The $3K all in exercize.

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In another thread Jud mentioned a $560 speaker driven by several $K of electronics. I mentioned taking the same budget (say $3K all in) and spend $2300 on speakers. $700 on the electronics stack.

 

So here is my go assuming commercial and new speakers.

 

Dennis Murphy Philharmonic Slim Towers $2200

 

TEAC AL501DA-B $449

 

Source Computer w/ Wireless KB and Mouse: $127

 

4TB NAS for $149

 

JRiver with JRemote for smartphone.

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90W/ch Of Output Power

 

Sensitivity 85 dB (dB/2.83v/1M)

 

 

It'll get loud enough for a lot of rooms at 90W.

 

I'll vary it up:

 

Behringer U-Phoria 404HD $99 I believe they have an ASIO driver for it also.

 

Crown Drivecore XLS 1500 $269

 

That will give you more than enough power.

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90W/ch Of Output Power

 

Sensitivity 85 dB (dB/2.83v/1M)

 

 

Wouldn't 88Db be 4 watts, 91-8, 94-16, 97-32, 100-64?

 

It won't hit HT reference levels but 100dB isn't exactly quiet.

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Copied over from the other thread -

 

Here's mine:

 

- ELAC F5 speakers, $558/pr.

 

- James Romeyn Hypex NCore stereo amp build, $1490

 

- Schiit SYS volume control, $49

 

- iFi Micro iDSD DAC, $499

 

- UpTone Audio Regen, $175

 

- Etymotic ER4-PT earphones, $229

 

I have no idea how you are going to get sound out of that setup :-)'

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Yep, I know. I'm not counting the cost of the computer, because virtually everybody who's interested in a site like this already has one to use for playing music, likely with more resources than the $127 machine. (That was part of what interested me in computer audio in the first place - I didn't need to buy a source component.) On the other hand, if someone wants to use a particular machine for this purpose that they don't already have, they can certainly go ahead and include it.

 

The real trick is to see if there is any audible difference with say 24/192 with a $127 pocket computer or a $1000 i7.

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With the i7 you can run sophisticated filtering and in effect change DACs without paying for new hardware.

 

Or you can leave that up to the DAC.

 

So the question I have is: Can $2450 in electronics get a $560 speaker to outperform $2200 speakers with $700 of electronics.

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With the i7 you can run sophisticated filtering and in effect change DACs without paying for new hardware.

 

What player are you using and can export the filter. I've a collection of different CPU'sh around here and interested in doing a bit of benchmarking.

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There are several different paths you can take, though to take full advantage you want a DAC that can take DSD input, ideally DSD128 and/or higher, or at least 352.8/384KHz PCM. (That's part of the reason I chose the iDSD Micro.)

 

If I recall you're running Windows and Linux machines, or do you also have Macs? Assuming Windows/Linux, probably the preferred way to check out filters if you've got a sufficiently robust CPU is to run HQPlayer, which has a selection of different well designed filters, modulators and dither so you can see how/if each affects the sound. Another possibility is to convert offline with Audiophile Inventory, which allows you to use a less robust CPU at the price of some time and convenience. It has two filtering options, linear phase and minimum phase. JRiver I believe does conversions as well (inline, offline or both, I'm not sure), but I've never used it. If you want to try high end stuff using your own parameters on one of the best pieces of filtering software available, there's iZotope RX 5 with its included sample rate converter (PCM only, IIRC). Linux, of course, has SoX where you can play around using your own parameters. There you can get help from excellent discussions of filters/parameters by people creating filters for the Soekris DAC.

 

If you have a robust CPU and a lot of memory and care to see what incredibly detailed and specific program and OS tweaking can do over and above a unique filter, there is XXHighEnd. It's not to everyone's taste - I've likened all the settings it makes available to walking into the cockpit of a 747. But it is mighty interesting to see what if any effect may result from something like tuning the amount of a music file that can be saved into memory before being dumped to the player.

 

I have Mac.Win.Linux and even an old as400 What I am asking is if you could tell me what you are using software wise and export and send me a filter config that you specifically using

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I'm sure there are setups where both are true.

 

My experience is, and something I would put money on, is that the setup with more $$ and the same amount of care and auditioning spent on speakers will always yield the better result.

 

One of the reasons for this, given speakers is the designer usually has something that is in the same flavor of the $5-600 speaker but way up channel.

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Based on my own experience:

 

Magnepan MMGs - $600

Schiit Bifrost Multibit - $600

Mac mini - $500

Odyssey Cyclops - $1100

 

Leaving $200 for wire. Add a sub or 2 for a few more bucks and you've got a killer system.

 

The Maggies need a good amp and the Khartago-based "integrated" suits them perfectly.

 

Magnepan .7 $1400

Bass module $800

 

Crown XLS Drive Core 1500 $270

 

Emotiva Stealth DAC DC-1 $399

 

Dell Latitude 2100 $99

 

$200 left over for IC's, Jriver with JRemote.

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This looks fantastic! Love this thread BTW and am hoping more chime in with real-world experience in particular.

 

The maggies are great speakers but you have to have an amp that is good with reactive loads. Both the Crown and Odyssey will do that. ATI is another amp I have time with that will do the trick.

 

The Crown is a bargain. It's a neutral and transparent amp. It's also something that you can upgrade from if you feel the need when more funds allow with out losing a lot due to depreciation.

 

Thank Jud. The thread was his idea.

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This is a great discussion. Good reference.

Lenovo Q190 tiny PC with Windows 10 (after free upgrade) on sale for $200, connected to Denon AVR via HDMI. JRiver and EOS remote for Android (superior to JRemote in my opinion, have both), $50. So that's about $2400?

 

That would be a workable setup. The Lenovo Q190's are nice compact systems. I put a bunch of them in about 3 years ago for some customers. A few have been running 24/7 for 3 years now :-)

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Yah, all those musicians using CakeWalk, Reaper, etc going from their Mac to a DAC via USB. What the hell are they thinking!

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23 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

 

is Dennis Murphy better than the kef's?

 

Which KEF's?

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23 hours ago, beerandmusic said:

 

It's either a novel or your misquoted.

Last i checked the Koran doesn't have Corinthians....lots of "good" information on intelligence in Corinthians if you want real substance.

 

 

 

 

for fucks sake not in my thread. 

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1 hour ago, Ralf11 said:

 

the wireless ones - 150?

 

While I've heard both, in different settings, and not same room and optimized, I would give the nod to Dennis Murphys since the KEF's certainly benefit from the addition of a sub which takes us beyond $3K.