[Cliffh93]

I went to school in Watauga county, so close to old stomping grounds for me. Beautiful area, IMO.

My wife grew up in Avery County, Small world.

 

[Paladin79]

Neophyte.

Neolithic

 

[artur9]

.... For the Blue Ridge event, ...

North Carolina is a beautiful state (daughter attended college in Charlotte).

I cannot even begin to imagine how wonderful a Schittr Meet in the Blue Ridge area would be. Scenic!

 

[stochasticJim]

Is there room on the Schiit Sine Wave for some engineering pedantry?

I'll go ahead anyway.


@Jason Stoddard, the Rekkr FAQ states, "A 95 dB efficient speaker will be 10x as loud as an 85dB efficient speaker for the same power input." This is not the case.

The 95 dB speaker requires 1/10th the power to match the output of the 85 dB speaker.

The 85 dB speaker requires 10x the power to match the output of the 95 dB speaker.

But "10x as loud" wanders into the realm of psychoacoustics. Harvey Fletcher (of Fletcher-Munson curve fame) determined that a 9 dB (or 9 phon) increase in loudness level is needed for a tone to sound "twice as loud". Assuming that this rule of thumb reasonably translates to complex waveforms, I think it is pretty safe to say that "10x as loud" is overstating the difference between 95 dB and 85 dB speakers.

A change in sound pressure level from 85 dB to 95 dB is an increase in pressure by 3.16x. At best, you could assert that the 95 dB speaker puts out ~3x the intensity of the 85 dB speaker for the same power input. But the safest thing to say may be that the 95 dB speaker is a little more than twice as loud as the 85 dB speaker.


Anyone still here?

<crickets>

I'll turn off the lights when I leave...

 

[artur9]

My NHTs are rated 87dB and I had no trouble driving them with Gjallarhorn in stereo. That is if you’re a meter away and facing them. Once I got up and walked away volume dropped quickly.

There's also the "how much power do I need calculator"

http://www.hometheaterengineering.com/splcalculator.html


So for my Philharmonic BMR, which Audioholics measured at "I measured the sensitivity of the BMR Philharmonitor to be 84.1 dB at 1 meter for 2.83v"
with the 2w from the Rekkr, listening at 10ft I get 83.4dB. Which is significantly louder than the 70-75 I usually listen at.

 

[artur9]

So I'm putting together a home theatre system and I'm very intrigued with the idea of using 5 Gjallarhorn's to drive in ceiling speakers.

The limiting factor for me is finding a reasonably priced (~$500?) DSP. ...

That's tough. Your best bet is an older AVR (I got a Pioneer Elite from Goodwill for $90). Hifishark can help you find something in the used market.
Next best bet are the MiniDSP offerings.

 

[artur9]

I got this guy used for $500. All balanced and I find the UI pretty intuitive.

I recently got an Anthem AVM70 to replace my Krell Foundation which had become "obsolete".
Can't speak highly enough about it. 'Course, for the price....

 

[macdonjh]

Just catching up:

Opeth: swedish band that started as progressive death metal and over the years mutated to a more "traditional" prog rock in their last albums. The key element that gave Opeth the reputation of being the "best" metal band ever for so many people is the exquisite blend of brutal sound with extremely melodic/beautiful/melancholic passages. If you're not used to growling (singing to sound like a monster) I'd suggest to give it a try to a couple of their heaviest albums (Ghost Reveries, Blackwater Park, Deliverance), if you listen to them a couple of times, there is a fair chance it will click and then you'll appreciate how fantastic musicians they are. Three examples of those albums...







By the way, Steven Wilson produced Blackwater Park, Deliverance and Damnation. So, if he's involved, you know it will be pretty damn good.

If at the end of the day the heaviest aspect of Opeth it's not your cup of tea, you have plenty of other alternatives in their catalog. Albums like Heritage, Pale Communion Sorceress and In Cauda Venenum have no growls. Also, when they were at the peak of their most heaviest sound they released Damnation, which was a surprise cause it's a very mellow (with a sinister vibe) album that earned them a lot of applause.













Liquid Tension Experiment: You mentioned Dream Theater, well... in case you don't know, back in the day they had a sorta parallel project called Liquid Tension Experiment, it's basically Dream Theater without vocals, and with the legendary Tony Levin on bass instead of John Myung. The sound it's like Dream Theater on steroids which it's pretty bizarre considering DT sounds a lot like they already are on steroids xD







Riverside: These guys are from Poland. Progressive Metal but more melodic and less over the top, compared to Dream Theater. That allows them to make extremely catching tunes with kick ass guitar riffs (they also have very beautiful ballads).









By the way, Mariusz Duda, Riverside singer and bass player has a project called Lunatic Soul, it's progressive too, but with some electronic/ambient elements, it's pretty good IMO.







I also forgot to mention that Kevin Moore, the first Dream Theater keyboard player, started a project called Chroma Key after he left DT. It's a weird mix of progressive with avant-garde and a touch of electronic. Regardless of the genre, I love it and I applaud him for taking a totally different musical direction.





Haken: These guys are from England and also fall under the progressive metal umbrella. While they have some growls here and there, overall the vocals are clean and super melodic (the same can be said about the music, very catchy).







Animals as Leaders: This is a band formed by Tosin Abasi, one of the most impressive guitar players that have appeared in the last 15 years or so. The guy plays 8-string guitars so you can already imagine his sound is HEAVY. At the beginning the band consisted of himself only, so he chose to use a software for the drums which gives the first album a kinda electronic vibe that I personally love.







Plini: This is a young fella from Australia, one of best guitar players that I've had the pleasure to discover in the last years. He has a great amount of skills but also he never stops being melodic, he knows exactly when to press the gas pedal and shred without tiring the listener ear. His music is kinda hard to classify cause there's a progressive element in it, but at the same time is nothing like all the other examples that I've put here. Plini himself defines it as Happy Prog.







OSI: What the hell OSI means? Office of Strategic Influence, another project from former DT keyboard player Kevin Moore and Jim Matheos (Fates Warning). This is great prog rock with some electronic elements, very refreshing sound to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qd8-v4VWVc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CufGvFqAR3c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRuSoU_Pw4o

Planet X: A fantastic progressive band founded by Derek Sherinian (another ex-DT keyboard player) and Virgil Donati, who is to me, pretty much the only drummer that deserves to be called "mutant".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ3hUySljVY

This video is a proof of how amazing Donati is (oh yeah, Doug Shreeve is ridiculous too)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4aEz_nr8p8

On the Virg: Another Donati project...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL_oMf3YvRk

Donati also has a very strong fusion background (on his own and collabs), sadly, since it's not a popular music, it's hard to find links to put here, anyways, some examples...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMHwzFOfNb8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6_fQIqLdls

Regards!

And the newly crowned champion of the longest Schiit post: @Oveja Negra! @ArmchairPhilosopher, it's time for a sabbatical so you can regain your title. Besides, the last time you posted about work, it sounded like you needed a break.

Texas Carolina BBQ? Sacrilege!! But then the video is sponsored by Texas Pete which we all know is made in North Carolina, so any link between the two remains specious at best.

@bcowen and I agree about something? This thread isn't big enough for the both of us.

Not a modern prog rock addition but simply a comment on how good music can sound on good equipment. My latest is Bifrost 2 to Woo Audio 2 to ZMF VC. No upgraded tubes (yet) or cables and the WA2 even has a downgraded power cord since I had to repurpose the power cord from my Dell PC. (Who sells electronics without a power cord?)

I was amazed at how good Cowyboy Junkies' Trinity Session sounded on the above. I've never fully appreciated this album until now. The only upgrade I should have done to give this album justice was instead of listening to it while eating yoghurt I should have been sipping a single malt. This will be corrected.

The Timmins are kinda folk-y, I'd bet they'd approve of yogurt in their audience.

I'm not a huge prog fan, but:
Liquid Tension Experiment are fun, even if some of their songs are lo-o-o-o-ong.
Riverside is one of my favorite bands (gets the Gen Z seal of approval from macdonjh Jr, too).
Porcupine Tree makes good music, but gets more-of-the-same for me quickly.
I have decided I really don't like metal, but Opeth's recent/ late work is good. As has been said, they've been evolving toward prog.

The Gjallerhorn and a used pair of Celestion SL-6si make me wish I had an application for a near-field rig. I wonder if I can take over macdonjh Jr.'s room, Mrs. macdonjh took over our daughter's... Hmmm

 

[OldRoadToad]

I got this guy used for $500. All balanced and I find the UI pretty intuitive. But yeah as far as brand new I don't know of anything balanced in that price range. I might do a hifishark search for either "surround processor", "surround preamp", or "theater processor" and see what pops up used.

Beautiful. I am happy for you!
I still have an Onkyo TX-NR818 THX smurtified AVR and the last time I used I question myself for not keeping it in my system. And then I reminded my self that I got "stuck" with a new Denon AVR-X4300H that was supposed to go into someone's home but they never paid for and picked it up and so after being told they "would soon be over" I got stuck with it past the 45 day return date. I still consider the people as friends but their choice is to avoid me now. What ever...I am not that skeery looking, LOL!

I like it very much for the build quality and the ease that is the HEOS setup and now have HEOS speakers throughout our home and in my garage gym. I like music!

But the Onkyo is waiting in a box until I find it a good and worthy home. So many people settle for Soundbars (and they have their valid reasons) and while they are not junque, they are not as good as dedicated speakers. Nor as beautiful. Congratulations!

ORT

PS- I took the Onkyo to a Magnepan dealer to demo the LRS and it worked just fine for the 30 minutes I played music on the Maggies. No overheating and Jazz sounded like Jazz.

 

[bcowen]

There's also the "how much power do I need calculator"

http://www.hometheaterengineering.com/splcalculator.html


So for my Philharmonic BMR, which Audioholics measured at "I measured the sensitivity of the BMR Philharmonitor to be 84.1 dB at 1 meter for 2.83v"
with the 2w from the Rekkr, listening at 10ft I get 83.4dB. Which is significantly louder than the usual 70-75 I usually listen at.

With 21 watts feeding the 98dB Lores at 9 feet, I get 108.5 dB. Sounds about right....Marilyn Manson doesn't really come alive until 105 dB or so.

 

[bcowen]

@bcowen and I agree about something?

Crap. More nightmares coming tonight. Just great.

 

[OldRoadToad]

With 21 watts feeding the 98dB Lores at 9 feet, I get 108.5 dB. Sounds about right....Marilyn Manson doesn't really come alive until 105 dB or so.

Yes but at what point might we expect Elvis to come alive? If you get him back my big sister will be logging in and saying Thankyewveruhmuch!

She is an Elvis fan and was at the "Live At The HIC" concert back in '72(?).

ORT

 

[B3645]

Now I don’t know if I want the Gjallarhorn or Emotiva A2m. Any thoughts?

 

[OldRoadToad]

Now I don’t know if I want the Gjallarhorn or Emotiva A2m. Any thoughts?

Specifications-wise, I have not compared them. Looks-wise I prefer the Emotiva but then I have an Emotiva XDA-2 and I like its looks just fine.
I know I would be satisfied with either of the items you mentioned but I am a shallow toad and where looks are concerned I have my druthers.

I have bought a few items from Schiit, mostly as gifts for family and only the one from Emotiva. That should speak volumes to the former's quality and value.

The Gjallarhorn looks cool but the Blue Lights of the Emotiva look cooler and has a headphone jack built in! The compact purposefulness of the Schiit is in its favor as is its superb 5 year warranty but who knows, perhaps the Emotiva has an equally long warranty period?

Regardless of which one you choose, you win! If it were mine I would just ignore the Schiit's visual blandness and revel in the presentation of my life's soundtrack. I am certain that others here can offer you a more flavoured perspective than I.

ORT

 

[Puddnhead]

Woo Audio makes great stuff, but they do not supply power cords with their gear. I was lucky, because I had a box of spare cables laying around... some people may not be so lucky when their amp arrives.

Coincidentally @AnotherBrick was thinking the exact same thing this evening listening to Meddle via BF2/WA2/HD800!