Finally moved house.

Just enjoying music for the first time in about 2 weeks, just moved house and I have been painting / decorating, and the Hi-Fi was packed away.

Just beginning to put the Hi-Fi back together, still need to finish setup which is why you can see tape on the floor. Waiting for a rug to arrive etc, still nice to be able to enjoy a bit of music after not having the stereo for a while.

I was worried as to what the system will sound like with a lot of hard surfaces and wooden floor etc, until I had had a chance to treat some of the surfaces etc. I needn’t had worried.
I have to say this is the best my system has ever sounded, even though the setup is not complete. Having more room to play with is nice. Being able to get the speaker well away from the boundaries has really helped. The speakers are sitting 2.1M from the front wall, 2.3M apart and 1M from the sidewalls. I am sitting 2.5M away from the speakers.

 

absolutely AWESOME!!! Now I understand your switch to floorstanders, big room deserves big sound

and being able/allowed to run speaker cables across the room... WOW!!! I am full of envy! I will use this photo as a 'screensaver' for when listening to my own stereo

 

Haha, Jorge my girlfriend does like to listen to music with me. She did not say too much about the speakers being near the middle of the room and the cables, one thing she did say is yes it does sound better than in the old place.
Besides why spend all that money on a system if you are not going to place it in the best position to get the best sound out of it.

One of my friends came round and we spent hours moving and listening to get the speakers in the place they sounded best at. The sound dictated the position of the speakers, not the aesthetics.

 

Oh, the mysterious transformation of a 'girlfriend' into a 'loving wife': Magic awaits you!

I will get back there, into hi-end I mean, I promise! Whatever happens first: I find my mojo and have a stern talk with my wife... or/if she kicks me out I will have my freedom of choosing my toys. For now I will watch this thread and keep on dreaming...

 

Jorge I am never getting married, I like things the way they are. Why ruin a good thing.

 

Mister X, I am looking for a nice big plant to put on the right-hand side of the fireplace.

My friend and I spent hours moving the speakers back and forth, left and right and toeing in and out to get the best sound. The only fancy tools we used are the ultimate, primitive ones our ears.

 

if there is one thing folks at Naim Audio chatroom agree upon it's that a few drops of Scotch improve Sound Quality quite dramatically My own experience is that 'more than a few drops' transforms even a boombox into a hi-end machine...

and that is why @TooCooL4 is absolutely correct: you should NOT put a bar behind the speakers, there must be a clear straight line between yourself and the good stuff

 

Yes, I am drinking a nice glass of whiskey now as I listen.

 

Spent a bit more time dialling in the system. I now have a rug between me and the speakers. Changed out the feet that came with the speaker to my normal Symposium Rollerblock Jr’s.
I also added some GIK acoustic panels I had from my previous room. I will live with this arrangement for a while and see how I feel, before I change anything else around.

The room / rest of the house is still working in progress, since I am back at work, I only have evenings and weekends to work in the house. I don’t always want to do any work after a day’s work and some weekends I want to do something else.

Couple of pictures from my sitting position and from the speaker position.

 

I am really enjoying my music more. I am re-discovering my music; it’s amazing that the only thing that has changed is the room but it sounds like a much better system. I have always maintained the room is a good 50% of what you hear.

 

i'm jealous. wish i had a music room. volume 11.
tja, headphones for me.
nice CD collection...
in this room, perhaps mbl 101...
or just neumann 420 or tad 2401 or jbl 4345 or or.
great room for everything, how to get nutss

do you believe in expensive cables???
mogami ic and belden speaker cables for me.

 

19lexicon78, I don’t believe in expensive cables but I do believe in cables. Cable do make a difference, but not as much as getting better equipment in the first place.
I do use fairly expensive cables, but only mainly because I use Spectral Audio amps. Spectral Audio mandates the use of Spectral / MIT cables else warrantee will be void.
The cable I use is the Spectral Audio MH-770 Ultralinear II, it was £3600 at the time for a 3-meter pair now you are looking at over £10000 for a top of the range cable. I also bought the top of the range interconnect Spectral Audio MI-350 Ultralinear II £1600 to put between the Pre & Power, I did not need to get the interconnect as it was not mandated but I was already in so why not.
Do I think they are work the money, the answer would be a resounding no. In honesty the money would have been better of spent on next tier up of Spectral electronics.

 

Added a couple of plants to my room, but they are looking a bit lonely. I may have to add more.

 

toocool
i agree, cables do make a difference. but to my surprise it's not the expensive cables to have better sound. of course you have to listen to them, to really know your preferences.

have cardas golden reference 1000 usd/m. prefer and use the mogami 2549/neutrik made by WBC/amazon, for TT use mogami 2534 gives a umph in sound which vinyl needs. mogami sound is more natural/clean than cardas golden ref.
love the sound of the belden 5T00UP 10 awg speaker cable 2.25 usd/ft at blue jeans.
those cables in combo with chinese dac/amp best buy ever. never thought transparent sound would be this cheap. these days, instead spending $$$ cables/amp/dac, i'm buying alot of cd's 2nd hand or new cd-box.

 

Mister X, yes bonsai trees look cool. I wouldn’t mind having some, but I hear they are notoriously difficult to keep alive, don’t know if that is true or not.

 

19lexicon78 I remember when I was looking for a new cable for my turntable, I tried Cardas golden reference and Furutech AG-12. I preferred the sound signature of the Furutech and it was way cheaper than the Cardas. I think at the time the Cardas was around £900 for a 1-meter length and the Frurutech was about £400.

I don’t think I will change my cables again now, currently happy with what I have. In fact I don’t want to do anymore tweaks on my system for now, I feel the money is better spent on room treatment. Room treatment will be by far a better improvement.
Good room treatment is not cheap, I am looking at Acoustic Fields for a solution. Not sure when that will happen, as I have only just moved into the house and I have far more pressing things that needs to be done first. I will just have to make do with what I have at the moment.

 

toocool
i wouldn't change either, your setup is complete.
time for music, lots of music..

 

Thanks 19lexicon78, a treated room will allow the system to really show what it's capable off.