over all the SP drivers but also SP facing directions and sound-deadening space behind the SPs plus behind our listening position would be critically important for effective (perfect?) disappearance of speakers: #687

Yes, I've found that using REW to match absolute phase as well as phase slope using non-symmetrical crossover slopes to be highly beneficial

 

[Deleted member 21219]

My system still regularly "wows" me, but I feel like it has more to do with the recording than the speakers at this point.

You're in a very good place! After all, that's the way it should be.

Jim

 

[Robin L]

My issues with the bulk of my stereo systems over the years have been the degrees that they irritate me. I've heard a few systems assembled by dedicated audiophiles/technophiles that actually wowed me, but many more from the same that also irritated me. Surprising at times how bad some "audiophile" rigs sound, particularly at audio shows. But the stereo system I'm now using is notable for being the least irritating of all the audio systems I've owned/used.

I think that's in part because there's no analog sources in the system and the digital is very good. My CD player is used as a transport with a Topping E30 as a DAC, volume adjusted by a Topping L30. The amplification is an old (pre HDMI) Yamaha 5.1 AVR, where the two stereo channels are used to drive the speakers and there's a line level subwoofer out, going to a Sonance Son of Sub. Most of the gear was bought used and very cheap. The subwoofer was $50, the pair of Infinity Primus 250 mini tower speakers went for $30. The AVR, a Yamaha RX-V461, was $50. The CD player is a Sony BDP-BX57, a SACD capable DVD player that set me back all of $8. I had to buy a remote online, that cost a little more. I bought pieces of Topping gear soon after they first appeared at full price, around $130 and $150.

I have a lot more invested in headphones, which I rarely used these days. Back when I worked at the IRS, headphone use was encouraged. I've got four full sized, over the ear sets of 'phones and a nice pair of IEMs. All of them put together set me back around $800. My favorite are the Drop 6XX with the AKG 371 the first runner up.

The speakers combined with the sub have wide frequency response without anything shrill or lumpy going on. I really don't think anybody would be "blown away" by the sound because nothing really stands out. All the gear is in a small room. When I play symphonic music it's easy to hear everything going on at all playback levels. I really don't see the need to upgrade anything in my current circumstances, though I'm probably going to get more CDs considering how cheap my favorite recordings are these days. I've tried streaming and it didn't work out for me for various reasons.