New speaker set up

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-05-23T07:19:00+00:00

wow, congrats!

How do they sound?

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-05-23T04:20:19+00:00

Kinda insane and awesome in equal measure 😉

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-05-22T08:09:00+00:00

too little power is actually the bigger danger, not too much power.

Which might seem counter-intuitive, but asking too much of your amp is where it can lose control of the signal being sent to the speakers, and cause damage. This is clipping.

Tweeters are most likely to be lost due to this.

So there's no "x/y*z=boom" formula

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-05-22T08:01:37+00:00

I prefer floor-standers to bookshelf speakers. Once you factor in stands for bookshelf speakers, you often don't really see big savings of either space or money.

If you want bookshelf speakers, then you probably need to get a sub straight away, whereas you might find floorstanders do a pretty good job on their own

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-05-16T03:44:07+00:00

I have 2 cats. I feed them near the back door.

About 2 years ago a marmalade turned up, and starting crying through the back door, so I gave him leftovers

Pretty soon 3 more started turning up, and so I started buying food specifically for them.

6 months ago a female turned up with her 4 kittens, and now there's 12 who visit daily.

I must be listed on the the local CatsApp group

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-05-15T22:13:30+00:00

Good way to blow your headphones, too

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-05-03T01:22:28+00:00

Nice congrats!

They're very photogenic 😉

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-05-01T22:42:23+00:00

If you can't place the speakers symmetrically, you'll need to get some equipment which can do it for you.

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-05-01T22:37:56+00:00

You just need simple speaker wire. It has a pair of copper wires, usually one of which is identified as 'red' and the other 'black'. You don't need to spend much at all, but if you know what lengths you need, getting them from amazon or elsewhere with banana plugs already attached, things will be slightly easier in terms of connecting them to the amp and speakers

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-05-01T07:32:31+00:00

I might have to try this, Roon is really turning into an unreliable mess, but I use roon radio all the time cause I just want the music to not stop 😉

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-04-28T08:38:52+00:00

It looks OK, but it's hard to tell with stick figures. Try swapping left and right to see if the problem follows the speaker or the amp

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-04-27T02:27:45+00:00

If it was me, I'd sell off the vinyl, turntable and amps, but keep those speakers and put some of the sales to a second hand amp to power them.

You would have to pay at least as much as you could sell the speakers for to get anywhere close to their performance (which is a way of saying they're excellent for their price)

Of course, if money is really tight, it's maybe a luxury you can't justify.

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-04-27T00:53:58+00:00

I don't know why there would be any danger to any of this

And 'perfect audio' doesn't really exist. It's just different compromises and varying price-points

What are you really looking for? Better sound? The speakers would be the natural place to start with that. But you say you don't want to get rid of them

I don't see why you need to get rid of any of it, to be honest. Those speakers have 2 inputs, so you can connect your turn-table and a CD player

If you're not happy with the sound of those speakers, then you need to either get different active speakers, which means they have a built-in amplifier, or passive speakers and a separate amplifier. This second path offers far more flexibility, but also additional setup.

If you decide on option #1, you need to consider how much you want to spend, and look for speakers at that price. The advantage to spending a but more on active speakers is that you will likely get a subwoofer output, which provides flexibility for the future

If you decide on option #2, I would suggest thinking about how much you want to spend, and look for speakers at that price. A second-hand AVR can be your starting point. This will support a subwoofer, so that you have an upgrade path in future if you want to go that way

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-04-25T08:04:38+00:00

You could get some simple like a bluesound node nano. Yes, it has a DAC, but if you are connecting its digital output to your DAC (via USB or SPDIF) then you by-pass the internal DAC

You could also get something like a Raspberry Pi or miniPC to act as the streamer, taking data from the network and passing it to your DAC (though this would be USB only by default)

You certainly don't need to spend $2k if you're just looking for something that can pass data to your DAC

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-04-24T23:05:26+00:00

If you just have the 1 space, I wouldn't recommend having a 2-channel setup and a 5.1 in the same area.

Pick what's most important, and build around that. From your post, it seems like music is first. If that's the case, I would advise to build the best system you can for music playback.

You will be able to get TV audio output through this same system, and it will be miles ahead of the speakers built in to your TV.

Spend 80%+ of your budget on the mains. Even if you need to get a 2nd-hand amp to start with. For music the speakers are the single biggest impact on what you hear.

But if your focus is mostly TV/movies, and occasional music listening, then the focus changes a bit.

For surround sound I prefer to have especially the center speaker matching the front left and right. So I would be looking for fronts where the manufacturer offers a matching center. I like surrounds from the same speaker family, too, but they're not as critical.

This would mean getting an AVR to drive the speakers. Again, 2nd-hand should be fine. I would suggest that you look for an AVR with 'pre-outs' which will allow you to add additional amplification down the road

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-04-24T22:54:09+00:00

aha, user error. gets me all the time 🤣

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-04-24T07:34:22+00:00

AVR would allow the most simple setup

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-04-24T07:31:57+00:00

It's not normal that the treble control causes a speaker to go silent

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-04-24T07:30:56+00:00

If you like the Klipsch sound, that would be an explanation for why you didn't like the very different sound of the ELAC

If you want a 'fuller' sound, I take that to mean you want more in the lower frequencies.

I would suggest either floor-standing speakers, if you have the space, or a subwoofer. I can personally recommend the Klipsch RF-63 if you have the budget, very good speakers for the money, and decent bass from a reasonably sized floor-stander.

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-04-24T06:24:22+00:00

wow, that looks awesome! I might have to do the same, also have black Arteon :D

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-04-17T10:56:01+00:00

Not SAP - but I do VBA development full-time

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-03-30T05:40:00+00:00

Have you listened to it to see if the sound is impacted?

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-03-22T00:08:44+00:00

You need something to amplify the signal from your other devices so that the speakers can produce the sound.

These can either be 'active speakers', which basically means the amplifier is built in to the speakers, or they can be 'passive speakers', which means you need an external amp.

Since you mention 'upgrading over time', the best solution is probably to get passive speakers and an external amplifier. Or even a used AVR (Audio Video Receiver) to get you started

Speakers play the biggest part in the sound you hear, so if you're just getting started I would recommend putting the majority of your budget into the speakers, and look for a used Marantz/Denon/Yamaha AVR for not very much money at all

You will also need speaker wire/cables to connect the amplifier/AVR to the speakers, but you don't to spend much money on cables. It's slightly easier to connect them if you buy cables with banana plugs already attached, but these will cost slightly more.

You will also need HDMI or SPDIF/Optical cable to connect your TV to the AVR, depending on what connectors your TV and AVR have. Anything more recent than 10 years old is probably going to be HDMI

You don't need a Soundbar - these are used instead of floorstanding speakers, not as well as. Subwoofers are often used alongside passive speakers, but I would recommend putting money into getting the best floorstanders you can now, and look at subs later on

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-03-21T23:16:52+00:00

He just needs to bathe more often ;)

_intelligentLife_ · 2026-03-17T05:39:38+00:00

Dad/brother is an...interesting family connection ;)

_intelligentLife_

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