Stereophile 2014 Recommended Components

[arj]

When you say "Thats not for everyone" .. are you talking about the "patience factor" or the "sonic characteristics" ?Did you find any one not-liking a well setup Rethm ?

Most of the great speakers are never plug and play and you have to keep on playing with the synergy of the components because they are usually responsive to an upgraded front end ..But when you have heard the full capability of a speaker in an ACE setup[within a budget].. you are always motivated , knowing that ,what you are aiming for, can be achieved through patience rather than hunting for an easy to setup system with a sonic compromise.

In my case I want to fix the speakers long term ..(at least 15 years) and I don't mind slowly reaching the pinnacle of sonic bliss from there on.But at the same time it is important to get a good start!I don't want to start with a system that has components that don't support each other.Then it becomes impossible to justify the buy. At the first go I am expecting to achieve the 65% of the speakers capability and the rest 35% will come through upgrades.

That's true for any resolving / high end speaker . You first get an idea of the potential of the system .
And the changes need not be thru upgrades but by minor tweaking and setup configurations etc.

A forgiving speaker is.a compromised speaker .. not to be taken negatively but something which is easier to set up although potential in terms of a hi fi definition would be lesser

 

[denom]

When you say "Thats not for everyone" .. are you talking about the "patience factor" or the "sonic characteristics" ?Did you find any one not-liking a well setup Rethm ?

Most of the great speakers are never plug and play and you have to keep on playing with the synergy of the components because they are usually responsive to an upgraded front end ..But when you have heard the full capability of a speaker in an ACE setup[within a budget].. you are always motivated , knowing that ,what you are aiming for, can be achieved through patience rather than hunting for an easy to setup system with a sonic compromise.

In my case I want to fix the speakers long term ..(at least 15 years) and I don't mind slowly reaching the pinnacle of sonic bliss from there on.But at the same time it is important to get a good start!I don't want to start with a system that has components that don't support each other.Then it becomes impossible to justify the buy. At the first go I am expecting to achieve the 65% of the speakers capability and the rest 35% will come through upgrades.

Pls read my post again, this time carefully!!! Your questions will be answered.
If you are willing to be patient, put in hard work of continuously striving to make the Rethm Saadhana's achieve their potential & lastly have some knowledge of basics of audio/room treatment etc., then I see no reason why you cannot be a happy camper. If you are seriously considering the Rethm Saadhana's then I humbly request you to be in constant touch with Jacob of Rethm & also Prem from our forum. The best 2 guides on the Rethm's & your 2 be bestest friends in future :lol:

No speaker is plug & play, its only the varying degrees of difficulty each one possesses wrt to set-up/ease of achieving component synergy & also how much you are willing to put in efforts to achieve your dream of owning a dream set-up. It takes some who are gifted/lucky a short period to achieve so or may take others a lifetime to do so. I know very few people who have achieved what they wanted in audio. The majority are still struggling whilst putting on a brave face & saying am fine, am happy (NOT!!!)

So before you jump, look for what you should expect when you do so.

 

[Hari Iyer]

Hari, would you not begin by tweaking the room to the speakers?

For me its easier to tweak the speaker than the room. Room tweaking sometimes are limited to finding the right placement and toe-in and getting the right delay in the reflections. Adding diffusers, absorbers etc are not only difficult but are not practical owing to the cost and size of the room. Also the room is used by others in our home and in such case adjusting the cross-over is much easier and economical too. Yes, it will again need to be readjusted when the speaker is shifted somewhere else, again who has the luxury of shifting homes so easily in Mumbai. Hence its a huge advantage for all DIY speakers rather than a branded speakers. Unless you have heard the speaker in your room with your hardware its very difficult to predict its perfrormance reading reviews and others experience. I also believe that there should be some scope of tweaking required even in commercial speakers too else it would fail in some room environment very badly.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

For me its easier to tweak the speaker than the room.

I had imagined that that might be part of the answer.

I also believe that there should be some scope of tweaking required even in commercial speakers too else it would fail in some room environment very badly.

As per commonly available in active monitors? Is it possible to achieve this with passive crossovers?

 

[square_wave]

Did I just see a Sony speaker in the top echelons

Sony SS-AR1

 

[arj]

Did I just see a Sony speaker in the top echelons

Sony SS-AR1

Yes, Sony and Yamaha have been making some great components over the past few years

 

[soulforged]

Sony amps and speakers have been A listers a few times...unfortunately, Sony feels India is a market for mass produced equipments and not for high end

 

[arj]

Sony amps and speakers have been A listers a few times...unfortunately, Sony feels India is a market for mass produced equipments and not for high end

I dont suppose india is a market for High end. this thread itself is proof to that,
But it is a much better market for the same than what it was 5 years ago.

 

[Hari Iyer]

As per commonly available in active monitors? Is it possible to achieve this with passive crossovers?

Not easily possible in passive cross-over, at the most a switch can be given at the back for Baffle step but again the cross-over point will vary. The only option in passive cross-overs will be to know what drivers are used and having the TS parameter, FR curve & Impedance curve measure in free-air and also in the box.

You need to then trace the cross-over circuit diagram with component values and have them simulated in a cross-pver simulator to get the current response and then analyze what needs to be tweaked. Its not meant for someone who does not understand the nuiance of various components and the technical know-how of how to do the adjustments altering the component value. To sum it up its not for the novice. You need to have solid experience of working with crossover simulators and analyzing response curves and its behaviour altering the crossover components.

 

[Hari Iyer]

Sony amps and speakers have been A listers a few times...unfortunately, Sony feels India is a market for mass produced equipments and not for high end

How True. I admire their wisdom.

 

[Nikhil]

Hari, would you not begin by tweaking the room to the speakers?

Not sure if you've looked up DSP and Room Correction software using parametric filters in Computer Audio transports.
Theoretically you can tune your room and your speakers using tools like Acourate and Spatial Computer etc.

I think there's massive potential to this but the technicalities are a little daunting.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Sure. There are stand-alone boxes (there's one from Behringer, the model excapes me, which has been used by forum members, but computer-as-source gives a vast capability.

ISTR that Spacial is very expensive (and MAC-based?). Acourate (just looked) is certainly not cheap. I think there are cheaper software solutions, possibly even free. One needs a calibrated mic. A member wrote very recently about buying one, but I don't think he has yet posted about using it.

Yes, there is massive potential. And, yes, it is technically a bit daunting.

EQing to match the room also has limits. One, that seemed obvious only after I read it, is you can't EQ to correct a null point, because you'd could put an infinite amount of power into it, and it would still be a null.

Reflections are also still going to be reflections. I think we need to deal with the basics physically, and then fine-tune with electronics.

Excuse me if I'm restating the obvious here --- I'm just thinking aloud, and, for myself, I often have to restate the basics!

 

[arj]

Reflections are also still going to be reflections. I think we need to deal with the basics physically, and then fine-tune with electronics.

Excuse me if I'm restating the obvious here --- I'm just thinking aloud, and, for myself, I often have to restate the basics!

Spot on

You have to get your acoustics right first. Any eq is is some way playing with the signal ( note:i am old school on the lines of having the shortest and best signal path). From a purist view EQ is better done to take care of a problem that cannot be solved in any other way and something identified and you are not able to live with.

But of course that is the easiest path..and for those who are not puritanical on the same, it is the easier option for the intended result. Eg that's how I am with HT

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Yes, arj, agreed.

One thing that EQ can address that acoustic treatment cannot is problems with our ears. Which takes us to the tone-control discussion.