New Forum Member and Hello!

[Juston]

Hello all,

 

I ran across this forum after reading Austinpop's DAC review series. I'm relatively new to hifi, though I've been a lifelong lover of music (and a musician). It's only recently that it occurred to me that I've really been missing the full potential of my music. I've known for many years having played through very high end tube amps for electric guitar that these little hifi speaker systems that are becoming popular these days aren't particularly good at reproducing the true spectrum of the music I listen to. I always felt the biggest deficit was the mid-range . . . compared to my 4x12" speaker cabinet for my guitar, these little systems just couldn't keep up.

 

I've jumped headlong into the hifi rabbit hole and am quickly amassing both a headphone solution for work and a robust solution for music and theater at home.

 

I've been working with a local hifi shop called Music Lovers in Berkeley, CA. Here's where things stand today:

 

1) Paradigm Persona surround system in combination with a Sony A9G TV. This is currently being driven by the Arcam AVR30 (which has been a very buggy system).

 

2) I'm going to be adding the Ayre QX-5 Twenty and AX-5 Twenty to the towers and pass the audio from the Arcam through when watching movies. I'm pretty heavily into music, so the stereo sound is important to me.

 

3) I'm currently in the process of ripping my CD collection (again) into lossless format and have gotten a Roon Nucleus server for home. I've subscribed to Tidal and Qobuz to round out music I don't have.

 

4) I have a Transparent Reference Power Isolator on the way to help eliminate some noise in my AC supply. 

 

5) My work setup is a set of Focal Utopias with a Codex. Like Austinpops, I'm on the hunt for something a little better. I'm considering the Chord Hugo TT 2 and M Scaler. 

 

I'm also an engineer and like to approach things with as much science/understanding as I can. I used to build my own tube guitar amplifiers, but digital technology takes the science to a whole new level. I wanted to introduce myself.

[Ralf11]

Welcome!

 

is (1) your home HiFi system or just for the TV/video setup?

 

if the former, I'd get some speakers first

 

if you want to stay with a surround system for regular (stereo) listening, then I'd use whatever @Kal Rubinson uses for speakers.  

[Juston]

My home system serves as both a theater system and a hifi. The Paradigm Persona 5F towers are pretty high end and sound absolutely sweet to my ears. When playing music, it’s just the Ayre QX-5 Twenty into the Ayre AX-5 Twenty amp, which drives the Personas. 
 

With the home theater setup, the left and right channels from the Arcam pass through the AX-5 Twenty. So it’s really optimized to do both. 
 

I have the Persona C for a center and the Persona Bs for surrounds. 

 

 

[Ralf11]

ok - I'm a put 3/4 of the $$ into speakers guy

 

how are you on room tmts.?

[Juston]

Yeah, I put $17,000 into the towers which I think is quite an investment. Moreover, I heard the exact setup I'm going to be employing across a wide variety of music and was very pleased.

 

I won't have much in the way of room treatments because the room can't be dedicated to home theater/music. Bay Area houses are small. And old.

[Ralf11]

ah yes - I've seen Bay area houses.  When I was living in SFO I took BART out to Berkeley one day and looked down ... couldn't figure out what was so odd at first, then realized: the houses had yards!  with grass!

 

some tmts. can be bought that look like an art hanging - you just mount them on a wall at the reflection point

 

I agree $17k is a very substantial amount - and about the same as you have in Ayre equipment.

 

At that level I only see 2 other things to work on:

 

1. find the very best masterings/releases of albums you like

 

2. see if you have any EMF noise issues - besides the unit on order, you can run a dedicated line, turn off noisy lights (Fl, maybe LEDs), move the HiFi to a different AC circuit and column on your panel

[Juston]

5 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

ah yes - I've seen Bay area houses.  When I was living in SFO I took BART out to Berkeley one day and looked down ... couldn't figure out what was so odd at first, then realized: the houses had yards!  with grass!

 

some tmts. can be bought that look like an art hanging - you just mount them on a wall at the reflection point

 

I agree $17k is a very substantial amount - and about the same as you have in Ayre equipment.

 

At that level I only see 2 other things to work on:

 

1. find the very best masterings/releases of albums you like

 

2. see if you have any EMF noise issues - besides the unit on order, you can run a dedicated line, turn off noisy lights (Fl, maybe LEDs), move the HiFi to a different AC circuit and column on your panel

Yep, I'm working on finding the very best masterings of my favorites . . . slowly but surely. That'll be a long process.

 

2) I'm going to see how the items I have on the way are going to help. We've got some devices to isolate any noise from the Cat6 cable and hopefully the Power Isolator will do a good job of removing noise. I know our voltage fluctuates a lot and that there's a reasonable amount of noise on top of the base A/C. I should fire up my oscilloscope and take a look at it at some point.

[Ralf11]

I'd definitely put a scope on it - if it's an old one, you can set up a digital camera to take slo mo movies of the screen and see if there is a pattern at certain times of day.

 

I was able to get the local utility to come out and put a datalogger on my meter.  I'm also the 2nd house from the pole transformer.

 

Are you well inside an R-1 zone?

 

 

[photonman]

On 1/17/2020 at 4:21 PM, Juston said:

The Paradigm Persona 5F towers are pretty high end and sound absolutely sweet to my ear

Welcome to AS, a great place to get information.  Don't sweat the speakers as Paradigm does not seem to get much respect in the audiophile world but I love the Be drivers.  My old signature 6's only have the Be tweeter so I would be interested to hear how a full line up of Be drivers sounds.  You are assembling an interesting setup.

[Juston]

1 hour ago, photonman said:

Welcome to AS, a great place to get information.  Don't sweat the speakers as Paradigm does not seem to get much respect in the audiophile world but I love the Be drivers.  My old signature 6's only have the Be tweeter so I would be interested to hear how a full line up of Be drivers sounds.  You are assembling an interesting setup.

Yeah, I hope so. I had a chance to compare the sound of the Paradigms to B+W towers along with Sonus Faber Serafino. The guy at the hifi shop said he felt the sound of the Sonus Fabers was of higher quality since Sonus has been doing high end longer, but I actually preferred the sound of the Paradigms to be honest. Ultimately, that's what it boils down to I guess. I come at this from years of being a guitar tone nerd, so I've learned to trust my ears.

 

[Juston]

On 1/17/2020 at 5:10 PM, Ralf11 said:

I'd definitely put a scope on it - if it's an old one, you can set up a digital camera to take slo mo movies of the screen and see if there is a pattern at certain times of day.

 

I was able to get the local utility to come out and put a datalogger on my meter.  I'm also the 2nd house from the pole transformer.

 

Are you well inside an R-1 zone?

 

 

I'll see if I can dig out my old scope. It's buried in the garage. I hope it still works!

[Ralf11]

haha!  so is mine!

 

BTW, I suspect you do not have a noise problem - most people don't

 

and ask Ayre for any recommendations