Audiophile, Budgetphile, and Dontgiveaphile thread.

[Luke]

Not sure what model numbers I own, but my "hub" of entertainment in the living room consists of a Klipsch surround sound system. I guess it's your 5 speaker standard set up. It's loud enough to rattle the windows, yet crisp as apple cider, so I am happy with it.

Perhaps I'm a speaker minimalist, as I've never found bigger speakers to sound any better, and I like to keep my living room as spacious as possible.

I have a great set of Infinity speakers for my theater, and maybe possibly will one day do the "speakers in the wall" thing.

I'm super picky about my speakers, but I'm not. I listen to a lot of classical music, so clarity on the highs is a must for me. Earth shattering bass is great for movies, but could care less for it when it comes to watching television. When it comes to sports, I want to hear everything. That's probably when I'm the most of an "audiophile". I want to hear the skates on ice, the contact of a slapshot, the banging of the boards, the roar of the crowd, etc. And the only way to drown out my loud voice during a hockey game is a loud stereo.

[fastbilly1]

@Fastbilly, I'm intrigued my those Kenwoods, it looks like they are top of the line legacy equipment, and you don't see a lot of 4-way setups these days. How is the sound? Is that a JBL Northridge? Lastly, I thought you had to have a preamp to hook up an LP (one of my main reasons for avoiding it to this point), how did you get around that?

EDIT: Also, what software are you running on those nettops to achieve that? I have a spare and would love to access my library from it, without using something as heavy as XBMC.

The Kenwoods are awesome. They are the smoothest speakers I have ever owned. Sadly the sub in one of them was shot, but having tested the other sub, I would still want a dedicated. It was obviously not for movies, but it was not cutting it for music either. I believe the JBL is a Northridge, I am not sure off the top of my head though. Record players use to need a dedicated preamp, but nowadays even a crappy player, ie mine, have them built in. Higher end players still require a dedicated. I have a better player in storage, but I cannot justify having it out in my house right now. I should just sell the blasted thing and buy a AT LP60.

For the nettops, they both run Linux Mint 9 and access a VLC stream from a host computer. If I need to access something directly, I use a network folder and play the files on a local VLC setup. But since I can log into the host pc on my phone via splashtop or VNC, I mostly use them as slaves to that VLC stream. Eventually they will be replaced with pcs/chromeboxes with touch screens and dedicated audio cards. However we are currently in flux with our house, and if we move I will be looking at a different system - probably a low powered FM transmitter for my property (looking at 20 acres right now).

[8bit]

While we are on the subject of budget audio I thought I'd throw this deal I found out there... Right now Amazon has a pretty solid deal on some floor standing Infinity Primus Three Way Speakers at $99 shipped each. Amazon Link

[jp1]

There are some Klipsch in a Cuban restaurant I go to and they sound pretty nice. I think they are some sort of indoor/outdoor hybrids.

Anyone checked these out?

http://philharmonicaudio.com/aa.html

They are modified versions of the much revered Pioneer Andrew Jones speakers. Philharmonic Audio put out some seriously good stuff, so these are really tempting for the price range. Check out the frequency response charts they have listed. Not to mention how many people love the Vifa tweeters (which they put in to replace the Pioneer stock). $540 for a full 5 piece set with that kind of sound is an insane value in my opinion.

Check out their other offerings, these guys have some top of the line stuff.

[jp1]

While we are on the subject of budget audio I thought I'd throw this deal I found out there... Right now Amazon has a pretty solid deal on some floor standing Infinity Primus Three Way Speakers at $99 shipped each. Amazon Link

Oh man, that is an awesome deal for the 363. I haven't seen them that low, and I've been watching. Damn, I need an extra $800 or so.

Thanks for the heads up.

[DonSilvestre]

There are some pics of my setup in the link in my signature, but right now I'm rolling with:

Yamaha RX-567 Surround Receiver
Front L/R: B&W CM1's
Center: B&W CM Centre 2
Back L/R: Satellites from my old Klipsch HD 500 system
Sub: SVS PB12-NSD

Overall I love my setup. The B&W's are absolutely brilliant and the SVS sub is a dream in terms of being flexible enough for movies and music, both subtle low notes and room shaking destruction.

My hope is that someday I can afford some CM8 towers for the front of the room and then move my CM1's back to replace the Klipsch satellites. Probably won't happen anytime soon, but maybe I can grab some cheaper used CM8's someday. I literally sold off every valuable SNES, NES, and PS1 game I owned to finance what I have, and short of winning the lottery, I don't think I'll have $2400 for CM8's in the forseeable future. I'm just now getting around to reacquiring many of my old favorite NES and SNES games

I may invest in a new receiver sometime soon, however. I'm out of HDMI ports and dealing with an hdmi switch seems like a pain.

[fastbilly1]

For those in the dontgiveaphile category, I received a Lepai 2020A last night from Amazon. This amp has gotten some exposure due to it being $20 and decent. I will say that I expected it to be serviceable and was really blown away. Powering the default Sega speakers in my Astro it actually sounded good. Powering so no name speakers from an old tv it sounded like an actual sound system. But know this going in, it has poor bass, it is not about the bass at all. And adding a sub requires y cables.

I am planning on buying a couple more to have around. I will be mounting one in my camper too, unless I can find a soundbar that is more fitting for that small of space (and yes I am still not a fan of the bars but my wife is).

[jp1]

For those in the dontgiveaphile category, I received a Lepai 2020A last night from Amazon. This amp has gotten some exposure due to it being $20 and decent. I will say that I expected it to be serviceable and was really blown away. Powering the default Sega speakers in my Astro it actually sounded good. Powering so no name speakers from an old tv it sounded like an actual sound system. But know this going in, it has poor bass, it is not about the bass at all. And adding a sub requires y cables.

I am planning on buying a couple more to have around. I will be mounting one in my camper too, unless I can find a soundbar that is more fitting for that small of space (and yes I am still not a fan of the bars but my wife is).

How is the heat output on the Lepai? I was thinking about doing several of them daisy chained to run individual component speakers. Perhaps build a little rack and run a pair of tweeters from one, a pair of mids from another, etc..

If that could be done, you could probably get some really nice sound for around $100. Each amp could be tuned specifically for each component. Of course, you would need to run a crossover on the tweeters.

Having used one, do you think it could be a viable option for something like that?

[fastbilly1]

How is the heat output on the Lepai? I was thinking about doing several of them daisy chained to run individual component speakers. Perhaps build a little rack and run a pair of tweeters from one, a pair of mids from another, etc..

If that could be done, you could probably get some really nice sound for around $100. Each amp could be tuned specifically for each component. Of course, you would need to run a crossover on the tweeters.

Having used one, do you think it could be a viable option for something like that?

Heat is not bad, but I would add a fan to it if you are going to run it for more than a few hours.

I had the same thought about using them in a line array. I am going to play with it alittle more before I give you a solid opinion on that. My gut is, that it is possible to do and make it sound good, but it may be more work than it is worth. I need to pull out my oscilloscope and crunch some numbers to get back with you though.

[jp1]

Anyone looked into these?

http://www.cnet.com/news/dayton-b652-ai ... like-this/

I'm intrigued.