Hello!
I'm Chris. I started playing with HiFi in my early teens, having scraped together a stereo from freebies: a pair of Pioneer 3-way speakers and a very cheap integrated amp that was being thrown away at school.
After that, I built some Visaton-based speakers which did okay, but the full-range driver I was using for >500Hz struggled at higher volumes: THD quickly rose, which made some genres difficult to listen to.
After that, I was taken in by Fostex speakers and valve amps, until I realised they only allowed me to play certain genres of music. I moved on to some Behinger B2031P monitors, which served me well at university, driven by an old QSC USA-850 amplifier.
These days, my home system consists of:
- 2x custom-built HiFi speakers for L/R. They're 2x Seas H1252-08 and 1x 18Sound NSD1095 w/XT120 horn per side. 2.5-way passive crossover at 1kHz, sealed boxes. They were borne of the idea of "what if the diaphragms were acting as pistons throughout their operating range?". They measure well, sound good, and get usefully loud. My room is very helpful, so the in-room -3dB point is around 10Hz.
- Surround speakers are SB65 drivers in small aluminium project boxes. I only use them for a subtle hint of space, having backed the AVR-calibrated level down by about 10dB.
- Amp is a Denon AVR-4100W
- Sources include Spotify direct to the AVR, a Goldring Lenco GL78 turntable, and a Fire TV stick.
I like to mess around with speakers, but these have been in place for a few years now - an impressive feat.
I also run a live sound business. I design and build my own PA speakers, and run them from Powersoft T-series amplifiers.
The main speakers are 2x Faital Pro 10FH520 and 1x 18Sound ND1460 on an RCF HF94 horn. I also have some smaller mains, which are Faital 10HX230 in 70Hz ported boxes.
Subwoofers are Faital Pro 18XL1800 in sealed boxes, with direct ventilation of the polepiece to keep the drivers cool. While sealed boxes sacrifice quite a lot of output, they allow two benefits: small cabinets, and I can choose the LF cutoff by changing the EQ within the amplifiers. The Faital drivers also have a lot of excursion by PA standards, which helps close the gap against most cabinets.
A while ago, I provided sound at a small theatre (100 seats) with three of those subwoofers. A -3dB point of 18Hz meant the giant's footsteps were felt as well as heard. Good fun. Here's a link to a thread detailing that setup:
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/fun-in-a-theatre-3x-faital-18xl1800.386725/
I make my HiFi and PA systems flat and neutral, so they're genre-agnostic. In my opinion, a good audio system should work well with any program material, at any (sensible) volume.
That's all for now. I've enjoyed viewing this forum in the past, and I'm glad to join the discussion.
Chris
>4,600 posts in two years? Ouch. I've always been kinda on-and-off though depending on my random interests of the week/month/year. Think my attention span has drifted a little over the years, lol.
