[werdwerdus]

not really, I mainly use it with a USB/PS2 adapter in StepMania. I've never really tried to get any iidx computer sims working.

 

[Azure]

Quote:

Originally Posted by werdwerdus /img/forum/go_quote.gif not really, I mainly use it with a USB/PS2 adapter in StepMania. I've never really tried to get any iidx computer sims working.

Oh, so you just use the controller to play Stepmania only (singles?)? I used to do the same a while back as it's a nice change of pace from using the keyboard

 

[wower]

@milk

/me tips hat

nice rig... I dream about those speakers and the esoteric sometimes!

@werdwerdus love that poster in your room. It always reminds me of the ultimate speaker rig in poster form.

 

[Gautama]

Attempting to get an updated avatar... My cat is terrified of my HD580s now, and I failed to get a good shot.

 

[milkpowder]

Bedside:

Living room:

and before you ask, no I don't have two pairs of HD650. It's the same pair in the two pictures. And no, I don't use a standalone headphone amplifier for the HD650. The Onkyo is more than powerful enough to drive the HD650 at less than a quarter the volume (usual listening position: 9 o'clock, lowest: 7 o'clock, highest 5 o'clock!! [knob turns clockwise])

 

[J-Pak]

milkpowder great setup, I was hoping to audition the 1037Be this summer.

 

[milkpowder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by J-Pak /img/forum/go_quote.gif milkpowder great setup, I was hoping to audition the 1037Be this summer.

Thank you! This rig is the product of hours and hours and hours of searching around nearly every high-end-ish hifi shop in Hong Kong. It was bought from scratch and took 6 months to do all the research because I'm not around all the time. It was very time consuming, but a very rewarding experience. You also get to see a heck of a lot of cool gear which I will never, ever be able to afford. Admittedly, I didn't get to hear every single speaker I wanted to see, eg. Wilson Sophia, Revel Ultima series, Martin Logan Summit & Vantage, Meridian DSP5500, B&W 802D, Magnepan 20.1, Avantgarde horns, Dynaudio Confidence C2, etc but I remain confident that my choice wasn't wrong.

I'm hoping my dad will be willing to make upgrades to it because the interconnects and cables we're using aren't doing the system full justice. I've tried more expensive speaker cables and it does indeed make a pretty obvious difference. The reason why there is still no rack is because the rig is constantly being moved around the room. I don't think I've found the perfect spot yet, but it is a hassle because every time I move the system, the furniture has to move as well. Anyway, I've reached the point where the speakers have partially disappeared (acoustically, with the help of a lil' bit of toe in) and the frequency response is much smoother so I know we're quite close. What the next big task is to further flatten out the bass response and bring out the highs. No doubt this is going to be very difficult without any expensive active EQ'ing eg TacT. Someone mentioned bass traps... The RealTraps website has some very useful tools to help you set up your system.

The 1037Be is quite interesting. They're priced incredibly close to the Diva Utopia Be so you might as well have a listen to the Diva as well (experiment with the tweeter grille on and off, if possible)! Also have a listen to the B&W 803D, 802D, SF Cremona, ProAc D80, etc... They're similarly priced speakers that sound very, very good.

I listened to the 1027Be for 10 minutes (because Stereophile told me to do so) and I didn't think much of it. They're very good, but don't quite live up to the hype (every review article I read had "Z0MG, 0wn4g3"-type comments

). I believe I listened to the 1027 through the Chord Blu/DAC64 and CPM 3300 220W integrated amplifier so it was a darn good front-end. At the 1027Be price range, I think I prefer the Aerial 7B, Magnepan 3.6 and the ProAc D38. I wonder what the extra woofer will do?

Headphone-wise, not much is going to change. I'm very content with the Baby O. If anything, I'm inclined to give the K1000 a try some time in the future. Do you think it would be safe connecting it up to a 300W+ amp? As I don't get to bring the Esoteric back to university, I should be looking at a considerably more economical alternative such as a DAC1 or something since I use computer-as-source. Further down the line (couple of years), I can see an amp upgrade plus a pair of O2s

Ah... this hobby is fun.

Happy listening!

 

[J-Pak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkpowder /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thank you! This rig is the product of hours and hours and hours of searching around nearly every high-end-ish hifi shop in Hong Kong. It was bought from scratch and took 6 months to do all the research because I'm not around all the time. It was very time consuming, but a very rewarding experience. You also get to see a heck of a lot of cool gear which I will never, ever be able to afford. Admittedly, I didn't get to hear every single speaker I wanted to see, eg. Wilson Sophia, Revel Ultima series, Martin Logan Summit & Vantage, Meridian DSP5500, B&W 802D, Magnepan 20.1, Avantgarde horns, Dynaudio Confidence C2, etc but I remain confident that my choice wasn't wrong. I'm hoping my dad will be willing to make upgrades to it because the interconnects and cables we're using aren't doing the system full justice. I've tried more expensive speaker cables and it does indeed make a pretty obvious difference. The reason why there is still no rack is because the rig is constantly being moved around the room. I don't think I've found the perfect spot yet, but it is a hassle because every time I move the system, the furniture has to move as well. Anyway, I've reached the point where the speakers have partially disappeared (acoustically, with the help of a lil' bit of toe in) and the frequency response is much smoother so I know we're quite close. What the next big task is to further flatten out the bass response and bring out the highs. No doubt this is going to be very difficult without any expensive active EQ'ing eg TacT. Someone mentioned bass traps... The RealTraps website has some very useful tools to help you set up your system. The 1037Be is quite interesting. They're priced incredibly close to the Diva Utopia Be so you might as well have a listen to the Diva as well (experiment with the tweeter grille on and off, if possible)! Also have a listen to the B&W 803D, 802D, SF Cremona, ProAc D80, etc... They're similarly priced speakers that sound very, very good. I listened to the 1027Be for 10 minutes (because Stereophile told me to do so) and I didn't think much of it. They're very good, but don't quite live up to the hype (every review article I read had "Z0MG, 0wn4g3"-type comments ). I believe I listened to the 1027 through the Chord Blu/DAC64 and CPM 3300 220W integrated amplifier so it was a darn good front-end. At the 1027Be price range, I think I prefer the Aerial 7B, Magnepan 3.6 and the ProAc D38. I wonder what the extra woofer will do? Headphone-wise, not much is going to change. I'm very content with the Baby O. If anything, I'm inclined to give the K1000 some time in the future. Do you think it would be safe connecting it up to a 300W+ amp? As I don't get to bring the Esoteric back to university, I should be looking at a considerably more economical alternative such as a DAC1 or something since I use computer-as-source. Ah... this hobby is fun. Happy listening!

Thank you very much for the thorough response, I have a list of speakers that I want to spend a lot of time with before I commit to a purchase (Divas are now added, I wasn't aware their MSRP was the same). Also I'm unsure of my exact room dimensions at this time. I love speakers since they're able to paint a picture in front of you. No matter how hard I try with headphones I'm unable to do this....then again most of my active imagination ceased to exist when I entered med school

As for the K1000 amp, I'm not sure you'd want such a powerful amp hooked up to it. I imagine it won't damage the drivers at low volume (you have to figure out how much the amp is putting into 120 ohms instead of 4 or 8), but you'll probably have no headroom on the preamp's volume control.

I feel 30 watts on my Pass Labs Aleph 30 is about as high as I'd want to go. When I had the Lavry acting as a digital preamp I wasn't able to take it past 15. Fortunately with the Melos as a preamp it has much less gain and I can take it up to 11-12 o'clock comfortably.

 

[milkpowder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by J-Pak /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thank you very much for the thorough response, I have a list of speakers that I want to spend a lot of time with before I commit to a purchase (Divas are now added, I wasn't aware their MSRP was the same). Also I'm unsure of my exact room dimensions at this time. I love speakers since they're able to paint a picture in front of you. No matter how hard I try with headphones I'm unable to do this....then again most of my active imagination ceased to exist when I entered med school As for the K1000 amp, I'm not sure you'd want such a powerful amp hooked up to it. I imagine it won't damage the drivers at low volume (you have to figure out how much the amp is putting into 120 ohms instead of 4 or 8), but you'll probably have no headroom on the preamp's volume control. I feel 30 watts on my Pass Labs Aleph 30 is about as high as I'd want to go. When I had the Lavry acting as a digital preamp I wasn't able to take it past 15. Fortunately with the Melos as a preamp it has much less gain and I can take it up to 11-12 o'clock comfortably.

Believe me, I find myself painting a better picture of the performance with the Esoteric feeding the Stax 'n Baby O than through the speakers

The Baby O is capable of transparency the Divas simply cannot match. I can hear more details , more ambience, greater purity of sound, more realistic instrument timbre and even get a bit of soundstage (gasp) out of the HE60! The latter is something I didn't think was possible with headphones before I tried it with the Esoteric. While the Divas do give you a hugely deep, expansive soundstage, it is not as precise or accurate as the HE60. Music doesn't flow quite as freely and I attribute that not to poor speaker design but to the room. Headphones don't have to deal with the room, which makes truly high-end headphone set ups infinitely better sounding (IMO) than even high end speaker set ups put in substandard listening rooms such as mine. (There are still peaks and troughs in the FR that need fixing) I'm not going to be modest and claim that the HE60 is one of those truly high-end, world class headphones and I'm sure those of you who have heard it in a good setup will say the same. The source makes such a massive difference though. I don't get nearly as much magic out of the Audiophile USB (you're probably saying to yourself, no ***** Sherlock) and that's why I'm looking to get a source upgrade as soon as my wallet is free of other commitments.

BTW, don't get tricked by MSRPs. They mean absolutely nothing more than a very rough guide to the price. In my experience (however little there is LOL), dealers sell their gear (retail price) for at most 4/5 to 3/4 of the MSRP, plus discounts if bought with other goods. Never buy for MSRP. It's not every day that they get to sell a pair of speakers as costly as the 1037Be or Divas so they will be willing to bargain!! My dad was able to get $5k off the retail price and have them throw in free speaker cables and interconnects

Thanks for the advice regarding amplification. The Chord amplifier is rated at 350W/8ohms. I have no idea how to work out the power at 120ohm because it's not linear (at 4ohm loads, it supposedly can put out 620W). I distinctively remember reading about Neil driving the K1000 through his MBL monoblocks.

 

[J-Pak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkpowder /img/forum/go_quote.gif Believe me, I find myself painting a better picture of the performance with the Esoteric feeding the Stax 'n Baby O than through the speakers The Baby O is capable of transparency the Divas simply cannot match. I can hear more details , more ambience, greater purity of sound, more realistic instrument timbre and even get a bit of soundstage (gasp) out of the HE60! The latter is something I didn't think was possible with headphones before I tried it with the Esoteric. While the Divas do give you a hugely deep, expansive soundstage, it is not as precise or accurate as the HE60. Music doesn't flow quite as freely and I attribute that not to poor speaker design but to the room. Headphones don't have to deal with the room, which makes truly high-end headphone set ups infinitely better sounding (IMO) than even high end speaker set ups put in substandard listening rooms such as mine. (There are still peaks and troughs in the FR that need fixing) I'm not going to be modest and claim that the HE60 is one of those truly high-end, world class headphones and I'm sure those of you who have heard it in a good setup will say the same. The source makes such a massive difference though. I don't get nearly as much magic out of the Audiophile USB (you're probably saying to yourself, no ***** Sherlock) and that's why I'm looking to get a source upgrade as soon as my wallet is free of other commitments. BTW, don't get tricked by MSRPs. They mean absolutely nothing more than a very rough guide to the price. In my experience (however little there is LOL), dealers sell their gear (retail price) for at most 4/5 to 3/4 of the MSRP, plus discounts if bought with other goods. Never buy for MSRP. It's not every day that they get to sell a pair of speakers as costly as the 1037Be or Divas so they will be willing to bargain!! My dad was able to get $5k off the retail price and have them throw in free speaker cables and interconnects Thanks for the advice regarding amplification. The Chord amplifier is rated at 350W/8ohms. I have no idea how to work out the power at 120ohm because it's not linear (at 4ohm loads, it supposedly can put out 620W). I distinctively remember reading about Neil driving the K1000 through his MBL monoblocks.

Yes indeed, just using MSRP as a rough idea of what they'll cost used/dealer demo or new.

I agree good headphones are fully capable of reproducing timbre, detail and micro dynamics. But I can just never get the feeling that there's a jazz concert taking place in front of me. I'm always hearing these miniature instruments floating around my head (which is why I like headphones, they're very intimate). The HP-2 and K1000 are actually very good at somewhat painting that picture because like you said good headphones are capable of such finite resolution; it's just not completely convincing to my brain.

 

[Duggeh]

Moved back home this month and have of course commandeered the front room.

Setup on the right hand side is Dads. You can see the Bose bass module but the cubes are up high out of frame.

Mmm, throw length is delicious sounding.

 

[J-Pak]

I'm in the process of moving, so I only listen to the HP-2 and L3000. The Pass Labs amp and turntable have been packed up.

 

[milkpowder]

Gorgeous rig Doug! I see you still have the DX1000s... I have to say its looks have grown on me quite a bit so I'm very interested in how they sound too.

How do the Quads sound now that they're in quite a distance away from you? I imagine they're quite close together considering how far away you're sitting. Have you tried not toeing-in at all? Delicious is good

Enjoy.


J-Pak: Audio rig is always the last to go ay?

It's the same with me. I literally pack everything else away and leave the amps, computer and headphones until just before I need to move out...

Those L3ks look wonderful perched on top of the beige dust bag. They're truly stunning headphones to look at.

Happy summer holidays guys

 

[Duggeh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkpowder /img/forum/go_quote.gif Gorgeous rig Doug! I see you still have the DX1000s... I have to say its looks have grown on me quite a bit so I'm very interested in how they sound too. How do the Quads sound now that they're in quite a distance away from you? I imagine they're quite close together considering how far away you're sitting. Have you tried not toeing-in at all? Delicious is good Enjoy. Happy summer holidays guys

I really have pushed my good fortune with that loan. Shh, maybe ill squeeze a little longer. [size=xx-small]0_o (gnar :S)[/size]

Back in St Andrews I managed to get them set up so sweet by killing my bed to death. Spent today toeing them into sweet spot back home but yes they are slightly a little too close together and slightly a little too far away, I just use it as an excuse to turn the volume up even more.

Incompatibly better than Dads discrete Bose. The rest of his setup is so wasted on those useless cubes.

 

[AudioDwebe]