Added a DAC to a cheap CD player - and got a result
 

Got my SP/DIF opticlal lead today - 3M for only a fiver incl. delivery (20% off for chrimbo!)

I have to say... WOW.

I know theres some 'novelty factor' involved but its so small as to be insignificant - the difference is night and day!

Funny how you can get used to a sound and not realise what you are missing. Even using my crummy Rotel receiver with all-but-dried-up caps, my setup is just utterly changed.

The bass is 'punchier', and the treble actually exists! what a difference - now I need to replace all those 128kbit mp3s with 'sssssylablessss that have sssssesss in them'...

The midrange seems crisp and even too - how festive of it.

Oh yeah, and I can discern no difference whatsoever when I press the 'phase' button save for a brief faint click ;-)

I give the Arcam Delta Black Box 3 an A+ rating - clearly my best audio purchase this year, and I shall be keeping an eye out for other arcam bits, it was pretty nicely built, I thought.

I still dont know what the aux outputs are for, but my nforce2 seems unwilling to output 4 channels, so I guess I will never know ;-)

Orinoco flow sounds incredible - the bass is 'right up close and personal', and the treble gives a lovely image.

Oh yeah... and Quake3 sounds rather nice too ;-)

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

Added a DAC to a cheap CD player - and got a result
 

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 08:58:10 +0000 (UTC)
(Stewart Pinkerton) wrote:

partnered by the 'killer' sub I'm building.

I had a nice idea for a sub... Many UK houses have chimneys... with
suitable blocking off and a clean, it'd make a very interesting bas
cabinet...

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with
ketchup.

Added a DAC to a cheap CD player - and got a result
 

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 08:58:10 +0000 (UTC)
(Stewart Pinkerton) wrote:

partnered by the 'killer' sub I'm building.

I had a nice idea for a sub... Many UK houses have chimneys... with
suitable blocking off and a clean, it'd make a very interesting bas
cabinet...

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with
ketchup.

Added a DAC to a cheap CD player - and got a result
 

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 16:29:29 +0000, Ian Molton wrote:

I still dont know what the aux outputs are for,

Probably just duplicates of the main outs because the BB is a 2
channel device.

Kal

Added a DAC to a cheap CD player - and got a result
 

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 16:29:29 +0000, Ian Molton wrote:

I still dont know what the aux outputs are for,

Probably just duplicates of the main outs because the BB is a 2
channel device.

Kal

Added a DAC to a cheap CD player - and got a result
 

In article , Wally
wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:

You will see various recipies for this. My own experience is that it
is very variable. Generally good to have speakers away from walls, and
the listening position away from walls. For good stereo, a more
symmetric arrangement can be desirable. Beyond that, it all becomes
dependent upon things like the directional behaviour of the speakers,
effects of room furnishings, etc. The best advice I can give is the
obvious, "be prepared to experiment". :-)

Which is a bit of a pain with the big boxes.

And with ESL63's on spiked stands! :-)

In general, firing along the longer dimension tends to give more scope
for having space behind the listening position. However factors like
the above and how the speaker's resonances relate to those of the room
have an effect.

Having just demonstrated to myself that there's a dip in the low bass, I
feel that I need to address that before I look at the room.

Did you make the measurements out-of-doors to avoid overlaying room
effects?


The good thing about clutter behind an ESL is that it helps to break
up the reflection from the rear radiation. ;-

Piles of cushions? :-)

In our case it is currently things like flowerpot stands with large plants,
a workbox for needlework, and a subwoofer. The plants seem quite good as
combined decorations and primary room-mode dissipators. ;-

I have to lay on the floor to adjust the sub, but fortunately it seems to
be approaching 'about right' now so this should cease as an activity quite
soon! :-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

Added a DAC to a cheap CD player - and got a result
 

In article , Wally
wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:

You will see various recipies for this. My own experience is that it
is very variable. Generally good to have speakers away from walls, and
the listening position away from walls. For good stereo, a more
symmetric arrangement can be desirable. Beyond that, it all becomes
dependent upon things like the directional behaviour of the speakers,
effects of room furnishings, etc. The best advice I can give is the
obvious, "be prepared to experiment". :-)

Which is a bit of a pain with the big boxes.

And with ESL63's on spiked stands! :-)

In general, firing along the longer dimension tends to give more scope
for having space behind the listening position. However factors like
the above and how the speaker's resonances relate to those of the room
have an effect.

Having just demonstrated to myself that there's a dip in the low bass, I
feel that I need to address that before I look at the room.

Did you make the measurements out-of-doors to avoid overlaying room
effects?


The good thing about clutter behind an ESL is that it helps to break
up the reflection from the rear radiation. ;-

Piles of cushions? :-)

In our case it is currently things like flowerpot stands with large plants,
a workbox for needlework, and a subwoofer. The plants seem quite good as
combined decorations and primary room-mode dissipators. ;-

I have to lay on the floor to adjust the sub, but fortunately it seems to
be approaching 'about right' now so this should cease as an activity quite
soon! :-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

Added a DAC to a cheap CD player - and got a result
 

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 10:30:25 -0500, Kalman Rubinson
wrote:

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 10:15:20 +0000 (UTC),
(Stewart Pinkerton) wrote:

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 09:12:56 +0000, Glenn Booth
wrote:

I tried to find Maggies in the UK a while back, and couldn't find a
distributor. If anyone knows of an importer, I'd be really interested.
My last quest for speakers drew a blank; I guess I'm looking for planar
type sound without the required ESL budget (or space for that matter).

Sorry, but it's simply not possible to achieve the sound of a large
planar speaker without using a large planar speaker in a large room.
Perhaps there should be a 'duh' in there somewhere..... :-)

Certainly for stereo or for the front channels in MCH. OTOH, the
smaller Maggies (MGMC1?) are bracket-mounted and gain front the
boundary proximity. With the right wall setting, they go down to
nearly 80Hz and occupy no floor space at all. I am using them now as
rear channels with more conventional speakers up front but I would
think they might be a dandy complement to bigger dipoles up front.

Such an arrangement *can* be made to work if your speakers have
particular characteristics - such as a ribbon tweeter down one edge
(see my page on http://www.apah69.dsl.pipex.com/ for an example), but
this doesn't work with the Quads or the Martin-Logans. OTOH, the M-L
Stylos was specifically designed to function in a wall-bracket
situation. OTGH, M-L never did properly solve the problem of the
centre channel in a video context.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering

Added a DAC to a cheap CD player - and got a result
 

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 10:30:25 -0500, Kalman Rubinson
wrote:

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 10:15:20 +0000 (UTC),
(Stewart Pinkerton) wrote:

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 09:12:56 +0000, Glenn Booth
wrote:

I tried to find Maggies in the UK a while back, and couldn't find a
distributor. If anyone knows of an importer, I'd be really interested.
My last quest for speakers drew a blank; I guess I'm looking for planar
type sound without the required ESL budget (or space for that matter).

Sorry, but it's simply not possible to achieve the sound of a large
planar speaker without using a large planar speaker in a large room.
Perhaps there should be a 'duh' in there somewhere..... :-)

Certainly for stereo or for the front channels in MCH. OTOH, the
smaller Maggies (MGMC1?) are bracket-mounted and gain front the
boundary proximity. With the right wall setting, they go down to
nearly 80Hz and occupy no floor space at all. I am using them now as
rear channels with more conventional speakers up front but I would
think they might be a dandy complement to bigger dipoles up front.

Such an arrangement *can* be made to work if your speakers have
particular characteristics - such as a ribbon tweeter down one edge
(see my page on http://www.apah69.dsl.pipex.com/ for an example), but
this doesn't work with the Quads or the Martin-Logans. OTOH, the M-L
Stylos was specifically designed to function in a wall-bracket
situation. OTGH, M-L never did properly solve the problem of the
centre channel in a video context.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering

Added a DAC to a cheap CD player - and got a result
 

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 18:20:53 +0000 (UTC),
(Stewart Pinkerton) wrote:

Such an arrangement *can* be made to work if your speakers have
particular characteristics - such as a ribbon tweeter down one edge
(see my page on http://www.apah69.dsl.pipex.com/ for an example), but
this doesn't work with the Quads or the Martin-Logans.

That is exactly the design of the Maggies. Also facilitates
adjustment for listening position nicely.

OTOH, the M-L
Stylos was specifically designed to function in a wall-bracket
situation. OTGH, M-L never did properly solve the problem of the
centre channel in a video context.

Maggie has a horizontal device for that, too, the CC3 but I am less
enthusiastic about that one for real high-end work.

Kal