Count Arthur
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Let's share diagrams (and photos) of our total physical audio system and the whole signal path, with a few words and/or links
- Thread starter dualazmak
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OP
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OK, let me join sharing system physical wiring diagrams/photos (ref. #931 on my project thread).
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Even your physical wiring is a work of art!
I try to simplify as much as possible - from right to left: Yamaha M4 / Yamaha GE-30 - Onkyo P 3090 / Yamaha CD-S300 - Elemental Designs eQ2 - Well Tempered and, for now, Clearaudio Emotion. The output of the eQ2 gets bumped up to +4 balanced xlr - to a splitter and a Behringer graphic eq, feeding an 18 inch active and an 12 inch active. Ground lifted.
Second pic is 700 Cat 7a cables...
Second pic is 700 Cat 7a cables...
Attachments
Are the 700 Cat 7a cables in your closet? I mean, I have lots of pictures of DC cable runs, but don't post them here as they not really relevant to the 'average audiophile' at home
Not my closet, no - but I do get crazy about cable management and figured it illustrates where that comes from. My apologies...Are the 700 Cat 7a cables in your closet? I mean, I have lots of pictures of DC cable runs, but don't post them here as they not really relevant to the 'average audiophile' at home
I stopped with the overabundant systems; the first step was cultural.
Yes, I liked having 10 devices turned on, with their lights, their controls, it gave me the feeling of being able to set everything up to the best and of having a complete system.
I thought that the more stuff there was, the better it should sound… but it wasn’t like that… in fact I continued to change, adjust, move, change, add devices, then remove them…
Then one day, tired of all this, tired of the thousand cables, the background noise of the power supplies, the wasted space and of having to set up each device in a chain to have a result on the other, I removed everything.
I started from scratch. I took all the cables, put them away in a box, all the devices I used at the same time, put them on the shelves. Let me start by saying that I love collecting devices.
I started from a blank sheet of paper. Simple system, taking care of the room and the position of the speakers, via racks, cabinets and various knick-knacks from the speaker area.
Only what is needed for the three devices I usually use. A minimum of physical environmental correction.
It sounds, guys, really good. With three devices together, it sounds.
I realized that everything else was "office complication simple affairs".
Each additional device is noise, power, cables, set up, configuration, which inevitably leads you to having to configure other aspects...
How much I am enjoying my two systems today, like never before.
I play with changing speakers and amplifiers, just because I have them and I'm sorry to see them stopped.
But the line always remains the same.
Simple system...
I would never go back on the setting, also because I am enjoying the best results today...
how much music I am devouring every day, but above all with a truly surprising quality...
Yes, I liked having 10 devices turned on, with their lights, their controls, it gave me the feeling of being able to set everything up to the best and of having a complete system.
I thought that the more stuff there was, the better it should sound… but it wasn’t like that… in fact I continued to change, adjust, move, change, add devices, then remove them…
Then one day, tired of all this, tired of the thousand cables, the background noise of the power supplies, the wasted space and of having to set up each device in a chain to have a result on the other, I removed everything.
I started from scratch. I took all the cables, put them away in a box, all the devices I used at the same time, put them on the shelves. Let me start by saying that I love collecting devices.
I started from a blank sheet of paper. Simple system, taking care of the room and the position of the speakers, via racks, cabinets and various knick-knacks from the speaker area.
Only what is needed for the three devices I usually use. A minimum of physical environmental correction.
It sounds, guys, really good. With three devices together, it sounds.
I realized that everything else was "office complication simple affairs".
Each additional device is noise, power, cables, set up, configuration, which inevitably leads you to having to configure other aspects...
How much I am enjoying my two systems today, like never before.
I play with changing speakers and amplifiers, just because I have them and I'm sorry to see them stopped.
But the line always remains the same.
Simple system...
I would never go back on the setting, also because I am enjoying the best results today...
how much music I am devouring every day, but above all with a truly surprising quality...
Last edited:
OP
- Thread Starter
- #248
Just for your possible interest and reference...
On November 10 Monday, I shared six new dancing video clips of my DIY-built 12-VU-Meter Array (IEC60268-17 compatible) together with all the on-screen Peak Meters of audio software tools while playing reference/sampler music tracks by JRiver MC, ADOBE Audition 3.0.1 and MusicScope 2.1.0;
New video clips of dancing 12-VU-Meter Array (IEC60268-17 compatible) together with all the on-screen Peak Meters of audio software tools while playing reference/sampler music tracks by JRiver MC, ADOBE Audition 3.0.1 and MusicScope 2.1.0:
____Part-1: using a typical reference/sampler music track suitable for high-Fq (treble) transient music sound
post #974 on my project thread
____Part-2: using a typical reference/sampler music track suitable for mainly checking and tuning of low Fq (bass) transient music sound as well as total tonality Fq-SPL balance all over 15 Hz to 22 kHz
post #975 on my project thread
On November 10 Monday, I shared six new dancing video clips of my DIY-built 12-VU-Meter Array (IEC60268-17 compatible) together with all the on-screen Peak Meters of audio software tools while playing reference/sampler music tracks by JRiver MC, ADOBE Audition 3.0.1 and MusicScope 2.1.0;
New video clips of dancing 12-VU-Meter Array (IEC60268-17 compatible) together with all the on-screen Peak Meters of audio software tools while playing reference/sampler music tracks by JRiver MC, ADOBE Audition 3.0.1 and MusicScope 2.1.0:
____Part-1: using a typical reference/sampler music track suitable for high-Fq (treble) transient music sound
post #974 on my project thread
____Part-2: using a typical reference/sampler music track suitable for mainly checking and tuning of low Fq (bass) transient music sound as well as total tonality Fq-SPL balance all over 15 Hz to 22 kHz
post #975 on my project thread
Multicore
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BEHOLD
now IN COLOR
It's the same system as the old diagram but colored and a bit better organized. Sorry for the smudges. Playing with a new set of Zebra colored fountain pens.
Who can decode my color coding?
tw99
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Here's mine.
I've shown Home Assistant on the diagram as although it's not really part of the HiFi as such, it has automations to make using the system a lot easier. For example, if the TV is turned on, HA will also turn on the speakers and MiniDSP and set it to the correct volume level and input. If any music player is started, it will switch to the appropriate input, etc.
Saves a lot of messing around with IR remotes, and is much easier to use for the non-technophile members of the household...
I've shown Home Assistant on the diagram as although it's not really part of the HiFi as such, it has automations to make using the system a lot easier. For example, if the TV is turned on, HA will also turn on the speakers and MiniDSP and set it to the correct volume level and input. If any music player is started, it will switch to the appropriate input, etc.
Saves a lot of messing around with IR remotes, and is much easier to use for the non-technophile members of the household...
So as we know, our audio systems are made up of two elements: the gear and the room (aka the "total physical audio system" as per the thread title)
I have been happy with my gear since forever (speakers are from 2007 for example and a small number of incremental changes else where since then..mainly due to downsizing my system). Downsizing meant not spinning vinyl, CD's or music DVD's but going full ripped files (after doing a one to one match of a CD for each vinyl record).
Thus my system dropped my turntable, phono amp, CD transport, universal disc player, pre-amp and DAC.
I was blessed in 2008 that my wife and I could move to a new build house with the "stuff" we always wanted, including a room for my man cave. Note this is a cave... one door and no windows.
So rather than (as many do) spend money on more gear, I had the opportunity to pimp out my room (and get a better bang for buck than getting new gear)
Thus this is a high level photo essay of my journey.
NOTE: All treatments we built by yours truly on and off for 2 years but I would guess that if I did it full time it would take around 2.5 months end to end BUT that doesnt account for all the testing/measuring time to find optimal placements. I also dont have any fancy woodworking tools.. just a table saw, mitre saw, a router and a drill press.
Had to make lots of jigs for some of the treatments to ensure precision placement cuts and holes.
The room was an empty shell so also built the internal wall framing and installed the double skinned ceiling plaster board.
I have three phase power to the house with one phase dedicated to the room (with its own earth stake).
I am obviously opening myself up to condemnation, that I am a fool and an idiot but understand that the final placement of the treatments was done via a rigorous test method and potential critics need to recognize that the topology of my system is unique/strange so there is really no similar real world examples to use as a template.
Sorry for "photo bombing" this thread (in the sense of blasting out 13 images).
I have been happy with my gear since forever (speakers are from 2007 for example and a small number of incremental changes else where since then..mainly due to downsizing my system). Downsizing meant not spinning vinyl, CD's or music DVD's but going full ripped files (after doing a one to one match of a CD for each vinyl record).
Thus my system dropped my turntable, phono amp, CD transport, universal disc player, pre-amp and DAC.
I was blessed in 2008 that my wife and I could move to a new build house with the "stuff" we always wanted, including a room for my man cave. Note this is a cave... one door and no windows.
So rather than (as many do) spend money on more gear, I had the opportunity to pimp out my room (and get a better bang for buck than getting new gear)
Thus this is a high level photo essay of my journey.
NOTE: All treatments we built by yours truly on and off for 2 years but I would guess that if I did it full time it would take around 2.5 months end to end BUT that doesnt account for all the testing/measuring time to find optimal placements. I also dont have any fancy woodworking tools.. just a table saw, mitre saw, a router and a drill press.
Had to make lots of jigs for some of the treatments to ensure precision placement cuts and holes.
The room was an empty shell so also built the internal wall framing and installed the double skinned ceiling plaster board.
I have three phase power to the house with one phase dedicated to the room (with its own earth stake).
I am obviously opening myself up to condemnation, that I am a fool and an idiot but understand that the final placement of the treatments was done via a rigorous test method and potential critics need to recognize that the topology of my system is unique/strange so there is really no similar real world examples to use as a template.
Sorry for "photo bombing" this thread (in the sense of blasting out 13 images).
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Last edited:
OP
- Thread Starter
- #252
Thank you indeed for your sharing all of these! Really nice and attractive "man cave"...
It is very much interesting for me to know that you are using "integrated" amplifier for your side SPs; I can easily understand the pros of it since I too use four "integrated" amplifiers in my PC-DSP-based multichannel multi-SP-driver multi-amplifier fully active audio system (ref. here).
I wrote there;
Here in this post, please let me emphasize again about the pros and merits of relative gain (i.e. tone) control not only in digital domain but also in analog domain using pre-amplifiers or integrated-amplifiers (in my setup). I recently wrote again in my post #56 on a remote thread like these;
Yes, as for safe and flexible tone controls (or I can say "relative gain controls among the multiple SP drivers"), my stance (policy) at least, is that we are encouraged to utilize the "best combination" of "DSP configuration in digital domain" and "analog domain tone controls using HiFi-grade preamplifiers and/or integrated amplifiers".
We need to note (and to respect for) that analog domain tone controls (relative gain controls among the multiple SP drivers) give no effect nor influence at all on the upstream DSP configuration (XO/EQ/Gain/Phase/Polarity/Group-Delay). I believe that this is a great merit of flexible tone controls in analog domain. We know well, on the other hand, in case if we would like to do the "tone/gain controls" only within DSP configurations, such DSP gain controls always affect more-or-less on "XO" "EQ" "phase" and "delay" of the DSP settings which will leads you to possible endless DSP tuning spirals every time; within DSP configurations, XO EQ Gain Phase and Delay are always not independent with each other, but they are always interdependent/on-interaction.
Just for your possible reference, my DSP-based multichannel multi-SP-driver multi-amplifier active system has flexible and safe analog level on-the-fly relative gain controls (in addition to upstream on-the-fly DSP gain controls) for L&R subwoofers, woofers, midrange-squawkers, tweeters, and super-tweeters, all independently and remotely. My post here shows you a typical example case for such safe and flexible on-the-fly analog-level tone controls. This my post (as well as this post) would be also of your interest.
Of course, I know well that I (we) can also perform such relative gain control using DAC8PRO’s 8-channel output gain controllers. I do not like, however, to change the DAC8PRO’s output levels frequently on-the-fly (while listening to music) due to safety and inconvenience concerns; I like to keep DAC8PRO’s analog out gain level always at constant -4 dB which should remain to be usually “untouchable” in my case.
One of the very unique aspects/features of my multichannel audio rig is that I fully utilize four HiFi-grade “integrated amplifiers” plus L&R active subwoofers, each of them have its own gain (volume) controller for safe and flexible relative gain (tone) control in analog domain even on-the-fly i.e. while listening to music.
In this perspective, my posts #438 and #643 should also give you better understandings. Furthermore, my posts #317(remote thread), #313(remote thread) would be also of your reference and interest.
Here in this post, please let me emphasize again about the pros and merits of relative gain (i.e. tone) control not only in digital domain but also in analog domain using pre-amplifiers or integrated-amplifiers (in my setup). I recently wrote again in my post #56 on a remote thread like these;
Yes, as for safe and flexible tone controls (or I can say "relative gain controls among the multiple SP drivers"), my stance (policy) at least, is that we are encouraged to utilize the "best combination" of "DSP configuration in digital domain" and "analog domain tone controls using HiFi-grade preamplifiers and/or integrated amplifiers".
We need to note (and to respect for) that analog domain tone controls (relative gain controls among the multiple SP drivers) give no effect nor influence at all on the upstream DSP configuration (XO/EQ/Gain/Phase/Polarity/Group-Delay). I believe that this is a great merit of flexible tone controls in analog domain. We know well, on the other hand, in case if we would like to do the "tone/gain controls" only within DSP configurations, such DSP gain controls always affect more-or-less on "XO" "EQ" "phase" and "delay" of the DSP settings which will leads you to possible endless DSP tuning spirals every time; within DSP configurations, XO EQ Gain Phase and Delay are always not independent with each other, but they are always interdependent/on-interaction.
Just for your possible reference, my DSP-based multichannel multi-SP-driver multi-amplifier active system has flexible and safe analog level on-the-fly relative gain controls (in addition to upstream on-the-fly DSP gain controls) for L&R subwoofers, woofers, midrange-squawkers, tweeters, and super-tweeters, all independently and remotely. My post here shows you a typical example case for such safe and flexible on-the-fly analog-level tone controls. This my post (as well as this post) would be also of your interest.
Of course, I know well that I (we) can also perform such relative gain control using DAC8PRO’s 8-channel output gain controllers. I do not like, however, to change the DAC8PRO’s output levels frequently on-the-fly (while listening to music) due to safety and inconvenience concerns; I like to keep DAC8PRO’s analog out gain level always at constant -4 dB which should remain to be usually “untouchable” in my case.
One of the very unique aspects/features of my multichannel audio rig is that I fully utilize four HiFi-grade “integrated amplifiers” plus L&R active subwoofers, each of them have its own gain (volume) controller for safe and flexible relative gain (tone) control in analog domain even on-the-fly i.e. while listening to music.
In this perspective, my posts #438 and #643 should also give you better understandings. Furthermore, my posts #317(remote thread), #313(remote thread) would be also of your reference and interest.
In reference to the "man cave", the main door has a wooden plaque I found in a garden shop that states "Pete's Shed - Beer IN, Woman OUT" which kinda fitted the vibe.Thank you indeed for your sharing all of these! Really nice and attractive "man cave"...
It is very much interesting for me to know that you are using "integrated" amplifier for your side SPs; I can easily understand the pros of it since I too use four "integrated" amplifiers in my PC-DSP-based multichannel multi-SP-driver multi-amplifier fully active audio system (ref. here).
No disrespect intended, but while we both have stepped away from the standard 2 channel setup, our overall approaches are different.
Mine is kinda minimalist in it's approach and yours is maximalist but who cares: We get/got a thrill about building our "baby's" (which in my case included an OCD approach to my room treatments) and maybe for each of us the journey AND the destination are equally as important.
Peter
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Peterinvan
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