[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by Vertigo-1 ...I shouldn't look at B&W's at all, since I believe they're not shielded?

I vaguely remember them doing some that are...possibly the CDM series? I think it may be the case that some of them are and some of them are not.

 

[MooGoesTheCow]

Vert, how about some active speakers? Paradigm has a well regarded lineup of active speakers, the smallest and best for your setup being the Reference Active/20. It's a bookshelf with power amps built in. Tada. No worrying about matching amps with speakers, or someplace to put a large amplifier. It's built right into the box with these. I believe they retail for around $1600 -- not cheap, but you save yourself lots of trouble, and they probably sound better than lots of speaker/amp combos that add to about the same price. Just get yourself some long interconnects, and plug em between your McCormack and the Paradigms, and voila! Speaker heaven.

You can always upgrade later on to a better preamp if you are inclined to do so. Do you really need a remote? I thought this was mainly for low-volume listening. Set the volume and forget about it. If you were blasting the thing, then yeah, a remote might suit you, but since you specifically want this for low volumes, a remote seems quite unimportant. As long as your cdp has a remote, then you're all set.

Paradigm Reference Active Series

 

[Xevion]

Just a warning - if you are going to get some bookshelves and place them literally next to the wall, make sure to get front ported ones.

My PC speakers (Celestion F1), when placed in the rear surround shelves for my family's stereo, sound absolutely terrible. Normally they do sound rather boxy, and you get the "whop" sound instead of bass. Unfortunately I couldn't afford better, but when they are out from the wall, they don't have nearly the pronounced boxiness as on the shelves, which had the speakers 3" or so from the wall.

On my PC they sound quite a bit better. Right now my table is about 5.5" wide and 3 feet deep, I am switching to a 7" wide table that is about 4 inches deeper in the next couple days. I have my 15" monitor in front of me, my reciever where the 15" monitor and some of the broken 19" monitor would go, and the speakers at the far edge. Sitting right on the desk isn't exactly optimal either, I know I could do better but I don't have the money and it dosen't kill the sound, and my primary listening device is my headphones

.

Oh, I found a picture of it. Excuse the mess, and it would now look similar with a reciever in place of where the 15"er is and a 15" monitor where the 19" one is, and a bit less messy.

 

[tdi7]

I know what you are going through with the ear problem. I am a new member and I posted a note about this yesterday. I burst my left ear drum about four weeks ago and couldn't hear much in that ear at all but thankfully the hearing came back this week. What I don't understand, and I will have to go back to my Doctor, is that now my right ear has gone slightly deaf and there is a loud hissing in it. The only thing I can think of is that there might have been some infection in the left ear which has travelled along the eustachian tubes from ear to ear. Anyway I am sitting here just now looking at my HD600s and far from wanting to upgrade my phones I wish that I could upgrade my ears. Good luck.

 

[Morse]

Sorry to hear about the hearing problem. I've had similar problems myself and they're allergy related for whatever that's worth. During the allergy season, critical listening can be nearly impossible here! Good luck with your own situation!

On to the speaker/amp question!

Instead of selling off your headphones, why not buy some decent speakers that won't break the bank? I was thinking of something like the Axiom M3Ti @ $280 USD a pair; they've been getting raves from goodsound, soundstage, and others. At 93 dB SPL you'll be able to choose from some more modestly powered amps, too. The only problem is that you cannot biwire them, without mods. If I didn't already have my little Infinity IL10's, I'd probably be buying the Axioms myself, based on the reviews. I have not heard the Axiom's myself though, so take this with a grain of salt, please. Biwiring did make a big improvement on my Infinity IL10's, by the way.

There are quite a few well regarded amps in the under $500 USD market; NAD, Creek, and Cambridge are all names to consider (the Creek a300 can be had for around $300 USD). I'd suggest that you go to www.hifichoice.co.uk and take a look at their reviews (they have 2 sections of reviews that are accessible from their home page).

Wire is a field unto itself; there are numerous homebrew cables out there by Jon Risch, Steve Rochlin and Chris VenHaus. It's not hard to build some decent sounding interconnects and speaker cables.

As a late breaking addition to this, check out the review of the new Diva Swans M200 Media Speakers at
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazin...1/swanm200.htm They might be just what you had in mind in the first place, and they're self powered to boot!

You could have your entire system for well under a grand and keep your headphones so that when you're feeling bettter you'll still be able to use them too!

Hope this has been of some use!
Good luck again!