Journey into HiFi - Tumbling down the rabbit hole.

[fLUX]

Hello FM’s

Decided to make a dedicated thread to detail my journey into HiFi which began in February with foray into converting my guest bedroom into a "part" dedicated HT room ("part" because I don’t have the approval yet to change décor or convert the dedicated bed into a convertible sofa ) .

Part 1 - Projector into Guest Bedroom

With this limitations set I went ahead and first obtained a Full HD Projector – Benq W1080ST from FM on this forum. The PQ is really amazing and the cinematic and gaming experience for sports games like FIFA is really out of the world. At the same time I was looking to have a dedicated HT setup in the room and moved my Polk TL1600 + RXV479 package from master bedroom into the Guest room which at that point still sounded amazing to me.

Part 2 - Entry into HiFi

Now I was exploring a stereo setup for my room, did few audition of Dali Oberon 1/Qacoustics C20/ Elac B6.2 and was impressed with the QAcoustics. While I was looking only for a stereo setup, thanks to FM @subhash I ended up picking up QAcoustics 3020i, Concept 20 & 3090i from him. This ended up replacing my entire TL1600 + VX479 setup in the guest room which I later sold on OLX. I also ended up purchasing Denon X2600h & Marantz PM6006 in quest of an atmos capable AVR & dedicated stereo setup. Slowly added the SVS SB2000 for the dedicated room.

Part 3 - Birds eye view of the rabbit hole

This change in plan meant my room was devoid of a stereo setup still and on the lookout for one, @Mayank Shah provided me a nice deal for a Dynaudio M20 + dedicated Tono Stands. I was pleasantly surprised by the size of these bookshelfs when they arrived and was even more pleased with their sound signature right out of the PM6006 as well. Sometime later I got enticed by a deal for a CA Azur 651a and Elac FS 57.2 to explore floorstanders.
I ended up putting the Elac FS 57.2 as fronts on top of a low rise TV stand ( no WAF & PAF for keeping it infront of the stand as in the picture) in the Living Room which till date housed a satellite based 5.1 setup (Phasetech Cinemicro & Onkyo TX-SR444). The floorstander experience overall presentation really impressed me and my parents too felt this would be better suited for bedroom as they did not want stands lying around. This opportunity led me to explore further on a nice final upgrade to the dedicated room setup for once and all.

Continued in next post

 

[fLUX]

Final Setup - Nosedive into the rabbit hole

That’s when I decided to open up the thread https://www.hifivision.com/threads/ht-upgrade-recommendations.80392/

Meanwhile the study table was a hindrance for any kind of positioning, due to Covid parents did not want to invite a carpenter to do the necessary stuff. After lot of backbreaking effort with help from my Wifey , we managed to remove the study table below the projector, now making room for floorstanders to be kept. Also moved the AVR rack to the rear side to make it look cleaner on the front and also to eliminate possible imaging issues.

I received a lot of good inputs on the thread and decided to go full monty on the upgrade and started reading available threads/reviews/sound demos online for different speakers/AVR I had shortlisted. After numerous demos at different showrooms in Bangalore and good amount of discussion with Love4sound I went ahead with X4500H as the AVR and have been really happy with the performance for Movies, for music I felt it lacks the bite even with Audyssey or in pure direct mode.

I had shortlisted the Kef Q950 & XTZ 95.44 based on my initial auditions in the showroom, both equally good speakers in its own right. Had not got the opportunity to demo Focal Aria 926 till then, thanks to Naveen I got a nice listen to the Focal Aria 926 and totally loved the treble with none of the auditioned speakers even coming close to it. After few discussions with Naveen and Kritik I decided to close out on the Focal Aria 926. Meanwhile decided to have dedicated Floorstanders for rear surround as well for an alternate stereo experience and again went for a demo and found the XTZ Spirit 11 to be a much calmer and neutral, something which might complement the lively Aria and decided to go along with it. At the same time got a nice deal for a SVS SB4000 in exchange of SB2000 and also needed a dedicated sub for my living room as well so decided to pick up the XTZ 12.17 Edge. Meanwhile got tempted by the offers for Bluesound Node2i and Crown XLS2502 and picked up the same recently. The Focals perform at a different level on the chain of Node 2i -> XLS2502 vs the AVR -> XLS2502.

Dedicated Room

Living Room

Bedroom

Current Setup as it stands

Living Room (7.1) -> TV -> X2600H -> Crown XLS 2502 -> Dynaudio Emit M20 Fronts + 3090i Center + Elac FS 57.2 Surround LR + 2 Phastech Satellites (Surround Height)

Dedicated HT Room (5.2.4) -> Projector -> X4500H -> Focal Aria 926 Fronts + Focal Aria CC 900 Center + XTZ Spirit 11 Surround LR + 4 Upfiring Atmos ( 2 Phasetech Sattelites at rear facing the ceiling and 2 Onky SKH 410

Master Bedroom -> TV -> Onkyo TX-SR444 -> Concept 20 LR + Phastech Center

Will be planning to add a good dedicated stereo power amp for the fronts, a crown xls1002 for the center maybe, preamp (contemplating on a tube vs parasound zpre3) and a media streamer. Finally will replace the 4 upfiring in dedicated room with ceiling speakers.

 

[Nitin K]

Congratulations Flux. Looks like you have amalgamated a lot of audio companies under one roof & giving tough competition to Sound United & IAG group. On a serious note, you have wonderful setups.

 

[fLUX]

Congratulations Flux. Looks like you have amalgamated a lot of audio companies under one roof & giving tough competition to Sound United & IAG group. On a serious note, you have wonderful setups.

Haha , I stayed majorly on the used route till the recent purchase

 

[avtar2008]

Pretty nice setup(s) and beautiful home.

I think you are driving 3x focals and 2x xtz from avr, so, you should plan to add a poweramp to let focals shine to full potential. You can look for a 3ch or 5ch monoblock amp from indiqaudio. they have good customization options at an unbelievable prices. @Prodigy have recently bought one and have a good experience. I am also planning to buy one for myself in sometime.

 

[irv]

Enjoyed reading the thread. Congratulations. Wonderful set up

 

[anilpatel]

Great setup!!!

 

[Anbu Palani]

Nice setup and a good read as well.

 

[fLUX]

Pretty nice setup(s) and beautiful home.

I think you are driving 3x focals and 2x xtz from avr, so, you should plan to add a poweramp to let focals shine to full potential. You can look for a 3ch or 5ch monoblock amp from indiqaudio. they have good customization options at an unbelievable prices. @Prodigy have recently bought one and have a good experience. I am also planning to buy one for myself in sometime.

Thanks , yes thats in the pipeline to add a good HT poweramp or dedicated crowns for the remaining channels and a nice stereo power amp for the front 2 channels for music/movies alike.

 

[fLUX]

Great setup!!!

Nice setup and a good read as well.

Enjoyed reading the thread. Congratulations. Wonderful set up

Thanks, glad you guys enjoyed the read

 

[MaSh]

Amazing setup. Nice collection of components too.

MaSh

 

[shuv]

Congratulations. That's one (rather 3) cracking setups!

Current Setup as it stands

Living Room (7.1) -> TV -> X2600H -> Crown XLS 2502 -> Dynaudio Emit M20 Fronts + 3090i Center + Elac FS 57.2 Surround LR + 2 Phastech Satellites (Surround Height)

How are you running the Crown with the 2600?

 

[Mukul77]

Nice set up. Looks like you have a very AV friendly family there. For me, I have to bribe my wife almost the same amount of money that I spends on my new AV eqpt purchase. But live goes on.

 

[sud98]

Nice set of components.

Editing - Read the entire thread again and understood better so removed the earlier comment

 

[fLUX]

Amazing setup. Nice collection of components too.

MaSh

Thanks

Nice set up. Looks like you have a very AV friendly family there. For me, I have to bribe my wife almost the same amount of money that I spends on my new AV eqpt purchase. But live goes on.

Haha, i would need to gift at 1/3rd the item price if that was the case for me since my item have three prices MRP, MSP, MWSP . I would need to mention the actual prices in my will so that they dont get sold at price i tell at home

Nice set of components.

Editing - Read the entire thread again and understood better so removed the earlier comment

Thanks, may i know what part confused you. Will try and frame it better.


@shuv Thanks , was a mistake. Its running of the X4500H powering the fronts at the moment.

 

[DB1989]

Final Setup - Nosedive into the rabbit hole



Current Setup as it stands

Living Room (7.1) -> TV -> X2600H -> Crown XLS 2502 -> Dynaudio Emit M20 Fronts + 3090i Center + Elac FS 57.2 Surround LR + 2 Phastech Satellites (Surround Height)

Dedicated HT Room (5.2.4) -> Projector -> X4500H -> Focal Aria 926 Fronts + Focal Aria CC 900 Center + XTZ Spirit 11 Surround LR + 4 Upfiring Atmos ( 2 Phasetech Sattelites at rear facing the ceiling and 2 Onky SKH 410

Master Bedroom -> TV -> Onkyo TX-SR444 -> Concept 20 LR + Phastech Center

Will be planning to add a good dedicated stereo power amp for the fronts, a crown xls1002 for the center maybe, preamp (contemplating on a tube vs parasound zpre3) and a media streamer. Finally will replace the 4 upfiring in dedicated room with ceiling speakers.

Man, you've got the dream setup!!! You happened to mention that the Crowns perform much better with the Node 2i combination compared to the X2400H. However, insofar as the X2400H + Crown XLS2502 is concerned, did you find any noticeable gains in SQ with respect to this combo over that of driving the speakers directly through the internal amps of the X2400H?

While playing music, did you notice the 'Class D' sound of the Crown?

 

[shinshya]

Nice setup. Congratulations. I am sure lot of time and effort would have gone to make it this way. An indicative price of each component would help people like me to plan and realize the similar dream.

 

[fLUX]

Man, you've got the dream setup!!! You happened to mention that the Crowns perform much better with the Node 2i combination compared to the X2400H. However, insofar as the X2400H + Crown XLS2502 is concerned, did you find any noticeable gains in SQ with respect to this combo over that of driving the speakers directly through the internal amps of the X2400H?

While playing music, did you notice the 'Class D' sound of the Crown?

My bad here, it is paired with the X4500H as the X2600H doesnt have front pre outs and has only Zone 2 pre outs. Yes with the bluesound node2i as the source & preamp, the sound became much more livelier with a better soundstage , treble extension & instrument details were more noticeable as against the X4500H with both in Stereo/Pure Direct mode.

This could also be due to the fact that the bluesound was set on full volume and the gain on power amp was about 1/4th of the total vs on the AVR where it applies its own gain to each speaker + volume would be about 50-60% and the Power Amp on full gain. Will need to recalibrate audyssey with different gains on power amp to see if this is the case.

 

[DB1989]

My bad here, it is paired with the X4500H as the X2600H doesnt have front pre outs and has only Zone 2 pre outs. Yes with the bluesound node2i as the source & preamp, the sound became much more livelier with a better soundstage , treble extension & instrument details were more noticeable as against the X4500H with both in Stereo/Pure Direct mode.

This could also be due to the fact that the bluesound was set on full volume and the gain on power amp was about 1/4th of the total vs on the AVR where it applies its own gain to each speaker + volume would be about 50-60% and the Power Amp on full gain. Will need to recalibrate audyssey with different gains on power amp to see if this is the case.

One rather rudimentary way to do it is to use any sound meter app on your phone (even better if you have a dedicated measurement device) and play some pink noise (you can find plenty of them on youtube) to level match the speaker output before playing each amp. Sometimes, a slight increase or decrease in volume can be the difference between good and great sound!

 

[fLUX]

One rather rudimentary way to do it is to use any sound meter app on your phone (even better if you have a dedicated measurement device) and play some pink noise (you can find plenty of them on youtube) to level match the speaker output before playing each amp. Sometimes, a slight increase or decrease in volume can be the difference between good and great sound!

Level matching would be one aspect, can certainly try that . Other aspect being volume on source + gain on the amplifier, not sure how to find the sweet spot without trial and error