I had to do a ridiculous amount of futzing around to get this to work. My college rig in my cramped college apartment room (it's a double, so I have a roommate whose desk you can make out at the edge of mine):
The audio system is a MacBook Air 13" 2011 running iTunes with Amarra through the line-out to the Peachtree Audio Nova Aux 1. The Nova feeds a pair of Anthony Gallo Acoustics Reference Stradas as nearfield monitors. Not pictured: SVS SB-12 Plus subwoofer in my living room, which I need to figure out what I'm going to do with (too big, too heavy, too good).
TV is a Panasonic TC-L32S1 32" 1080P IPS-Alpha, connected via a Thunderbolt-to-HDMI cable. Logitech G700 mouse is hooked up to the desktop machine via USB which charges it while I use it wirelessly with the Air. Keyboard is a Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard connected wirelessly to the MBA, and it sits
atop a Logitech Illuminated Ultrathin Keyboard that's used with the desktop.
Due to size/desk space limitations the desktop machine is precariously perched on top of a wooden board supported by repurposed Lovan Affiniti II 29" speaker stands. The speaker stands used to hold Onix Reference 1 MKIIs but I figured I might as well employ them to make this setup work.
Desktop Specs:
i5-2500k @ 4.5GHz with Corsair H60
Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 Micro
8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600
eVGA GTX 480 @ 840/1680/2000MHz with Zalman VF3000F
Antec EarthWatts EA-650 Green PSU
Antec Three Hundred Illusion
Hooked up via USB to the Nova. Due to size constraints I'm going to be selling the desktop to a friend and building a new, smaller one.
Unfortunately I still won't be able to use the USB of the MBA since both ports are taken up by the wireless receivers. -_- (Logitech won't let the G700 work with unified receivers like the one on the Wireless Solar Keyboard, bah.)
Another picture showing the very limited space I had to work with, with a cameo appearance by the JH13s. It's hard to tell from the picture but the Strada are literally at the edge of the table (wooden board with the speaker stands is slightly lower). It was possible to build a great-sounding system in this space, but only the Gallo Stradas could do it (unconventional design means they don't care about the suboptimal spacing and acoustics that nigh any other monitor with a traditional cabinet would be tremendously finicky with). The shape of the Stradas made it barely possible to do this.
The resolution is disgustingly good, comparable to the JH13s. I prefer my JH13s where substantial bass response is needed (50Hz and below) but the Strada throw an unbelievable soundstage and such tremendous resolving power and "speaker sound" that they obviated the need for a pair of HD 800s, T1s, LCD-2s, et cetera.
Long live College-Fi.
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. Are you using subwoofer with those? I have 5040 under the table but I heard they released 5051.. so I might have to upgrade soon.
