bc acoustique right? Their speakers sound awesome with a good tube amp. Wish I had the scratch to own a set . The local hi end shop has a set I listen to when I go "browsing" lol

Since my last post I had a change of mind. Instead of the Linkwitz PMTM-1 I went all the way and built his Orion design. Superb. The small Linkwitz PMT1 dipoles are now surrounds. It's now a 4.0 system -- Quad lives again! Rest of system:

Two 4 X 60 watt Elliot Sound DIY amps (p3a) with the Linkwitz Orion ASP crossover boards built/hardwired in their chassis (and shielded against EMI from the tranny!).

Harman Kardon DPR 1001 receiver (using preouts for the Orions obviously)

Old Thorens TD-160 turntable (shout out to the '70s!) with AudioTechnica AT-130 cartridge for my old vinyl.

Rotel RQ-970BX phono preamp

Pioneer DV-563A CD/DVD-A/SACD player

Next upgrade: Dedicated room.

Foobar2000 44.1khz, ASIO Output enabled, 32bit, Non padded, No DSPS, or EQ -> Creative SB X-fi Fatal1ty (soon to be Elite Pro) -> Audio Creation Mode -> Bit-matched playback, no EQ or EAX enabled, Master sample rate 44.1khz -> Klipsch Promedia 5.1 Ultra's With replacement Satts. RCX-5's for all Channels, RCX-4 for center piece.

Very high quality setup, Very pretty, Very clear. I have since established a 200gb collection of lossless music of all types

one pair of dynaudio audience 122 speakers.
just baught them because they sounded really nice
haven't got a clue about any specs though...

I am sick with envy. Do you have any clue what a working pair of AR-LSTs will fetch on eBay?? Or even a restorable non-working pair? Or any Pioneer HPM series, for that matter?

If your brain turns to Cream of Wheat and you should ever decide to sell either of these, do not put them on eBay...

EMAIL ME!!!

You will be REALLY sick when you find out how much I payed for them. I got the LST's a denon avr-810 and a denon dcd-520 for $100.00 total. Sold the denon equipment and actually ended up making money on the deal. The audio god's were smiling on me that day for sure.

The vote at the top of this page is seriously broken in both FireFox and IE. A mod should look into this.

Other wise my main boxes are B&W CDM1 that I got several years ago. Very great sounding speakers and they reviewed very well.

Speaking of bargins, I got a Pioneer receiver and a pair of AR3a speakers for $12 at Goodwill. The recever died several months later but I still have the speakers in my bedroom system. I reconed them back in 1995 and they still sound pretty good hooked up to my Yamaha RX-V450 and computer's digital toslink.

I hope I'll use Jamo D590 in a couple of days, ordered them some days ago. There's pretty much of a hype around d570/d590, because they're sold really cheap (200/300 EUR a pair)

My chain before the speakers is: IBM thinkpad T22/Foobar2000.0.92 with pphs resampler @ 48khz -> sb audigy 2 zs notebook -> Pioneer A-656 mk2 -> Speakers.

Yeah, I ordered the Jamo D590, too. I got mine already yesterday (338€ for the pair, incl. shipping)
I had a cheap Aiwa compact stereo before and I wanted to buy something decent for long. I stumbled about the hype thread at hifi-forum.de and figured that this was a no-brainer.
But I couldn't try them yet, because I'm still waiting for my amp to arrive.

yeah, my "good" stereo system: $15 (used) speakers, original woofers (that were in a state of fragmentation) were replaced. DIY subwoofer (70W). 2x60W Technics amp. Both the speakers and subwoofer are conntected to the same stereo amp in some hybrid way. the "Bass" control is set to max for a boomy bass . Integrated NB soundcard (AC97?). A bit "ghetto" setup but it sounds good enough for me and can play really loud .

J.M.

I have an entry level Infinity set up for my speakers.
Primus 160's for mains, 150's for rears, c25 (or whatever the center is called), and the PS-10... I think... it's the 10 inch 250 watt Infinity sub. I sometimes have a couple extra RCA speakers from an old HTIB (4 1/2" woofers) for surround backs.

I have some Monsoon MH-505's for my computer. Great speakers, but Monsoon went out of business. Too bad.

//////////

I have two pairs of LST's which I currently have stacked, but my livingroom is a little too small for that much sound. As a result I'm using the bottom pair as mere stands for the top pair, which gets the signal from a accuphase amp. So, I might be looking to sell one pair. They're in very good condition, so I think I might get $2000 for them on ebay on a good day. Were you looking to buy?

I wouldn't call my stereo good. My amp is my HT amp, Denon AVR-2805 and the speakers are KEF Coda 9s from about 10 years back, they sound good and have a controlled bass which is nice. I really do need a good system at some point though...either that or I start using headphones so as not to annoy the neighbours

This post is broken btw, get a load of errors at the top of the screen and there are no poll options, also the fast reply is gone.

Cambridge 5.1, but I don't know the model... I love the way they sound <3

I have some old JBL bookshelf speakers with a Sony amp. Don't remember the model numbers off the top of my head. I use the digital out from my audigy 2 to feed it.

Does anyone have any experience with Athena speakers? They look kinda interesting to me, and in the price range I'm looking for (less than $500 for a pair.)

Hi zipr,

Are you asking about the Dunlavy Athena's or Athena Technologies? If Dunlavy then yeah I've heard a pair of those and they were great. That model's pretty hard to come by now though. I haven't heard the Athena Technologies line yet.

I use a pair of Dunlavy SC-V's with Pass Labs amps. Soundcard is a Lynx AES-16 through Cranesong converters. It sounds great.

Mike

I just got the Klipsch promedia 2.1 PC speakers. This is the amp/sub/satellite combo. I think considering the price ($150.00) they're excellent. Good grief, it's more than loud enough for the little apartment I'm living in. I've got to keep the sub turned way down or the neighbors get pissed. It's been years since I sold old Kenwood drivers and I've been using headphones the entire time. Nice to get some decent speakers again.

Zu Druid's / Marten Design Duke's
Velodyne DD-15

Martin Logan Aerius i

I'm using KLH 9250B's. They're all I have, a simple 2.0 stereo setup.

Finish: Black Woodgrain Vinyl
12" Woofer w/Molded Fiber Cone
5-1/4" Dynamic Midrange w/Fiber Cone
7/8" Polycarbonate Tweeter w/Ferrofluid
3-Way Design, Ported
Frequency Response: 28 Hz to 20 kHz
Crossover: LCR Type
Sensitivity: 90 dB @ 1W - 1M
Suggested Amplifier Power: 10 to 250 Watts per Channel
Impedance: 8 Ohms Average
Terminals: Quick Connect
Black Cloth Removable Grills
Warranty: 5 Years Limited Parts/Labor
Weight: 57.0 Lbs.
UPC No.: 048331-09250-9
No. of Speakers: One Pair (2 Eaches)
Dimensions: 28-1/2"H x 14-3/4"W x 9-7/16"D
MSRP: $229.99/Pr.
Price I paid: $125


They're fine for me right now, considering I'm young, listen to stuff loud, and can't afford anything better.

I was talking about the Athena Technologies speakers. I've read some good things online about them, and they seem to be around the price I want to pay. Unfortunately, though, it looks like I'd have to buy them online sight unseen (and unheard.)

Source: ESI Juli@

Amp: Marantz PM16 (~2500$, 1996)

Speakers: Canton Ergo SC-L (~3000$, 1996)


From my experience, lossless music pays off in this setup - it's pretty easy to separate LAME@~250KBit VBR from FLAC tracks.

I don't believe you. ABX results?

i'm unable to tell the difference between MPC-Q8 and FLAC, but LAME as I said is more than easy, believe it or not

My setup is as follows...

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 4

Integrated Amp: Pioneer SA-5300 Stereo Amplifer

Speakers: Pioneer SCS-12

It's a modest setup, but it's perfectly fine for my needs. Great thing is a few days ago I worked out how to safely get rid of a ground loop problem. No more buzzing/popping.

I use a good old Tesla with its speakers for the rear and a Denon PMA-280 with a pair of (old) Heybrook HB1's for the front.
They're connected into an SB Live value (via analogue output), I think I'll replace it with an x-fi soon. Or something else. Dunno yet

It doesn't matter what you think or believe only what you can prove.
You would be the first, to my knowledge, to "easily" tell the difference between LAME@250kbps and the original on regular music even with multimillion dollar gear.
I'm eagerly waiting for your results.

My "system" is an evolution of what I decide to keep or trade off

Most all of it is second hand.

I use my soundstorm optical out (640 KBPS AC3) to an RCA RT2390 reciever. My center is a KLH 2410. Left and right are some 15" Kenwood 3-piece floor speakers, no model numbers but they are boomy. My rear channels are 8" Radio Shack Pro Series rebadged Pioneers. My sub is a 10" lightning audio, ported.

I think it provides a sort of epic imaging, like going to a theater...but I mainly play games and watch movies.

Some good setup's here.

B&W 605S2, recently moved house with neighbours and find I can't play them as much as I would like.

Linn Espek, a floor-standing 3-way loudspeaker system with 8" rear-firing bass-reflex woofer and front-firing 6.5" bass-reflex midrange and 1" dome tweeter. Power comes from either a d&b audiotechnik D12 power amplifier via its AES/EBU inputs fed from MOTU Traveler AES/EBU output, or a d&b audiotechnik P1200A power amplifier from a Meridian 502 preamp / Meridian 508 CD player whenever I play something that hasn't been transcoded yet.

I'm using a NAD C352 with Bose Acoustimass speakers.
It's not high-end equipment but it produces nice results.
Sincerely,
Nick

m-audio Revolution 5.1 sound card
Yamaha RXV-359 receiver
Mourdaunt-Short Genie 5.1 set (4 402 satellites on 400P stands, one 404 center, one 409W sub-woofer)
Sennheiser HD-595 headphones

As my Kenwood surround setup sucks, my 'good' stereo system is my computer:

Terratec 512i digital
Behringer MS40 @ ~55 cm distance

I know it's a poor student setup, but not that bad for the price (soundcard + speakers less than 150 €)

This reply is a bit late.. but the key may be in the settings. If the response is limited to 16 khz (typical) and you can hear to 20 khz, then you can abx the difference no matter how perfectly the under 16 khz part is coded.

New pc has a X-FI Extreme Gamer souncard connected to a CL Inspire T7900 7.1 speaker system.

The one i am on now and use for the NET, has a SB Audigy soundcard, out through a Sony 70w+70w rms amp, driving two Jamo 360 floor standing speakers, which with the amp are more than 10 yrs old.

regards,
JHB.

My "good" system:
Visaton Alto II speakers, over a Technics SA-313 receiver, connected to my Notebook soundcard (Audigy 2 ZS Laptop) and my tapedeck (Pioneer CT-W604RS).

Building the speakers took me about two days (I'm a programmer, not a carpenter), but it was quite satisfying to work on something like this for a change.

My good system is my main stereo system in the family room. I use Magneplanar MG 2.7's there (each driven with 300 watts.)

I couldn't vote nor view the results of this poll. I got a bucket-full of:
"IPB WARNING [2] Invalid argument supplied for foreach() (Line: 1614 of /sources/action_public/topics.php)" errors at the top of the page and then ten wide textboxes and a 'Total Votes: 0"

TS

a pair of Paradigm mni monitor

for listening:

SqueezeBox 3
Naim CD5
LFD Integrated 0
Epos ES11 on Epos frames

no DA yet, but next box upgrade likely to be some kinda A/V receiver, possibly from the Naim stable, or Anthem if £££ available.

for working:

PC with cheapo onboard CMedia audio
M-Audio DX4 powered desktop speakers

what's playing:
FLAC thanks to EAC/REACT, parallel-ripped to AAC for portable

My philosophy is I spend on speakers: the ES11's I've had for ages and they're so sweet in my listening space.

Browsing the slimdevices forum, and seeing some of the "hi-fi" builds that people are pairing with their SqueezeBoxes, I find it insanely amusing how some people bark on about using the "right" codec and whether TOSLINK is good or bad, and focussing far too much on the digital end (easy: store it and send it lossless) when their analog end of the chain is total rubbish; putting [sometimes very good] speakers on breezeblocks or on the floor, or beside doorways, and in highly reactive rooms, and thinking that Monster Cable will somehow make it sound better.



I think it's worth thinking about the space we actually listen to our music in when talking about "good" or "bad" setups. To reiterate my point above: the digital bit is by far the easiest bit.

</rant>

It's taken me about 4 years of waiting/reading/thinking before [finally!] going digital, not that I have a magic system by any means, but I started from being very pleased with the performance of my analog gear, and adding a digital head end makes my face hurt from all the grinning I'm doing!

The SqueezeBox is a fantastic gadget, and although its DA isn't the absolute best, it's ok for now and my sound can only improve when I choose to upgrade to an outboard DA.

I've still got a long way to go to get to the end of my 800 or something CD collection, but hey, that's just another part of the collector mindset I think.

Cheers
Roland

Paradigm Atoms here. Very nice sound for the price. Very good reviews.

Two ITT Box85. One at my lower left and the other on my lower right, both in front. A simple golden stereo jack and a homemade 5watt eq powered by a motorola base satation power supply. Totally scavanged and better than most middle class systems.

As you understand I am a headspeaker kind of guy.
Apple Lossless -> Electrocompaniet ECD1 -> Stax SRM-007t -> Stax SR-007 / 4070 / SR-Lambda Pro

Soundcard: Terratec Universe 7.1 (Envy24)
Speakers: nubert nuBox 360/5 and nuBox AW-440 sub
(www.nubert.de is a German speaker manufacturer that produces great sounding speakers to a reasonable price. It can only be purchased online or directly at their two "headquarters".)
Amplifier: Yamaha RX-496RDS
Headphones: Sennheiser 570 symphony

I love my Klipsch KG4's. They sound great, handle massive amounts of power and didn't break the bank.

I used ES11's for years -- they reproduce music so ... musically (yeah!), that I happily accepted their shortcomings for long. Hi-fi maniacs tend to climb the sonic skyscraper one floor at the time, generating quite some cashflow really, but I found myself staying with my ES11's until I took the elevator up to a pair of Meridian DSP-5500's.

Which are fully-digital active speakers: they take a SPDIF signal in, and do the rest. Crossovers are part of the DSP.

I'm using Pioneer SX-205RDS as an amp for Wharfedale Diamond 9.2 pair of speakers.

I use an Onkyo TX-SR500 to Klipsch RF-3s + matching center + surrounds with an Infinity PS10 sub. Got all 5 Klipsch speakers on craigslist from someone who was moving for $400. He said he only used them to watch TV.

I own exactly the same speakers.
+Pioneer VSX-416
+Xfi extreme music

Frequency response for those who are interrested:
Nubox 360/5
(the top one)

greetings

I'm here because I'm just starting to experiment with putting together an audio server that will outperform my CD player with lossless encoding. I had a chance to play with a new device by Linn called the Klimax DS (for Digital Server). It quite literally trounces their own $20,000 CD12, the top Meridian, and every other high end CD player I've heard. I think I'll try to do it for less than the $18,500 for the DS, though!

Speakers: B&W 802D, Transparent Audio Reference cable throughout.
Amplification: Musical Fidelity TriVista 300
CD: Musical Fidelity DM-25 DAC (Tube output connection), MuFi DM-25 Transport (Separate L&R balanced digital outs to DAC).

After 32 Years in High End Audio (and, more recently, Home Theater), the most musical and engaging system I've ever owned.

Pleased to see so much B&W, Paradigm and Magneplanar here!