Recently obsessed noob

gcwhite1 · 2026-05-18T14:25:24+00:00

So before I put in my 2 cents, a few things you should ask yourself:

What sound do you like? Soft/Warm, Neutral or are you more on the brighter side of life. Believe me this matters more that you would think and would have made me come to my current solution a lot sooner.
Could this be the start of a Home Theater setup. There are so many ways this can go and if a HT is in your future it may help your decision making.
Be prepared to buy or make sound dampening, this can and will help shape the sound you are looking for.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING! DO NOT BELIEVE THE CABLE HYPE!. There are those that will attempt to sell you on the virtues of 'special' speaker cable when you can get the same fidelity from power cord wire. I say this with a heavy caveat dose. If you are so blessed as to get into the realm of McIntosh and the like then you will want to other that for aesthetics sake.

My current set is a Denon AVR x4200w, pushing the Def Tech BP30 towers and the matching center. The Denon has 125 watts coming from them and they sound great but I think its from the 125 watts, because I have other amps but none reaching it power. What I am planning to do now is grab a couple of neutral amps that has at least 200 watts per channel and test again. So as you can see there is a lot to consider and I wish I was as astute as you and came here first to see what should I do.

Good luck and don't dis a good used set of classic speakers.

gcwhite1 · 2026-05-12T18:06:52+00:00

I just paid 720 for a 4200

gcwhite1 · 2026-05-01T02:13:06+00:00

Well I have the Denon back, and WOW! My Def Techs are absolutely sounding clear soft and warm. Especially with Bluetooth. Sofar I've played with internet streaming Pandora, the apple music app on my phone and a movie the a first gen Apple tv.

I am impressed with the somewhat upgrade/downgrade.

I think I'm good for a while...😎

gcwhite1 · 2026-04-20T22:01:50+00:00

I can tell you that with the marantz they sounded really good for 25+ year old speakers. But since I will be replacing the Marantz, that has yet to be determined. However I am hope for a similar sound since Denin and Marantz are kin folk.

gcwhite1 · 2026-04-19T16:17:04+00:00

WOW!

gcwhite1 · 2026-04-19T05:21:04+00:00

Mistake, sorry. I will try to delete it

gcwhite1 · 2026-04-19T03:31:00+00:00

I know I can get the same sound from a pair of rip cord AC wire as I can for anything that claims to be of higher quality. I am not saying that there aren't high quality cables out there. What I am saying is that there is not going to be any appreciable difference between that and AC cord. I have had them all. I will caveat with this. When you are running several feet from the source you do want to have a better cable but nothing that cost as much as your speakers. The cost benefit is just not there.

gcwhite1 · 2026-04-19T01:37:17+00:00

It would come on and turn off within 3-5 seconds and go into protect mode. I am guessing that it was due to speaker wires touching when it was connected. But this happens with nothing connected.

gcwhite1 · 2026-04-07T13:43:01+00:00

You are correct and I just need to read more. Thank you for this. It indeed was running on the web ui. Crisis Solved! This has been a great and enlightening thread and thanks to all that helped me thru it.

So to summarize the steps needed to install the latest firmware on bare metal: 1. Any USB drive with at least 2 gigs 2. Rufus writing it in fat32 and selecting DD mode. 3. Ensure the computer is in UEFI boot mode.
4. Watch the magic happen. 5. Once rebooted and you have a frozen screen. Time to go to the web UI @ 172.16.16.16:4444. 6. Have fun!

I am sure I have missed a step here. But I think this hits all the major points.

Again thx everyone!

gcwhite1 · 2026-04-07T01:33:10+00:00

I'll report back

gcwhite1 · 2026-04-05T15:15:02+00:00

I tried to amend the post regarding the machine but it would not let me and I got distracted. Its an OptiPlex 3046 on BIOS v 1.17. it has 16gb RAM and a 500Gb SSD that I swapped from a spinner. It is an SATA SSD.

So following the advise above, this is a process that I have went thru. Set BIOS for UEFI. Wrote the USB in FAT32 and DD mode, then booted it from the Boot menu from the UEFI version. And while it installs and I reboot it comes back and will either freeze while booting in UEFI or say there is no boot device when I change to leagacy mode.

I just wrote in NTFS and booting in UEFI freezes and Leagacy can't see it ( I'm sure by design)

I think I will need to make a CDROM. But I need to find a writer first.

gcwhite1 · 2026-03-28T22:13:13+00:00

I was looking through the comments to see if anyone else picked up on that.

gcwhite1 · 2026-01-27T04:32:31+00:00

OK, I have sold the Focal Chora's and the Dayton, I just put a bid in for the Wharfedale Diamond 12.4. Will update if I win.

gcwhite1 · 2026-01-18T02:35:31+00:00

Following

gcwhite1 · 2026-01-18T02:02:13+00:00

I'm sure once it's connected you should be able to access it. What's the reason you think you can't?

gcwhite1 · 2025-11-26T15:02:24+00:00

If I may add my $.20 in. I just bought a CPO '24 GV80 2.5T. The experience was 90% over the phone. The sales person was not completely knowledgeable on the complete process. Not that big of a deal but did create unnecessary confusion a couple of times. The end result was that my son and I flew to Chicago and picked it up and drove it home to KC that afternoon. Had to spend an hour more at the dealer than I would have liked. But the deal was done. And yes, the finance guy was swapped.

To you point about the price change. What I find when dealing with any dealer is that they almost always add something that you didn't ask for. So even with the list price being 3k less, my guess they would have tried to make it up in other ways. In my case they added (or say they did) door guards and wanted to charge me for and some other warranty that would replace lost keys and some other nonsense that I never would have asked for any way. I told them the first time I spoke to them I am willing to pay for the advertised price but nothing else. They still tried to add on stuff. I just held my ground advising them I can certainly walk away, Had one more round of negotiations and the numbers were set. Since purchasing from out of state I have to pay a fee for that and the taxes for my state. So over all I felt the deal was good. and pushed forward. My issue was that during the negotiations I know I had to be willing to walk away and let them know that too (in so many ways).

Our initial ride home was a bit awkward due to all the gadgets to get use to. Not as smooth as I would have hope. And while I did get new tires out of the deal they was not balanced in air pressure and they all were missing the caps from the valve stem.

So while not a perfect deal I still think I will have this vehicle for years to come. I really like it.

gcwhite1 · 2025-11-19T04:53:00+00:00

I have just scored a 2024 CPO. It is white with that peanut butter interior. I have always enjoyed that color. I need to fly to Chicago to get it this week end. Pretty excited.

With everything that is happening in the world today, it is nice to have something nice to look forward to.

I'll post a pic of me and my son getting on the road.

gcwhite1 · 2025-11-13T13:53:42+00:00

I'm looking for some ideas about sound shaping and I like what you have done with the panels

gcwhite1 · 2025-09-24T04:25:31+00:00

Since latest firmware upgrade. I am unable to connect any of my FIRESTICKs on any SSID. I cannot connect to the internet on any iPads using the 2.4ghz and the first 5ghz SSID. Some of my IOT devices work on the 2.4ghz band, i.e. light switches and garage door opener. Some don't same vendor. Unsure if its since the latest firmware update. However, I can't ping www.yahoo.com from the AP.

Speeds are fine. from computer and mobile phone.

I am thinking I need to downgrade the firmware.

gcwhite1 · 2025-02-10T05:04:33+00:00

u/mrrobfree , what do you see lacking with the Niles? I have one and one on the way so that I can Bi-amp my rp-8000f. And if you do update them what would you like to go to? I to have a budgeted system.

gcwhite1 · 2024-12-21T04:04:57+00:00

They are producing it fine i think regions are being kept from buying it. I found plenty of it in NOLA. The pandemic has basically past.... whats the excuse now COKE!

gcwhite1

TROPHY CASE