General Speaker Advice and Recommendations

You might not need crossover upgrades as the older stuff use quality components that might still be in spec. It's the 80s and 90s era Klipsch stuff that normally automatically needs crossover updating. Khorns are pretty impressive if you have the corners for them.

 

https://allo.com/sparky/volt-plus-d-amp.html

beats out my topping tp-20. not surprising since it use the newish tpa 3116 chip with all the mods built in for

 

I recently moved back to my apartment after a 5 month renovation. Last night I finally got around to setting up my KEF floorstanding speakers. These are going to be replaced soon with bookshelf speakers since when my new living room furniture arrives I would have to place floorstanding speakers too far apart. But in the interim I wanted to get these going as I have another few weeks before that entertainment unit comes.

I wired up the speakers to my old Marantz AVR (which will also soon be replaced) and hooked up a Sonos connect box as a source to that. I just wanted to get that up and running and was then going to add in my DAC between the Sonos and the amp. After the setup I was only able to get faint sound out of either speaker and only if the amp was cranked to top level. I tried recabling several times to no avail. This setup had been fine just a few weeks ago when we were in our sublet and I do not think there was any damage in transit.

Two things are different though. In setting up everything in my new apartment I ran out of ethernet inputs into my router. I bought a switch but had not set it up yet so set up the Sonos wirelessly rather than plugging directly into the router as I would typically do.Also, last week when I tried to plug the optical cable from my TV into the Marantz AVR I somehow managed to damage the optical input on the AVR which now cannot be used. However, I was simply plugging in RCA cables to the analog in so would not expect any damage to the optical input to affect anything (but who knows).

Again, all this equipment is being replaced in short order. Still, I am curious as to what the issue might be and would love to get music going for the next couple weeks. If the amp was blown I would expect to get no sound. And if there was an issue with using Sonos wirelessly I would expect dropouts rather than low volume. And if a cabling issue to the speaker I might expect one speaker working well and the other having issues, but here both were identically bad in terms of negligible volume. I will try to hard wire the Sonos box tonight, but any thoughts or recommendations are appreciated.

 

This is typical when the AVR is set to the 'wrong' input. With the amp cranked you here bleed over from the non-selected input, in this case wherever your Sonos is. Try cycling through all the inputs and\or zones on the Marantz.

 

thanks. Good idea. I tried cycling through inputs of course, but maybe I did not give each one enough time before moving on. Will try again and let you know if that worked.

 

Overnight Sensations vs SB Acoustics Micro the application is about 70 dB from an integrated amp rated 20 amps into 8 OHMs and 40 into 4 OHMs. While I am enjoying the Fostex Horns I feel the need to try a few others. I have been listening to Cowboy Junkies "All that Reckoning" album some mornings on the Fostexes. I made the mistake of listening on the main system and heard what I had been missing.

EDIT: Cancel advice request! I had a brainstorm and it worked out. Details in another post.

 

Could use some advice on room treatments. My home theater room is almost finished which is where my 2 channel music setup will also be going. Very spartan looking but I still need more furniture and stuff to go in once the molding is finished.

The room is (in feet) 18 L x 13.5 W x 7.5 H. About 10 feet into the length of the room there is a gentle slope where the ceiling is 6.5 H to almost the back wall. My listening position is about at 10 feet.

I can probably build some panels for cheap myself, but I'm open to suggestions.

Please excuse the potato pics, still a work in progress:



Klipsch Heresy III speakers. May upgrade to a pair of Fortes this year, we will see how well a sub integrates with my Heresy's.

 

@Mystic, I’d recommend reaching out to GiK and utilizing their free advice service: https://www.gikacoustics.com/acoustic-advice/. Think they run the room through their modeling software to come up with recommendations that fit the budget. I’m sure they can suggest a mix of products that will work (likely broadband absorption at first side reflections, diffusion on back wall, and bass trapping in corners). I’d also look into getting a thick felt rug pad under the rug if you don’t have one already.

Room looks great!!

 

Black casting couch? I see you're a man of culture as well...

 

Thanks! I'll check them out. Going to be getting a larger and thicker rug too, something that better matches the room than brown.

Oh god. My couch is actually a light grey fabric though. Camera and lighting makes it look darker.

 

Hi, I'm looking for advice on a very space constrained desktop setup. My idea from research so far is Allo Volt+D amp with a pair of small speakers. I'm considering the Focal Sib satellite speakers or DIY passive aggressive mini speaker from parts express. Any opinion or recommendations for speakers would be appreciated. I'd like to spend around $200 USD or less on speakers.

 

@amill

I went the amp and passive route for years and it worked well. Problem is the speakers were fairly large and the cost for decent ones and and amp was a bit too much for a setup that is going to lack bass regardless. So I moved to powered speakers and a nice little dac and could not be happier. Still bass constrained of course but way smaller footprint.

It works great for listening to Tidal to discover new music or to watch youtube vids and the like. My whole setup set me back $200 total and works as well as the fancier $900 + setup I had years ago

What do I use: Khadas Tone Board and Fostex PMO.4d

 

Overnight Sensations are a classic and still relevant recommendation for small bookshelf speakers. Using anything smaller will really limit the range you can reasonably get out of them.

 

Thank you for the recommendations. I see the Overnight Sensations coming up quite a lot. The distributors I saw are back-ordered (assuming from covid) but I will finally build a speaker kit when I can get one. Also heard great things about the Khadas Tone Board. My desk space is so cramped I am using a headphone setup for better range listening and trying to squeeze even small speakers on the desk. If the satellite speakers are a waste of effort I could buy some cheapo amazon basics to watch/listen with others since it's nice to have speakers.Then get better speakers when I have more space. I'll think more on it.

 

Remembered that this has been discussed a bit a few places. Maybe the below links could work as starting points.

Acoustic treatments is another rabbit hole. You can dive very deep, and use a lot of effort and money to learn it yourself, or hire a professional and use somewhat more money. Maybe the thing to remember is not to overdo it. Unless you enjoy the process itself and want to keep tinkering (ike I did... until I was at my wits end and called it a day).

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/acoustic-treatment-soundproofing.1359/

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...purpose-advice-thread.19/page-241#post-152718

 

To give quick starting point, copying from one of my posts in the above thread:

I liked these Room acoustics 101s. Short, enough information and maths for an amateur like me to get it mostly right, and links to further details.

http://arqen.com/acoustics-101/room-setup-speaker-placement/
http://arqen.com/acoustics-101/room-setup-acoustic-treatment/
http://arqen.com/bass-traps-101/placement-guide/

I think this is a good list of topics to go through, lifted from the above sources:

"Step 1: Listening Position
Step 2: Listening Distance
Step 3: Speaker Layout and Height
Step 4: Speaker Distance to Front and Rear Wall
Step 5: Apply Acoustic Treatment
Step 6: Optimization Using Acoustic Measurements
Step 7: Rock ‘n’ Roll!"

 

very good suggestion. that arquen site is very decent actually, mirroring all the advice ive received from "pro's" over at gearslutz.
step 1 and 2 is primordial. acoustic treatment cannot replace bad speaker/LP placement

 

Can anyone talk me out of buying a pair of Revel M106 standmount speakers? There are now a couple 50% off deals available, which I think is quite an attractive offer. I was previously seriously contemplating on Dynaudio Evokes (10 or even the smaller floorstanding model, 30), but no good deals available for those.

My living room is quite compact, the speakers will be placed approximately 2 meters from each other and pretty close to the back wall (not a concrete one, but a drywall). Dynaudios and apparently also Revels are known to have quite hefty bass output, which will probably require using the provided port plugs.

EDIT: Will be playing them with Rega Elex-R integrated amp. It isn't the most powerful amp ever made with 72,5/90/113 W output power (8/6/4ohms respectively), but upgrading the amp too is not out of the question. Will likely place the Bifrost 2 I ordered yesterday into this setup, but will see.

 

Have you heard the speakers? I didn’t much like the Revel F228 Be or the non-Be-tweeter equivalent when I demoed them. Kind of a boring sound, but not in the useful, reference kind of way. Revel is also owned by Harmon Kardon and I’ve been told by someone working at a dealer selling them that the markups are ridiculous.

See if you can find any Focal Electra 1008 Be on closeout? If you’re close to the wall, perhaps Aerial 5T could work for you, being front-ported. Could also checkout @rlow’s thread for other ideas. I would try to hear before you buy though.

 

Unfortunately no - Revel is completely new acquaintance for me, Iv'e never heard them. I've read many positive things though. The nearest dealer is half a day's journeys away, which is too inconvenient at this moment. I guess I thought being able to buy them 50% off would render them having at least adequate price/performance ratio. The final price for these would be 1200€(ish) for a pair.

I am not opposed to neutral, or studio neutral sounding speakers. But you describing them as having a boring kind of sound is a bit of a bummer. Do you remember what kind of electronics were used to drive them?

I've been actually eyeing the exact Focal models too, but unfortunately no closeout deals available for them. Also, the owners of preowned units are also a bit hesitant to ship them internationally. I still have to say, I much prefer the appeareance of the Focal's over the Revels, but damn are they also more expensive! Considering the space I've got available for them though they might just be a little too bulky.

The Aerial 5T is a completely new acquaintance too, haven't even read anything about them. They also seem to be more expensive than the Revels... Not completely opposed spending more money, but it also seems there hardly is any deals for these.