A photo of your Squeezebox setup (please)

[Jon]

Not sure this setup qualifies for the Audiophile forum ... it is certainly not an Audiophile setup! Though I have to admit, I am pretty impressed at how good the squeezebox makes the old powered speakers from my very first computer (a 66 MHz 486; the speakers are the only piece I kept) sound ... a nice setup for my home office. The books on the bookshelf do a nice job of hiding all the wires ...

[PhilNYC]

Indeed it is. An RCS 2.2X taming the room and handling crossover/time-delay issues, and a pair of TacT S2150s (one for the wooferless Duos, one for the TacT corner woofers). The TacT W210s (actually made by Mark Lyon in Austin, Texas), properly placed in the corners and then smoothed by the RCS, produce much better-controlled bass than any Avantgarde subs I've heard. (Okay, I've only heard one pair. But better than those. Of course, I've never heard the Basshorns. But I can't afford those. And anyway, my girlfriend would probably go postal if I tried to drag them into our living room.) The Avantgarde folk (with the intervention of Jim Smith in Atlanta) were willing to sell me Duo Omegas without woofers, and even make those nice little custom stands, kind of like scaled-down Trio stands.

Interestingly, just to illustrate the pace of the craziness here, the Hydra 8 has already been whisked away. I'd bought a Running Springs Audio power conditioner to use with the separate, less-esoteric TV/movie system, but figured I'd just give it a listen with the TacT/Avantgarde setup.

The TV is not getting it back. I was shocked by the difference -- the whole system was so much more... light on its feet. Damn.

Oh, and there's another baby Hydra there with just the RCS plugged into it, since the RCS doesn't play well with others. Even in a presumably-isolated outlet of a bigger power filter, it pees digital noise in the other kids' pool so badly everything just sounds better if you pen it up away from the others.

Oh, and the Squeezebox (back on topic!) is drinking from a Bolder Cable linear. (Which didn't make that much difference to my ears when it was feeding an SB2, but the linear-plus-SB3 combination seems to sing, in terms of digital-output quality out the RCA.) I can only surmise that the only published internal difference, some linear instead of switching voltage regulator, is not actually such a minor thing.

You asked; that'll teach you.

On the contrary, I love hearing about this stuff!

Am a little surprised to see you drive the Avant Gardes with so much power...usually you see them being driven by little SET amps. I do have a customer that has the Duo 2.2's driving them with a Bel Canto eVo2, tho, and it sounded quite good...but he had a Blue Circle AG3000 tubed preamp, so it took whatever edge might have been there off.

Also very interesting comment about the Running Springs vs. Hydra 8. I played around with one of the older Hydra 8's, and thought it was quite good. FWIW, I am using the Audience adeptResponse with great results...

[P Floding]

[back to the regular email gateway from the web thing]

2006-02-15-04:52:18 P Floding:
> Nice system!
> Never heard that kind of horn-stuff in my life! I've had electrostats,
> and normal dynamic, but never horns.

I hadn't heard them until this year; just heard enough *about* them that
they seemed to be on my must-audition list. I suggested to my
girlfriend that the next time we were both in Atlanta, we should arrange
to listen to Jim Smith's demo system. The way I put it to her was that
they're kind of ridiculous in many ways (size, appearance, expense), but
if and only if they turned out to be so compelling those things ceased
to seem to matter much, they'd be worth considering seriously.

After we both listened to them, she began to speak of when, rather than
if, there'd be over-the-top horned objects in our living room.

The only time I'd listened to horns before that was some Klipschhorns
sometime in the late 70s... but their dynamic characteristics (whatever
their other difficulties) made a lasting impression on my young ears.

> As an owner of an RCS 2.2x I'm most interested in what you think of the
> S2150s. I also have some tips on how to bring the 2.2x to a whole new
> level without paying much. (Did you have your 2.2x modified, BTW?)

Well, a couple of years ago when I was first auditioning the RCS, I was
on the verge of sending it back because its analog outputs via the D/A
card sounded unpleasantly hard to my ears... but some other TacT users
convinced me I hadn't really heard it unless I heard it with a TacT amp,
too. They were right. The 2150 is one of the best-sounding D/A
converters I've ever heard (that subtle, raise-the-neck-hairs immediacy
and detail, but without ripping your ears off), and, oh yeah, it puts
out enough power to drive speakers too. The S2150 stayed, the D/A card
went back. (Interestingly, TacT's A/D card, for getting analog sources
into the box, sounds great.)

As for mods... so far the only significant mod I have in my 2.2x is one
of Anthony (Aberdeen in Vegas)'s drop-in switching power supplies --
which actually far outperforms the external linear I'd been using for
awhile. That and ditching the cheezily-filtered Power Entry Module for
a direct-wired one, since I'm using far better power filtering outside
the device. Some Wolff carbon-fiber-magic power cords calmed things
down a bit, too.

-Jeff

Jeff,

I'm waiting for delivery of the Aberdeen power supply. In the meantime I have put the TacT (alone) on a simple mains filter, which made a massive difference. Most probably due to the SB3 power supply messing up the mains power.

However, the massive improvement I was talking about comes from using SST (Super Silver Treatment) on most of the connectors inside the 2.2x. Internal power connectors, and the fuse, as well as the plug-in cards' connectors, and the flat cable connectors. This made a HUGE difference! Beware, though, that you will have to redo your room measurements after treatment!

Also, don't do the treatment unless you are a real DIY'er. I don't know what future clean-up of the contacts may be required -if any.

After these tweaks I now use a flat target curve, apart from a mild lift under 100 Hz. The top end sounds natural now, when flat! (A flat target curve used to give an over-bright top end.)

[jasenj1]

Here's mine.

The gear (top to bottom):
HK AVR 230
Toshiba D-R4
Panasonic DVD-A110
XBox
Cable box

Speakers:
Paradigm 3se MkII Fronts (pdf)
Paradigm ADP-170 Surrounds

- Jasen.

[pablolie]

Cleaned up the system some, next week I'll clean up the cabling. Phew.

My trusty Accuphase pieces up top, the SQB3 is feeding into the DP-65v optical input. The speakers are tuned three-way German speakers, in fact tuned in the Institute of Psychoacoustics in TUM Munich.

The SQB3 is great.

[crooner]

Here's an update of my system (speakers not shown)

I have just added a Lite Audio DAC60.

Cheers,
crooner

[ezkcdude]

Crooner, what are your initial impressions of the DAC 60?

[crooner]

Hi ezkcdude:

I like it very much. Definite improvement over the SB3's internal DAC and buffer. Midrange is more laid back, less forward. Voices have a more natural "texture" to them. I'm a happy camper!

[ezkcdude]

That's nice to hear (pun intended).

[funkstar]

Nothing special really. Hooked up to a Pioneer surround reciever along with my DVD player, DVB-T set top box, and Ria Karma dock. This feeds a set of Sony bookshelf surround speakers. Not exactly audiophile, but it works for me.