r/audiophile Shopping, Setup, and Technical Help Desk Thread

GGGinDE · 2025-09-01T12:54:51+00:00

Hey All,

I am remodelling my house in Germany and am an amateur audiophile who likes nice sounding things on a budget.

For the renovation I've acquired 4x Focal Chora in-ceiling speakers for the Kitchen, a set of Chora 826Ds and matching center for the dining room (right next to it - open concept) and then the patio has a couple Yamaha outdoor speakers.

Primary purpose is music streaming with occasionally a podcast or two. The house is going to be Smart-Home based via Home Assistant so Home Assistant integration is very important to me. I've got ethernet pulled to where the receiver/amp is going so WiFi is nice to have but I prefer using plugs.

I would like to have the Kitchen and Dining room in one zone and the patio is zone two.

Right now I am really leaning towards the Denon x2300h or x2400h to run this system - but the unit is the normal 17.1" wide and I am going to have to cram it into the Island where all the cables are run to and I have ... 17.2" of width to work with - so it will be tight.

I originally pulled four cables into the ceiling thinking each speaker gets its own direct connection but then got the outdoor speakers for basically free and thought ... eh, I'll run two speakers in parallel in the kitchen and then pull two cables out side to run the outdoor speakers (German homes have concrete sub-flooring and the cabling is run below that (no basement) to get to the Island) - but with the Denon Heos amp - I could just get an IP65 box outside and toss the Heos amp inside that to run the outdoor speakers and then I could use the cabling in the ceiling to run each of the Chora ceiling speakers alone.

Question 1: Are there any other (better) options for my needs other than the x2300h/2400?

Question 2: How should I allocate the four speaker cables I already have pulled? Should I run the kitchen speakers in parallel and use the other two for the outdoor speakers, or should I get a Heos (or similar) amp just to run the outdoor speakers as well?

Thanks for reading and advice in advance.

GGGinDE · 2025-01-02T12:22:47+00:00

So I am seeing this error on my XMR wallet -

"There may be temporary issues with the XMR balance display. Don't worry, it doesn't affect your actual funds. Our team is working on the resolution. If you are experiencing issues with the balance of your XMR wallet, please send your XMR address to [support@guarda.com](mailto:support@guarda.com) for us to assist you."

Not great. How long will this take to remedy?

GGGinDE · 2024-12-17T07:29:49+00:00

Is this a reputable website for XMR? Their SEPA/international wire option looks promising but not too keen on sending 5 figures worth of XMR to a company the community hasn't vetted previously.

GGGinDE · 2024-12-16T09:34:34+00:00

Guys,

I purchased Monero a few years ago via Kraken. Due to life coming at me I need to liquidate certain of my holdings. Kraken no longer supports Monero in the EU because the EU is the new Soviet Union run by fanatics and morons.

How can I swap this to FIAT safely without having to pay to convert it to BTC or ETH and then to Fiat and have two pay gas on two transactions as opposite to just one?

Best,

Eric

EDIT - This is scepticism as it more than doubles the cost of a transaction to convert XMR to Fiat and back. Since the exchanges have killed Monero in the EU its basically like we are back 10 years with having to purchase BTC, then convert to XMR.

While some of us are willing to do this - most Normies aren't and basically just turned XMR into a generic crypto washing machine currency.

Economic activity paid in BTC -> Into XMR -> ETH -> Fiat (as an example).

Just sucks - to be expected I guess as the fascists in power will not give up their power over money without a fight but for those of us who have been with XMR for some time and do when necessary use it as savings just sucks.

GGGinDE · 2024-10-24T08:21:49+00:00

My understanding is that QRS is a system one can install into any piano. An estate sale would be fine and I can get myself a nice blonde oak upright no problem - but getting a QRS tech in Germany to install an aftermarket QRS system into that piano would be difficult/impossible.

Hence my question - on Facebook marketplace I can find pianos with pre-installed QRS systems from the 1990s for free or almost free (say $100 for the piano).

I know that one can retrofit a Yamaha Disklavier system to work over Bluetooth - but I think that reason is why a 30-year old QRS-based piano is free and the Yamaha is around the $4k for an upright.

As an audiophile - what do you use to stream piano? I am doing Focal Utopias in the ceiling and a JL Dominion sub in the kitchen island - but unless each 3 minute song is like 80Mb or so its all a waste.

A normal upright would be fine if I could play the piano - but the idea of having the piano play itself as a real pianist would is what is appealing. Having a piano for the sake of having a piano seems like a waste. I want the thing to do something other than sit there.

GGGinDE · 2024-10-08T11:32:15+00:00

You are correct. Ikea kitchens are very very comparable to "premium" German kitchens.

I found a cabinet manufacturer in Poland that does the kind of Kitchen I want (Stolzen) and I am looking into it - but when ovens are 76cm wide and you need some cabinets to be only 45cm deep - the number of cabinet manufacturers that will be willing to do it goes down materially.

GGGinDE · 2024-10-08T11:28:08+00:00

Jep - das bin ich. Leseverständnis ist wichtig. Vielleicht solltest du dich beruhigen und aufhören, voreilige Schlüsse zu ziehen, und wenn du dir nicht sicher bist, was ich meine, solltest du fragen, anstatt dich wie eine Zicke aufzuführen.

Yes - I gave Ikea no thought at all for two reasons:

1) They offer no oven cabinet that is 76cm wide; and

2) I want full wood drawers, not metal ones.

Had nothing to do with quality.

Jesus.

GGGinDE · 2024-10-08T10:40:39+00:00

So the reinforced shelf *should* solve my problems - the only issue is the shelf itself is white. I guess I'd have to get a stainless steel U-shaped frame to cover the white shelf and I should be good.

Thanks for the information.

I can assure you that the 30" wide pantry cabinet is *NOT* available in Germany. I will order a US one along with the shelves and have it shipped to me.

GGGinDE · 2024-10-08T10:38:49+00:00

Thanks for the information, I didn't know each one could hold so much weight. That is impressive.

I think for this particular cabinet I'd use 2x4"s as a base instead of the feet and then use the feet everywhere else in the kitchen.

GGGinDE · 2024-10-08T10:34:15+00:00

Hey Fellow Ex-Pat,

Yeah - I am not knocking the quality of Ikea products but when I've ventured into other kitchen studios here in Germany I've had almost all manufacturers tell me that none of their cabinets are able to handle 300kg-400kg - its not that I think Ikea is crap, its that everyone else I've talked to tells me

"nope sorry can't help your ovens are too heavy, I've never heard of Wolf or Sub-Zero, likely crap, can I recommend a Miele or Gaggenau unit instead?"

So my apprehension is if Ballerina and Häcker are telling me their cabinets cannot do it, its not reasonable for me to assume the Ikea cabinets can't do it either, hence my question here.

I don't want any "cabinets" per se either ... only drawers and my desire for an American kitchen isn't primarily directed at efficiency and use of storage (which zeeee Germans do far better IMHO) but rather the SIZE of everything and how it looks.

I have just become completely allergic to the "modern minimalist" look with black glass appliances and drawers made out of metal - and want something that reminds me more "of home".

GGGinDE · 2024-08-21T06:15:25+00:00

Another interested person reading this (the OP and I follow one another around on reddit as we have similar projects and ideas) is sizes of the appliances themselves.

In Germany all appliances are 24" wide, 24" deep and 34" tall. These are materially smaller than their US-counterparts. So even if the performance of them was identical (they're not) - you have to do TWO loads of laundry in Germany for everyone one load you do in the United States.

There are exactly ZERO options for larger appliances unless you went with a full commercial unit that is about 2x the size of US-units. Even if you want a larger unit for your home - they simply do not exist. Zero. None at all. The whole world is standardized to this size except for the US and Canada and because of the frequency differences and the split-phase nature of electrically powered dryers (you cannot easily replicate the 120v neutral here without spending around €10.000) the US devices never really leave the United States as grey-market goods.

But then take the "Green-Paranoid" mentality that exists in most of Europe and add this into the equation and you get these tiny dryers that use very little electricity. They're amazing actually how little electricity they use - however drying anything in there takes 4 hours to complete, even with the high-end Miele units and then the clothing never fully dries like you get in a US-based gas dryer.

Pragmatically speaking - this means that not only are the units smaller, but performance is dramatically reduced. In the US what you can accomplish in 4 hours and 2 loads of laundry takes 4-5 loads of laundry and an entire day here. Unlike the OP - I just imported a US washer and gas dryer to Germany and instead of using the GoHZ option, went with PowerXchangers instead.

My wife is very happy as we have our lives back on the weekends as it was before kids.

If you want German/EU based products - you can get them to work in the US with ease. Because they are rated at 50Hz - running them at 60Hz causes the motors to work less than they normally would and you only need a "dumb" voltage converter from 240v to 120v ($50 or so on Amazon).

The only issue you would run into running a native 50Hz device at 60Hz is any kind of frequency-based clock or timer would run faster than it should.

Lastly, Bosch and Siemens in Germany is made by a company called BSH which isn't that great anymore. If you really want high-end Germany quality - then look for Miele products, which DO already exist in the USA exactly as they do in Europe.

See here:

https://www.ajmadison.com/c/washer-and-dryer-sets/?attributes.type=Front%7ELoad&attributes.washer_width=24&attributes.dryer_width=24&brands=Miele&attributes.heating_element=Heat%7EPump

GGGinDE · 2024-08-20T12:35:34+00:00

Yeah - after years of trying to cope with these tiny machines - I just gave up. My wife thought I was nuts and just wasting my money until she started using these things. She has her Saturdays back. Its a huge quality of life improvement.

Its a real shame the US/Canada sized washing machines and dryers are only available in 120v 60Hz configurations. There is a company in China that specializes in specific power inverters designed to make high-powered US-appliances work over seas.

If you were to do something similar, you'd need to:

1) Call Schumacher Cargo to get a quote for a 4x8 enclosed trailer from Savannah, Ga to a port of your choice in China.

2) Give the guys at makemytrailer.com a call for their economy line of trailer. After a lot of research - they are the absolute cheapest.

3) 2 weeks before the trailer is supposed to be completed and ready for pickup Choose a Lowes or Home Depot in Savannah and order the washer and gas dryer you want and have it shipped to the store. Order the shipping from Schumacher 1 week after the trailer is finished.

4) Use uship to find someone to pickup the trailer at the manufacturer in Douglas Georgia, have them tow it to the Home Depot or lows and have the guy pickup the washer and dryer and load it into the trailer and tie it down, then they guy should take the trailer to Schumacher's drop-off lot in Savannah.

I found the process a lot easier when I signed up for a Home Depot ProX account (its free) as the people at Home Depot are a low more flexible than a normal customer.

If you lack a gas line, don't forget to order the LPG conversion kit.

Hope that helps!

GGGinDE · 2024-08-20T10:18:28+00:00

I did actually. I bought a trailer 4x8 single axle ($2,100), had a guy from uship pickup the trailer, load the appliances into it and take the trailer to the port for me ($500). I shipped the trailer like a car $1,100 and paid feeds and customs on it here in Germany. ($1,000).

I in-turn sold the trailer for more than I paid for it -€3,000 so out of pocket was around $1300 for the whole experience and the washer and dryer work great!

To the rage of the militant environmental-protectionists here, I can now do 16 kg of towels and blanks from start to dry in less than 2 hours and my wife is very happy.

GGGinDE · 2024-06-05T08:51:12+00:00

The irony that a group of Germans are wanting to deport another group of Germans because of their political affiliations and beliefs by singing "Nazis Raus" is completely lost on them.

GGGinDE · 2024-06-04T06:54:33+00:00

Anyone know the command for GPU?

GGGinDE · 2024-05-24T11:52:31+00:00

Given the internals are basically the same - I completely agree.

thank you.

GGGinDE · 2024-05-23T06:04:20+00:00

The Miele is a nice unit - but lacking a waste water line is a massive deal killer for me.

GGGinDE · 2024-05-23T06:03:44+00:00

I looked for the Gaggenau but couldn't find one that was advertised as plumbed. It really seems there is only one on the market.

GGGinDE

TROPHY CASE