Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

Proper speaker placement

Room treatment,
including taking care of first and second reflections on walls and ceiling. Bass traps and Helmholtz resonators in corners.

AND NO SUB

No sub?
I was with you all the way, until that sub remark. How is one supposed to fully enjoy Yacht Rock without a sub?

This Bromance is over!

Sorry!

Glad you enjoy your sub(s), though. As I already said earlier: To each what blows their hair back.

I, for one, find my two Tyrs driving a pair of 8" active and quad of passive transducers that sit in the closed cabinets of my well-built pair of floor standers more than adequate to give me all the bottom end I'll ever need in the room that they're in, but without any of the boom / standing waves that I'm used to from most systems that employ a sub or two.

Subs absolutely have their place, though. In home theaters they're an absolute must have, that's for sure. And if you pretty much exclusively listen to bass-heavy music like electronica or hip-hop, then you need them, too.

But if and when you listen to jazz, acoustic, or classical music, or even most rock genres, and you don't switch off your subs? I would very much suggest that you're actually missing out on a clean and crisp sound experience by artificially augmenting a bottom end that doesn't actually really exist in those genres.

 

[artur9]

streamer* -> DAC -> EQ (optional) -> analog preamp -> amps

Sorry, but I'm a believer in keeping things simple. The best room correction is still analog, meaning proper speaker placement, taking care of first reflections, and really seriously good speakers and power amps, AND NO SUB.

*as long as its output bit-perfect, meaning neither up- nor downsampling nor any other kind of DSP is involved

That EQ is digital or analog?

Your analog room correction is a good starting point (best, really) but sometimes a little more is needed. Especially in a "multi purpose room."

Now, my Philharmonics go very low but I still like my multiple subs to help them out. Having had my memory refreshed with this weekend's concerts as to what a bass guitar and full drum kit sound like, no monkey coffin is going to be able to do that. Gorilla coffin has a small chance, hippo coffin is probably a minimum.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

That EQ is digital or analog?

Your analog room correction is a good starting point (best, really) but sometimes a little more is needed. Especially in a "multi purpose room."

Now, my Philharmonics go very low but I still like my multiple subs to help them out. Having had my memory refreshed with this weekend's concerts as to what a bass guitar and full drum kit sound like, no monkey coffin is going to be able to do that. Gorilla coffin has a small chance, hippo coffin is probably a minimum.

Funny that you asked whether that EQ is analog or digital, because I just amended that post mere seconds ago.

Analog, of course.

When I wrote it, I thought that it should be obvious that everything that comes after the DAC is analog only, but when I then re-read my own post I realized that I should be more clear because what’s obvious to me doesn’t necessarily have to be obvious to anybody else. Sorry about that.

 

[artur9]

...I tried the DSP room correction with several speakers and the result is they all sounded very similar....

Andrew Quint of TAS uses Anthem Room Correction during his speaker reviews. I get annoyed when he actually writes up a speaker I would normally be interested in hearing more about because there's no point in reading a review of a DSP-homogenized speaker.

 

[OldRoadToad]

Her what the hell what now? What on god's green earth is "yacht rock"?!?

Edit:
Oh, Jesus Christ on a skateboard… Just googled it and got a bunch of examples for "yacht rock." Listening to that stuff non-ironically would be pretty high up my list of deal-breakers if that were my marriage. You have my sympathies.
But hey, good for her. To each their own, and all that. I'm sure I listen to a whole bunch of stuff that she would consider akin to nails on a chalkboard.

Well it ("Yacht Rock") beats to deaf any cRap, Hippity Hop and Hick Hop (gnu country) with ease. So it's got that goin' for it...Which is nice.

ORT

 

[33na3rd]

Sorry!

Glad you enjoy your sub(s), though. As I already said earlier: To each what blows their hair back.

I, for one, find my two Tyrs driving a pair of 8" active and quad of passive transducers that sit in the closed cabinets of my well-built pair of floor standers more than adequate to give me all the bottom end I'll ever need in the room that they're in, but without any of the boom / standing waves that I'm used to from most systems that employ a sub or two.

Subs absolutely have their place, though. In home theaters they're an absolute must have, that's for sure. And if you pretty much exclusively listen to bass-heavy music like electronica or hip-hop, then you need them, too.

But if and when you listen to jazz, acoustic, or classical music, or even most rock genres, and you don't switch off your subs? I would very much suggest that you're actually missing out on a clean and crisp sound experience by artificially augmenting a bottom end that doesn't actually really exist in those genres.

I have tried my speakers with and without the subs. I did prefer the sound without my previous sub, but I like the SVS very much and leave it on for all genres. The bass is not boomy or bloated. Here’s a quick RTA from my listening seat. The dip at 63 and 125Hz is a null at the listening position, sitting forward a bit fills it in quite a bit. Not perfect, but not too bad for a small square room.

 

[artur9]

Do tell. I'm seriously considering Roon after procuring a DAC that can act as an endpoint. I had thought it was bit perfect and generally well loved by audiophiles.

However, my needs are relatively simple so I'm planning on 1st trying a simple upnp server and a controller app on my phone. There's a pretty good server that can run on linux among others and is geared toward music, and only costs in the double digits for a lifetime license. I'm loath to pay any kind of subscription.

I went from MPD -> minimserver/UPNP -> minimserver/OpenHome -> Roon.

It meets my needs (love Roon Radio) and is easier to live with than the other choices. I'm not capable of hearing that last N% of fidelity and manual tagging and the pursuit of that last N% were too exhausting.

 

[artur9]

Correct. Two subs are required for proper presentation of a stereo signal, and they sound best when the drivers are physically aligned with the drivers in the main system.

Go to any non-Yacht rock concert and you will see the PA configured in just this manner.

Two subs and then as many additional other subs in room mode nulls to really shake the house. All properly time and phase aligned! If you don't have a loudspeaker management system from Xilica with at least 6 outputs then you're missing out.

I like my subs. This room has 5 (although only 3 are really acting as subs), another room has 2, another room has 3, and does a Magnepan DWM count? Then there are the 3 that are boxed up...

Hi, my name is artur9 and I have a sub problem....

 

[artur9]

I have tried my speakers with and without the subs. I did prefer the sound without my previous sub, but I like the SVS very much and leave it on for all genres.

nice! which SVS? the one I have (older SB1000, no dsp) isn't to my liking.

My philharmonics, measured by Anthem ARC go very low at the volume I need. I have the subs set to support them below 40Hz.

Drum kicks from 80s rock (not yacht rock ) are nicely heard and felt...

 

[Plautus001]

Well it ("Yacht Rock") beats to deaf any cRap, Hippity Hop and Hick Hop (gnu country) with ease. So it's got that goin' for it...Which is nice.

ORT

Hallelujah!

Steely Dan is a great band and some of the other Music (George Benson Breezin) is good too

 

[Mr Rick]

Tonight's Syn-full song recommendation:

I'm Tired - Where Am I......... Savoy Brown

 

[Randolf711]

“Some artists commonly included in the yacht rock genre are: The Doobie Brothers, The Eagles, Christopher Cross, Robbie Dupree, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Fleetwood Mac, Michael McDonald, Rupert Holmes, Toto, and Steely Dan.”

Most of the guys on this list are totally fine musicians who put out great music. Not all of it of course. I will say there is absolutely nothing by Michael McDonald I don’t like.

However, I am really happy someone finally found a great use for this song.

 

[33na3rd]

nice! which SVS? the one I have (older SB1000, no dsp) isn't to my liking.

My philharmonics, measured by Anthem ARC go very low at the volume I need. I have the subs set to support them below 40Hz.

Drum kicks from 80s rock (not yacht rock ) are nicely heard and felt...

The SB-3000. The 3 band PEQ really helps with my small square room issue. I’ve got nasty room modes at 45 and 90Hz, the SVS PEQ helps tame that problem nicely. The ability to adjust the sub from the listening position is pretty sweet too!

 

[earnmyturns]

Not sure how you can compare sources when Roon changes the sound so much on its own.

??? Having compared via Roon with other sources with a variety of endpoints, this makes no sense at all. All claims I've seen about digital transport software X sounding different from digital transport software Y are on further analysis either claims about differences in other things such as hardware, operating system configuration, or (more often than you might believe) buggy endpoint firmware.

 

[rkw]

But if and when you listen to jazz, acoustic, or classical music, or even most rock genres, and you don't switch off your subs?

I listen to mostly classical music, and no I don't switch off my sub. The lowest note on a grand piano is A0 (27.5 Hz) and on a double bass E1 (41.2 Hz). My Harbeth P3ESRs with 110mm (4.5 in) woofer even on Tyrs don't go anywhere near that low.