[spacemanspliff]

So I finally get a huge, basement room all to myself. Eventually anyway. It has to be finished up. Atm most everything needs doing except for the floors and walls lol. Oh, I have to sell the old house before I can buy anything btw. This is just to plan ahead. Should sell fast enough though. Great house/neighborhood. Avrg. sale time is 1 month there.

Electric needs upgrading from 100 amp to 200 amp. I have a question about that. What should I ask the electrician to install in my listening room for optimal clean power?

Ok, so I have 2 pairs of decent speakers. av123/Onix Rocket 550 MKIIs and a pair of Polk SDA SRS-2Bs. No amp for either though. Hell nothing but the speakers really lol.

If I go with a speaker setup, there must be room conditioning. That is at least $1000-1500 more than if I go back to my beloved Stax. Otherwise, I believe that the costs might be the same.

So, the question is, since I know that my speaker setup will cost me approx $3000 just for equipment, what could I get for that or less (always a good thing) in terms of Stax or Stax-like head speakers?

I have been out of the loop for awhile b/c I thought I was having a reaction to electrostats with my right ear but it turns out to be merely the multiple head and neck injuries that I have sustained over the years. I played football in Texas, fought a bit, took 4 types of martial arts, was a soldier, etc. Rough life lol. I am recovering pretty quickly now with the help of several good folks and feel good about returning to the embrace of some good CANS!

Besides, I love this place.

Cheers and thanks for the help.

 

[flame]

Omega from Stax, after you have listened to Omega, you will find rest of the Stax upsetting.

 

[Uncle Erik]

How about a nice pair of Quads? You can sometimes find a nice ESL-57 or ESL-63 within your price range. You could pick up a nice Magnepan pair, as well. As much as I love headphones, dipoles throw up a soundstage and realism that can be spookily close to the real thing. I can hardly tell the difference between the phone ringing and hearing a phone ring on my ribbons.

So if I had a whole basement as a listening room, I'd go with speakers.

And have the electrician install a separate circuit for your stereo. It's nice not having to share with appliances, lights, etc. You might also ask him to put in a real grounding rod. I like those. They're big copper jacketed poles you drive directly into the earth.

 

[dookiex]

I 2x Uncle Erik's comment!

 

[tako_tsubo]

spaceman! You need to finish off your HT, man!!!

But if you go stax, then yes go for the 007, not the mk2 and get a nice amp...once the KGBH start showing up, I suppose that some KGSS will start showing up on the FS market too, or go for a SR717 amp like myself and be happy! Thru careful shopping my 007/717 set up was $2000. You can always go for some vintage Lambda's and a srm1/mk2 pro amp

...deals always showup

 

[apatN]

This is probably not the best place to ask headphones vs. speakers

 

[spacemanspliff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by apatN /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is probably not the best place to ask headphones vs. speakers

Sure it is! Should I ask in a speaker forum? LoL

This is the nicest, most global and altogether knowledgeable forum I have been a part of.

I have been really hurting and tired for a few days now and thinking is hard. I just now thought of the real reason to ask about a headphone setup.

I need a backup plan in case my budget is much smaller than I anticipate. You know how house sales are nowadays and we have lots of expensive things to do both with the old and new house.

The HT thing might not happen due to the potentially several thousand dollars more the construction and treatments will cost. With the headphones, all I need is a room and some clean power.

So yeah, I can get an OII setup for around $2k? What else? Blue Hawaii is out I guess lol.

 

[yashicaman]

Uncle Erik is right. Quads! The electrostatics are to die for. How about a pair of stacked ESL 57's or 63's? On the cheap, you could run with a pair of Quad 12L Active monitor speakers (very nice and as they are powered, you could just run with a preamp). I purchased a pair a year ago for my living room stereo kit and am thrilled with them (I use them with an AMC powered subwoofer running thorugh an Adcom 565 preamp).

Several years ago, I heard a pair of Quad 10L's in a basement with an FT-Audio "Little Wonder" passive preamp to a Roksan amp and Roksan cd player. It was magical and the Quad 10L's were amazing. The 12L's are much better and do have a bit of the Quad magic that one hears with its electrostatic speakers.

Go with speakers and share the music.

Cheers

 

[Gradofan2]

Well... I don't know... if there will be anybody upstairs, or if you'll be installing some really great sound control material to prevent sound from leaking to the upstairs floors... but... if there is any possibility you're going to disturb anyone upstairs - DON'T GET THE SPEAKERS!

Especially great speakers like the Quads, or Maggies, or similar.

Yeah... they're great... but... you'll be constantly tempted to crank up the volume, which won't please the folks upstairs!

And... what's the point of having such great speakers... if you can't use them! "One hell uv uh" conflict and frustration!

If you don't mind spending the money... get the top of the line Stax and be happy!

 

[QQQ]

Of course speakers. Not even a contest!

 

[robm321]

Quote:

Originally Posted by flame /img/forum/go_quote.gif Omega from Stax, after you have listened to Omega, you will find rest of the Stax upsetting.

Couldn't disagree more.


Uncle Erik is right on. I would say speakers in general are the way to go since you have a room for them. I prefer my speakers to ALL headphones HE-90, K-1000, OII, etc etc by far, but I listen to headphones most of the time... go figure. I prefer Von Schweikerts but like many others as well, including stats.

Enjoy

 

[spacemanspliff]

The most important thing to me, if I go with speakers, is the DAMN ROOM. I will not even bother with speakers if I can't afford to get the room "right". No sense in it at all.

Going with these guys for room treatments.

http://www.gikacoustics.com/

Btw: the Wharfedale Pro 8.1/8.2 Active Monitors appear to be very similar to the Quads for MUCH less $$.

See here:

AudiogoN Reviews: Quad 12L-A Active Monitor

 

[spacemanspliff]

Oh, and I will hang some 705 insulation b/w the ceiling and the acoustic tile ceiling, put bass traps in the corners, panels on the walls and possibly the ceiling. Also, make the room close to airtight to minimize leakage.

 

[dookiex]

Impressive plans spacemanspliff! Make sure to take some shots when you have everything ready for inauguration and make many Head-Fiers drool

 

[spacemanspliff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dookiex /img/forum/go_quote.gif Impressive plans spacemanspliff! Make sure to take some shots when you have everything ready for inauguration and make many Head-Fiers drool

It remains to be seen lol. I MIGHT be able to do it soon, I might not. Whenever I do it, I will DO IT RIGHT!

Ok, so we'll see. Basically, if I can build it the right way, speakers. Probably 2 channel. I was playing with the idea of a 3 or 5 channel HT with subs but nah. I like 2 channel music above all else.

I like the idea of powered monitors though. Less to deal with. Just get a good dac and run the rcas.

Subwoofers, if I get some, will probably be diy, av123(if they ever get anything back in stock lol), or IB.