Please help... I need quite a bit of advice to improve my setup...

[gautamz]

This is my setup ...
Speakers -
1) Dali Ikon 6
2) Custom speakers made from 15" Fostex Laboratory Woofers, horn loaded drivers and horn tweeters
Amp/Receiver
1) Onkyo TX-SR705
2) Yamaha M-80/C-80 amp-preamp set

I listen to music off my Ipod touch. and DVDs are currently played off a moser baer via the 705. I am planning to add the ps3 and a 42/46inch Full HD plasma tv

I am not much of an audiophile but I do know that I prefer clean, balanced sound without any distortion at any volume level.

I need help/advice on a number of things...
1) I want to add another preamp to the mix... after a lot of thought I am considering the Acoustic Portrait NJ1 preamp... but is there any other good option within a budget of 30/40K ?
2) Can anyone give me the contact of a good and knowledgeable electrician in Bombay to whom I can take the Yamaha amp-preamp in case I have any issues
3) I listened to and loved the Fatman Carbon Ipod dock, but its an amp by itself... is there anyway I can use it as the source/pre in my setup? or should I opt for an external dac instead?
4) I have not yet hooked up the Dalis to the M-80. The Dalis are rated 150W rms@6ohms while the M-80 is 250W rms@8 ohms ... conservative... very conservative... but I so want to listen to the amp off the Dalis... its such a sweet and awesome amp. I just want to be sure I don't blow the speakers by pumping too much juice, any idea how I can do that? or should I just abandon the thought?
5) whats the best VFM way to soundproof my listening room?

 

[venkatcr]

5) whats the best VFM way to soundproof my listening room?

I will let other answer all the other questions. But wanted to answer this question. You don't have to sound proof your entire room. Using a mirror locate your reflection points and place sound absorbing panels at those points. There are two ways of doing this:

1. Using a carpenter make a frame that covers 70$ of your wall height, and about 2 to 3 feet wide. Using a thin mesh or similar material load the frame either with glass wool, or glass wool sheets. Cover the whole frame with a furnishing cloth, and literally hand these frames at the reflection points.

2. If you want a more elegant solution, use sound absorbing boards. One of the most inexpensive I have seen is from a Delhi based company called Fibretech. (Roof Insulation Board,False Ceiling Panels,Roof Insulation Board Manufacturer,False Ceiling Panels Supplier). This will cost you around 75 rupees a sq.feet and are available as 2 feet by 4 feet boards.

Cheers

 

[marsilians]

1) I want to add another preamp to the mix... after a lot of thought I am considering the Acoustic Portrait NJ1 preamp... but is there any other good option within a budget of 30/40K ?

Hi Gautamz, I am not able to understand your question very well. What do you have in mind to integrate the pre-amp (if you can draw out the chain) then I should be able to suggest some.

3) I listened to and loved the Fatman Carbon Ipod dock, but its an amp by itself... is there anyway I can use it as the source/pre in my setup? or should I opt for an external dac instead?

If the AVR has front analog audio inputs, then it may not be a bad choice to hook up the ipod to via an y-cable. reduces another component in the mix and could save some money as well. Is this something you would consider?

4) I have not yet hooked up the Dalis to the M-80. The Dalis are rated 150W rms@6ohms while the M-80 is 250W rms@8 ohms ... conservative... very conservative... but I so want to listen to the amp off the Dalis... its such a sweet and awesome amp. I just want to be sure I don't blow the speakers by pumping too much juice, any idea how I can do that? or should I just abandon the thought?

Less juice is a problem for speakers. More juice is generally not. You shoudl be able to hook up the Dali's fine.

 

[gautamz]

Hi guys... thanks a lot for your response.

venkat... i would prefer using pre-fabricated boards so thanks for the link. I still have a a few queries... My aim is to prevent transmission of the sound across the walls into my neighbour's apartment when I play at loud volumes. I don't want to dampen/absorb all sound reflection,as I understand that there should be a balance between reflection and absorption for good room acoustics. How do I determine and get this balance?

marsillians... my chain is simple... ipod -> y-cable -> pre C-80 -> amp M-80 -> speakers. I plan to connect a CD player through the pre-amp later.
I would rather not playback my music through the receiver. While its good, music is not its forte. And the C-80 is nice but it has some niggling issues. So I would like to swap in a better pre-amp.

I found the fatman carbon dock to be better sounding than my y-cable to pre setup, hence I am wondering if I should use a DAC or if I can somehow add the fatman carbon into my chain without messing things up or is there another better solution?

 

[venkatcr]

venkat... i would prefer using pre-fabricated boards so thanks for the link. I still have a a few queries... My aim is to prevent transmission of the sound across the walls into my neighbour's apartment when I play at loud volumes. I don't want to dampen/absorb all sound reflection,as I understand that there should be a balance between reflection and absorption for good room acoustics. How do I determine and get this balance?

If you want to stop the sound from going to the next flat, you may have no option but to deaden the whole wall. When you look for a prefabricated boards, look for the one with the maximum sound absorbing capabilities.

A lot pf research has been done on this and what has been concluded are as follows:

1. If you have sharp corners in your room, you need to use bass traps.
2, If you have side walls that are very reflective and close to each other, you need to mount sound absorbing material to kill standing waves.
3. The concept of determining reflection points and leaving the rest of the walls bare is the best to mix sound absorption and a bit of room liveliness.

The way to find out what is best for you room are two:

1. Get an acoustical engineer to study your room and determine what is best. This will cost you some 35,000 to 50,000 for just the study and advise. They will walk around the room with a mike, study the sound patterns and run a software to give you the results.
2. Get a few prefabricated sound absorbing panels made (you are going o use them in any case). just lean them against reflection points, and determine for yourself what you like. You can move the panels to determine what are the best spots to give you the sound you like.

Cheers

 

[marsilians]

You have middle of the line AVR (with some known issues) and pre and a pretty decent power amp. Also if you go with the Carbon dock, then you will not be able to use it as a pre to the power amp as its an amp by itself. If these are bridgeable (I doubt it but I could be wrong), then you probably may use them together.

You are better of having 2 separate cleanly configured system, one driven by the dock and the other by the c-80.

If I can offer a third suggestion, you could go into for an Oppo 980 universal player that has a USB 2 input through which you could connect the ipod and play the sound via the AVR/pre to power map.

Howeve I suspect the soundstage of this will be a tad worse than using the fatman dock with a different speakers set.

Hi guys... thanks a lot for your response.

venkat... i would prefer using pre-fabricated boards so thanks for the link. I still have a a few queries... My aim is to prevent transmission of the sound across the walls into my neighbour's apartment when I play at loud volumes. I don't want to dampen/absorb all sound reflection,as I understand that there should be a balance between reflection and absorption for good room acoustics. How do I determine and get this balance?

marsillians... my chain is simple... ipod -> y-cable -> pre C-80 -> amp M-80 -> speakers. I plan to connect a CD player through the pre-amp later.
I would rather not playback my music through the receiver. While its good, music is not its forte. And the C-80 is nice but it has some niggling issues. So I would like to swap in a better pre-amp.

I found the fatman carbon dock to be better sounding than my y-cable to pre setup, hence I am wondering if I should use a DAC or if I can somehow add the fatman carbon into my chain without messing things up or is there another better solution?