Cool 2 channel gonna be some upgrades.
mantis
Posts: 17,194
Whats up people?
I went to a customers house today and tweaked this theater. In another room he has a really nice 2 channel system.
Acuphase Preamp and amp
Thiel speakers
All wires with MIT with power conditioners and power cords.
He also has this Genesis Digital Lens which is suppose to correct Jitter and what have you. It also has the ability to take in balanced Digital and spit out Coax Digital so it can be used as a converter. Kinda cool but I'm pulling it.
Customer asked me to evaluate his system as it has not has any upgrades in years. I sat down and listened to it and felt it was a very nice balanced system. I found RCA IC's where balanced could be. His Speaker wires (MIT) where a bit to long and kinda looked sloppy. I only snapped a few pic's to research the level of MIT wires he was using and replace them with balanced and better fitting speaker wire. The Digital lens did absolutely nothing in his system as he doesn't suffer from jitter problems I forget what transport he had but it was wired with MIT digital coax and Balanced Digital coax. I removed the Digital Lens and ran the Coax digital directly to preamp(Acuphase with built in DAC's) and it sounded exactly the same. So this will be pulled.
I'm also gonna calibrate the system with much better speaker placement. He sits further back then the width of the speakers by a lot and has terrible toe in . The room needs a few treatments to combat first order reflections and some bass traps in the front of the room as even as the speakers are about 3 feet away from the front wall , they still seem to load a bit. So I'm gonna correct all that.
I will take more pic's after the upgrades. I will snap a few before and after to show how some set their systems up and how a professional does.
The upgraded wires will probably be Cardos Balanced and speaker wire unless I feel Audioquest or Kimber will yield better performance in his system. I'm gonna bring a few selected cables out for listening testing. I'm gonna burn in all cables before I go out so they all perform at their best before I install and test.
I went to a customers house today and tweaked this theater. In another room he has a really nice 2 channel system.
Acuphase Preamp and amp
Thiel speakers
All wires with MIT with power conditioners and power cords.
He also has this Genesis Digital Lens which is suppose to correct Jitter and what have you. It also has the ability to take in balanced Digital and spit out Coax Digital so it can be used as a converter. Kinda cool but I'm pulling it.
Customer asked me to evaluate his system as it has not has any upgrades in years. I sat down and listened to it and felt it was a very nice balanced system. I found RCA IC's where balanced could be. His Speaker wires (MIT) where a bit to long and kinda looked sloppy. I only snapped a few pic's to research the level of MIT wires he was using and replace them with balanced and better fitting speaker wire. The Digital lens did absolutely nothing in his system as he doesn't suffer from jitter problems I forget what transport he had but it was wired with MIT digital coax and Balanced Digital coax. I removed the Digital Lens and ran the Coax digital directly to preamp(Acuphase with built in DAC's) and it sounded exactly the same. So this will be pulled.
I'm also gonna calibrate the system with much better speaker placement. He sits further back then the width of the speakers by a lot and has terrible toe in . The room needs a few treatments to combat first order reflections and some bass traps in the front of the room as even as the speakers are about 3 feet away from the front wall , they still seem to load a bit. So I'm gonna correct all that.
I will take more pic's after the upgrades. I will snap a few before and after to show how some set their systems up and how a professional does.
The upgraded wires will probably be Cardos Balanced and speaker wire unless I feel Audioquest or Kimber will yield better performance in his system. I'm gonna bring a few selected cables out for listening testing. I'm gonna burn in all cables before I go out so they all perform at their best before I install and test.
Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
Post edited by mantis on
Comments
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Which Thiels are we talking ? That pre looks pretty sweet. Never heard an acuphase system that I liked,too sterile sounding for me. They do have a good following so I imagine lots of folks dig them. Thiels whole line offers something for everyone,would love to get an ear on the newer 3.6's. Whats this guy using as a source ?HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
Thiel CS6's. Older models but sound incredible. Heavy ****.
The sources where a CD Transport but I forget who made it , a really nice analog tuner forget that 2 and thats it. When I go back I'll snap pic's of everything.Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
Sounds like he's pretty old school, nuthin' wrong with that.
Maybe a decent upgrade for the guy is a decent server with a good dac as a source. He may like the ease of use and not feel too old school. Maybe a tubed pre and a SS amp ? What are you thinking for an upgrade path for the dude? Or are you just tweeking for the man ?HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
Sounds like he's pretty old school, nuthin' wrong with that.
Maybe a decent upgrade for the guy is a decent server with a good dac as a source. He may like the ease of use and not feel too old school. Maybe a tubed pre and a SS amp ? What are you thinking for an upgrade path for the dude? Or are you just tweeking for the man ?
It is a tweaking with a play on balanced vs RCA , Shorter cleaner speaker wiring with improvements hopefully , he has some high end MIT (see pic's) for speaker wire and he doesn't like the look of the network bricks. So I have to carefully select replacement wires that will make his system sound better. I know going balanced will make a difference as the best RCA cables don't outperform mid level balanced. We have tested the hell out of that theory and balanced always sounded cleaner more silent back ground and space between instruments.
He owns a lot of cd's and I would love to go Hard drive on him but he is old school and I think he will put up a wall if I suggest that. I mentioned it to him and he skipped right over that upgrade.Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
I was going to mention Transparent speaker cables but they all have the brick on them, although they are smaller and more modern looking than the MIT's.2-channelBelles 22A Pre, Emotiva XPA-2 Gen 2, Marantz SA8005, Pro-Ject RPM-10 Turntable, Pro-Ject Phono Box DS3B, Polk Audio Legend L800's, AudioQuest Cable throughout.
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Maybe he'd change his mind if he had an Olive 06HD
design is where science and art break even.
