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  1. #26
    Forum Regular harley .guy07's Avatar
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    Yes I agree that Freewill has seemed to grow into wanting higher end stuff and realizing that there is a difference in low priced best buy gear and stuff that is worth having. I know I have heard a lot of brands of equipment I do not have as high end of a system as I have worked with in the past when I worked in the audio field but I do aspire to get some better gear and bring my system up to the worth of my knowledge in this hobby. As far as the gear mentioned hear I pretty much agree with everyone and would say that checking audiogon a couple of times a week would be a good thing since their turnover is real high and also that Emotiva might as well be something to look at since you want to go higher end but at the best possible price per performance units and they seem to be kicking some real ass with their stuff for the money. And you say you are building your own speakers I would not mind hearing about your plans for them and what type and brand of drivers you are going to use seeing that DIY is one of my things as well. And as well if we knew more about what speakers you were runnning we might have an even better ability to send you in the right preamp/amp direction.

    Marantz SR5008(HT)
    Nu Force P8 Preamp (2 channel)
    Pass Labs X150.5(2 channel)
    Adcom 545 mk2 power amp(rear channel amp)
    Spatial Audio M3 Turbo S Mains Speakers
    Dayton 8" HO custom sealed subwoofer(2 channel)
    Yamaha NS-c444 center channel
    Emotiva ERD-1 surround speakers
    JBL e250p subwoofer highly modified
    Samsung 46" LED TV
    OPPO BDP-83 blue ray/multi format player
    ps-audio NuWave dac (2 channel)
    Dell I660 music server running fidelizer windows 8 audio optimizer
    PS Audio Quintet power center



  2. #27
    Deathcore for life Freewillisdead112's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JoeE SP9
    You and your aspirations regarding your system and gear in general have changed quite a bit. From TRS Mach 1's to your own design FR open baffle speakers is quite a change. It seems that we have helped create a monster. I know I'm happy about that. We need all the new blood we can attract to this, obsession. Just don't forget to pass the infection along whenever you get the opportunity. We all have to be typhoid Mary as far as good stereo equipment is concerned.

    Keep the spark going!!!!

    Yes the Oppo BD player has composite, S-Video and I think component video outputs. Check the Oppo site to make sure.
    Haha, yeah JoeE I got the bug bad! The machs were cool for playing around with, but I went and got a listen to alot of interesting speakers and to make a long story short, my $60 dollar Insignia bookshelfs are more accurate then the mach's and alot of company made speakers double there price. I have been getting really big into soft, musical music, and my party rockers are not cutting it! I figure I beef up the Insignia cab's and put the fullranges in there to break in while I save, build and finish my system. Money's more available and time is less. So this should be fun!

    I will for sure be posting a thread while I build my big red and black gloss monsters!

  3. #28
    Deathcore for life Freewillisdead112's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by harley .guy07
    Yes I agree that Freewill has seemed to grow into wanting higher end stuff and realizing that there is a difference in low priced best buy gear and stuff that is worth having. I know I have heard a lot of brands of equipment I do not have as high end of a system as I have worked with in the past when I worked in the audio field but I do aspire to get some better gear and bring my system up to the worth of my knowledge in this hobby. As far as the gear mentioned hear I pretty much agree with everyone and would say that checking audiogon a couple of times a week would be a good thing since their turnover is real high and also that Emotiva might as well be something to look at since you want to go higher end but at the best possible price per performance units and they seem to be kicking some real ass with their stuff for the money. And you say you are building your own speakers I would not mind hearing about your plans for them and what type and brand of drivers you are going to use seeing that DIY is one of my things as well. And as well if we knew more about what speakers you were runnning we might have an even better ability to send you in the right preamp/amp direction.
    Well good to know your so interested! I have a plan sorta.

    The cabs will be around 30" tall by 18" wide. I will just be starting with a front baffle and a bottom base. As I mess with them more and the sound aspect I might add wings. I will be sanding curves around the morners and painting them gloss black then taping off a design and painting them gloss red. My furniture will look fantastic with them. =]

    I have decided on the Audio Nirvana Super 6.5 for the main woofer, It does'nt have great Q for open baffle but it is not to low to work. I will be adding some sort of high Q 8" woofer at the bottom to add some low end ummph!

    The AN woofers I believe are 93-95db I think, So the t-amp20 will power them great and will be alot cheaper them a decent tube amp. I chose the Insignia bookshelfs as they were cheaper to buy then build my own. Plus I will have some half decent new car speakers! =] I will be building the OB's with my friend over a long span of time so I wanted to have the woofers broke In by the time the cabs came home!

  4. #29
    Deathcore for life Freewillisdead112's Avatar
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    I found a hafler dh100 for $50, Is that any good?

  5. #30
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    For $50.00 it either has something wrong with it or they don't know what they have. Hafler has a definite following and usually prized. If it works good you better jump on it.

  6. #31
    Deathcore for life Freewillisdead112's Avatar
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    I'ma call the guy and see if I can go test it out. There is also a marantz 4430 with a crap load of stuff for $100. I am guessing thats a deal of a lifetime if it works? I know its not a pre but I bet it's nice low watts would power the FR's quite well? Maybe has preouts?

  7. #32
    Forum Regular harley .guy07's Avatar
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    Mr. Peabody is right about the hafler. They were really followed in their day and still have value to them. But finding one that is in great shape and does not need work is hard to do since most of them are older. So even if the amp works I would try to have it checked out to make sure that the Caps and transformer are in good shape and the there is not any circuits that need work. Plus I have heard of a lot of people modifying them with very good results.
    Where are you getting the Audio Nirvana speakers from. I have yet to here much about them in the DIY sites I have been to I would not mind knowing where you are looking at this stuff at so I might see what they have as well.

    Marantz SR5008(HT)
    Nu Force P8 Preamp (2 channel)
    Pass Labs X150.5(2 channel)
    Adcom 545 mk2 power amp(rear channel amp)
    Spatial Audio M3 Turbo S Mains Speakers
    Dayton 8" HO custom sealed subwoofer(2 channel)
    Yamaha NS-c444 center channel
    Emotiva ERD-1 surround speakers
    JBL e250p subwoofer highly modified
    Samsung 46" LED TV
    OPPO BDP-83 blue ray/multi format player
    ps-audio NuWave dac (2 channel)
    Dell I660 music server running fidelizer windows 8 audio optimizer
    PS Audio Quintet power center



  8. #33
    Forum Regular harley .guy07's Avatar
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    all right I searched some more and found the Audio Nirvana drivers that you are talking about and they don't look bad. They only thing I see that bothers me is the lack of venting in the pole piece on the back of the magnet. This might not hinder their sound but it will hinder their ability to cool the voice coils at higher output levels. But with full range drivers like this its about point source sound and balance and not dynamics so it probably won't be a big issue as long as you arent trying to crank the roof off.

    Marantz SR5008(HT)
    Nu Force P8 Preamp (2 channel)
    Pass Labs X150.5(2 channel)
    Adcom 545 mk2 power amp(rear channel amp)
    Spatial Audio M3 Turbo S Mains Speakers
    Dayton 8" HO custom sealed subwoofer(2 channel)
    Yamaha NS-c444 center channel
    Emotiva ERD-1 surround speakers
    JBL e250p subwoofer highly modified
    Samsung 46" LED TV
    OPPO BDP-83 blue ray/multi format player
    ps-audio NuWave dac (2 channel)
    Dell I660 music server running fidelizer windows 8 audio optimizer
    PS Audio Quintet power center



  9. #34
    Deathcore for life Freewillisdead112's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by harley .guy07
    Mr. Peabody is right about the hafler. They were really followed in their day and still have value to them. But finding one that is in great shape and does not need work is hard to do since most of them are older. So even if the amp works I would try to have it checked out to make sure that the Caps and transformer are in good shape and the there is not any circuits that need work. Plus I have heard of a lot of people modifying them with very good results.
    Where are you getting the Audio Nirvana speakers from. I have yet to here much about them in the DIY sites I have been to I would not mind knowing where you are looking at this stuff at so I might see what they have as well.
    www.commonsenseaudio.com

    The woofers are great looking and have a decent following. For $130 for some decent to good woofers with phase plugs seems to jump out at me as deal deal deal. I am sure I will upgrade later on to better woofers if the fullrange bug bites me hard enough. Who knows, I might just have to buy a super tweeter and thats it and be full out happy. Give me detail!

    That marantz looks like its mint, and i think he would break it up from the pack for prob 50 bucks.

    I'll try and beat the hafler guy down and play with it and see if it works!

  10. #35
    Deathcore for life Freewillisdead112's Avatar
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    We shall see what happends! I am going to grab some 3" FR woofers online for $10 and shove them into a mini version of my other plan and power them off my computer speakers amp. At 95 db, and at 5w max power, a young child with a waiting pool could power them! Figure I will have a little better for sound for less then $30 that will prob have better detail then most $100 computer speakers.

  11. #36
    Forum Regular harley .guy07's Avatar
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    For that price the Hafler sounds like a great deal if it is in good shape. At that price you could also look at upgrades to it. I am pretty sure the main upgrades to the Hafler amps are power supply and stiffining capacitor oriented, they will give you much more overall power and dynamic capability. Plus there might be more upgrades available that would make the sound quality better on it as well. But if there are main component damage then I would leave it alone and look else where for an amp. Most people into the full range speaker thing seem to be into tube amps from what I've seen so that might be something to think about and it makes since seeing that lower wattage quality power is usually the target for that kind of speaker design. Or possibly single ended class A could be a good option as well but they are hard to come by cheap. But it does sound like you have seen what people have been talking about in that the big Machs were not bad in their day but they are not a speaker ment for critical listening but more for power and dynamics and you would most likely be better with a different design if sound quality is more important to you than crankin it. I know I went through that learning curve many years ago and thats when things started to really came together for me as a knowledgeable audio enthusiast.

    Marantz SR5008(HT)
    Nu Force P8 Preamp (2 channel)
    Pass Labs X150.5(2 channel)
    Adcom 545 mk2 power amp(rear channel amp)
    Spatial Audio M3 Turbo S Mains Speakers
    Dayton 8" HO custom sealed subwoofer(2 channel)
    Yamaha NS-c444 center channel
    Emotiva ERD-1 surround speakers
    JBL e250p subwoofer highly modified
    Samsung 46" LED TV
    OPPO BDP-83 blue ray/multi format player
    ps-audio NuWave dac (2 channel)
    Dell I660 music server running fidelizer windows 8 audio optimizer
    PS Audio Quintet power center



  12. #37
    Deathcore for life Freewillisdead112's Avatar
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    the hafler is a pre-amp. I am still getting the hlly t-amp 2020. I am just in dilema trying to find something decent to add more inputs and maybe a sonic better. I have read days apon days of the pluses to having a t-amp and full range speakers. kinda like tube meets SS I guess.

  13. #38
    Deathcore for life Freewillisdead112's Avatar
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    It's kind of sad that I am enjoying these Insignas so much. My poor little Pionner don't know what to do anymore. I was using one of the mach's as a make-shift low-end woofer, but it was just crapping all over the high end of the speakers. So off they go to the pool hall!

  14. #39
    Forum Regular harley .guy07's Avatar
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    Well that can tell you that size does not mean everything in a speaker. thats why there are quite a few high end audio lovers out there that use stand mount speakers as their mains, even when they could afford floorstanders. they just like the improved imaging and point source sound that monitors can sometimes do better than floorstanders if they are set up right. Not to say that floorstanders are bad because some of the best speakers out there are floorstanders and the best of them will keep up or beat any stand mount speaker but the cost is a lot higher to do so, so when people ask me what they can get for a limited amount of money I will tell them they can get better quality of crossovers and drivers in a stand mount speaker in their given price range unless their price range is very high or they have a real big room to fill. there are exceptions to this but they are a rarety. Me I like the dynamics and bass capability of floorstanders but unless they can image and soundstage like a stand mount I for the most part am not interested in them. I run floorstanders but I have modified them to image and soundstage way better than they did in stock form so I am pretty happy with them for right now but I do know that an upgrade will be in my future. Its just something of a continious improvment process.

    Marantz SR5008(HT)
    Nu Force P8 Preamp (2 channel)
    Pass Labs X150.5(2 channel)
    Adcom 545 mk2 power amp(rear channel amp)
    Spatial Audio M3 Turbo S Mains Speakers
    Dayton 8" HO custom sealed subwoofer(2 channel)
    Yamaha NS-c444 center channel
    Emotiva ERD-1 surround speakers
    JBL e250p subwoofer highly modified
    Samsung 46" LED TV
    OPPO BDP-83 blue ray/multi format player
    ps-audio NuWave dac (2 channel)
    Dell I660 music server running fidelizer windows 8 audio optimizer
    PS Audio Quintet power center



  15. #40
    Forum Regular harley .guy07's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Freewillisdead112
    the hafler is a pre-amp. I am still getting the hlly t-amp 2020. I am just in dilema trying to find something decent to add more inputs and maybe a sonic better. I have read days apon days of the pluses to having a t-amp and full range speakers. kinda like tube meets SS I guess.
    I guess I missed the fact that the hafler unit is a preamp. I have seen some pretty good preamps from them but have not personally worked with one long enough to know how it stacks up against Adcom,Rotel or others in this price range. I as well have not had a chance to play around with T amps enough to know their capabilities or their weaknesses. Like I said before the people I know that have run full range single driver speakers usually run either tube amps or single ended class A amps and they get good results. But T amps are of newer technology and they might be a good choice for this, I just don't have any personal experience with them to be of any assistance on that.

    Marantz SR5008(HT)
    Nu Force P8 Preamp (2 channel)
    Pass Labs X150.5(2 channel)
    Adcom 545 mk2 power amp(rear channel amp)
    Spatial Audio M3 Turbo S Mains Speakers
    Dayton 8" HO custom sealed subwoofer(2 channel)
    Yamaha NS-c444 center channel
    Emotiva ERD-1 surround speakers
    JBL e250p subwoofer highly modified
    Samsung 46" LED TV
    OPPO BDP-83 blue ray/multi format player
    ps-audio NuWave dac (2 channel)
    Dell I660 music server running fidelizer windows 8 audio optimizer
    PS Audio Quintet power center



  16. #41
    Deathcore for life Freewillisdead112's Avatar
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    Hey, for the $100ish the t-amp cost's, if it does'nt work out to be a good amp i can just make a nice little computer setup out of it and get ahold of something thats a little better. No issue. I just want to know what all this hype is about. I for sure want to get that emo cd player. Just stuck in a crossroad, as i have read alot about a squeezebox running flac will sound better then most $1000 down cdp's. I would want proof of this though!

  17. #42
    Forum Regular harley .guy07's Avatar
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    Well I am looking at computer music server stuff right now as well. I think I will wait for the first of the year when the price on 1.5 to 2 tb hard drives goes down and take my time in choosing which dac to go with. I know I will be using usb for signal transfer since it is simple from my laptop and have heard good things about this kind of setup. Looking at the musiland md-10 dac since it upsamples to 24/192 and can handle anything in between that. Plus I have heard good things about it for the price.
    One thing I will say is that there is nothing wrong with having both a good cd player and a music server(pc) in your system. but if you get a good enough dac for your music server you can make it serve double duty with a cd player or transport and it might save you some money. but I dout it since the Emotiva is only 400 bucks and has one hell of a following. Mr. Peabody amongst others has said this player is great for the money and can stand up to players double its price. And seeing the knowledge and components that Mr. Peabody has I would take his opinion as good as gold. I think for now I will get my music server going with a good dac, hook my multi disc player up to it as well and go from there. I might be satisfied with that since I have heard others being very happy with setups like this and since there are dacs out there that take USB, and all digital outputs it should be a no brainer to do. But I do think the future of source music could possibly be a music server since there are so many options and they are very convenient. And you are right about the T-amp. I have heard people using them for computer speaker amps with good results so you probably couldn't go wrong at least trying it. If it doesn't work you could always look for one of the options I mentioned earlier and probably find something somewhat afordable used.

    Marantz SR5008(HT)
    Nu Force P8 Preamp (2 channel)
    Pass Labs X150.5(2 channel)
    Adcom 545 mk2 power amp(rear channel amp)
    Spatial Audio M3 Turbo S Mains Speakers
    Dayton 8" HO custom sealed subwoofer(2 channel)
    Yamaha NS-c444 center channel
    Emotiva ERD-1 surround speakers
    JBL e250p subwoofer highly modified
    Samsung 46" LED TV
    OPPO BDP-83 blue ray/multi format player
    ps-audio NuWave dac (2 channel)
    Dell I660 music server running fidelizer windows 8 audio optimizer
    PS Audio Quintet power center



  18. #43
    frenchmon frenchmon's Avatar
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  19. #44
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    In case you don't see my thread, the Emotiva stereo preamp is on sale $349.00.

  20. #45
    Deathcore for life Freewillisdead112's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Peabody
    In case you don't see my thread, the Emotiva stereo preamp is on sale $349.00.
    Well darn! If the sale last's over a month that would work out real well! I could squeeze out The $800 ish for the cdp and the pre over a couple months each. So if the sale is still going on I will for sure grab the pre first.

    I have never had anything besides dvd players as cdp's before and honestly have no idea what to expect. When I went to look at the B&W 686 and 685's the guy had a TOTL cary cdp running balanced to a TOTL Krell and I honesly never in my live heard something that fantastic! But I know for a long time I could never afford anything, anything that nice sounding. I would put $500 on it if I took the 686's home and ran them on anything in my price range they would not make me happy.

    What do you think I am going to gain doing this cdp upgrade. I can here a sonic better on 320kbs mp3's and flac's from my computer then a quality cd out of my dvd player. So I am guessing my dvd player just suck's really bad, as running a pc on a horrible $10 rca cable and no dac it would'nt be that great. Who knows!

  21. #46
    Deathcore for life Freewillisdead112's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by frenchmon
    Know anything about it?

    If it sits a little while I could grab it if its really that good of a deal. Doubt he would go down on the price though.

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