Hello from Virginia
 

Hello all,

I've been lurking around the site for a month or so and have been very impressed. I'm a real newbie at this so I'll do a lot of listening/reading and not a lot of posting ... except for asking for advice and help!

Welcome!

Hello and welcome

Welcome to AA, the friendliest audio forum on the planet. :thumbsup: Don't hesitate to post your questions, we have experienced and friendly members who are always willing to help.

difficultrun... Welcome to AA! :wave:

May we know your first name?

Welcome and subscriber to boot -- please don't forget to update your profile with your equipment, etc. Helps in the long run.:thumbsup:

Best Sir,

Bob

Also, make a post here to enter our “Free Monthly Music Giveaway” for Subscribers only. ;)

https://www.audioaficionado.org/show...692#post876692

Sorry ... it's Gene. Thanks everyone for your kind welcomes!

Will do Bob ... but first I have to buy some equipment! That's why I'm here -- to learn from the experts.

Ah, what a fantastic place to be, the beginning of the journey into high end audio! The canvas is blank and awaiting the first sketches of a life long hobby. Wishing you an enjoyable journey and countless hours of musical bliss.

Welcome to a fellow Virginian! You have come to the right place for knowledgeable and passionate discourse on all things audio.

Hi Virginia from Seattle USA

I hope I'm putting this in the right place ...

Thank you all for your kind welcomes … I’m ready to start my journey to audio nirvana and I need your wise counsel and advice. Currently, the only audio setup I have is a whole house audio system that uses an HTD-1275 12 channel amp and HTD music controller. We stream music from iTunes and Tidal (which we’re just getting into) via an airport express connected to the music controller. I would like to begin to build a high quality 2 channel system. First, I would like to start with digital only, since all of my current source material is on CDs and we stream a lot of music, and maybe at some point in the future add a turntable. Since I will be starting with digital, I was thinking of starting with either the Aurender A10 or N10. As I understand it, if I got the A10, I would not need an external DAC. If I went with the N10, I would need to add an external DAC. If that’s the case, I was thinking of the Esoteric K-01X, which seems to get glowing reviews and only lacks MQA (which may not even be a shortcoming). Please provide feedback on these and whether I need to demo these before making a decision on one or the other or if it makes sense to consider something else.

My next consideration is where to put the new system. We have two choices here: My wife would like to keep it in a smaller room (dimensions are 16’ L x 15.5’ W x 11’ H). We currently use this room as a bar with one wall having cabinets with glass doors. The other walls are plaster. Seating would be about 10’ from the speakers. While I’m not against that, I see another possibility in a much larger room (dimensions are 37’ L x 17’ W x 10’ H). This room is one big room that has our kitchen, family kitchen table and family room. The walls are dry wall and windows/doors to the outside. At the far end of the room in the kitchen area, there is a tile wall with cabinets and a 48” Wolf oven and vent. I don’t know if that will have any adverse impact on the sound. I estimate that seating would be about 10-11’ from the speakers.

After deciding where to put the system, I guess the next step would be to select candidate amps and speakers for audition. I’m wide open for suggestions, although I tend to like McIntosh amps and Sonus Faber speakers — but again, I don’t have any basis for leaning in that direction and have never done an amp and speaker audition.

Please let me know if I’m way off the mark or if I’m going about this all wrong — I’m looking for your input and guidance.

Thank you all and I look forward to reading your input!

Gene

Welcome aboard, Gene! The small room plus is dedicated room. The negative is nearly square dimensions, which will require acoustic treatment and/or EQ to tame the bass. The big room will have better acoustics, but may have serious WAF limitations, like no acoustic treatment. Tough choice.

Personally, I would put monitors in the small room and use art print acoustic panels. BUT, if you listen at concert level volume, I would go with big room.

Thanks Chessman. We listen to classical about 99% of the time, mostly chamber music and symphony with a very rare opera. Volume-wise, we don't blow the windows out so it sounds like the smaller room would work. Any thoughts on how I should go about acquiring components?

Thanks again,
Gene

Welcome to AA Gene! I would def. start with speakers (not that you have your dac and streamer). Take your time with this, you should spend the longest time auditioning lots and lots of speakers. Pick a budget and stick with it. Keep in mind that you can get pre-owned speakers at killer prices. You may not be able to get a particular speaker brand new, but pre-owned, may easily fit in your price range. Check the marketplace here, audiogon. Call around to dealers, especially when you know what speakers you want and see if they have used product. One tip, if you want to buy them used, call the manufacturer, sometimes they can give you a tip as to what dealer in the country has a used model; most dealers are more than happy to ship stuff out to you, as long as you pay shipping.

I would then select your pre-amp and amplifiers. Last is cables.

People on this forum are extremely friendly. If you see that someone on here has something that you want to own, send them a PM; see what their experience has been, they will, most likely, be glad to help you.

Hi Gene, welcome to AA.
Regarding your room choice, consider also how you like to listen to music. If it’s a family affair and you and your wife both enjoy listening together, and like playing music while you’re doing other things like cooking, go for the big room. If, on the other hand, you want to be able to spend more time in dedicated listening without distraction, you’ll want to be able to close out the noise of not just other family members, but things like a refrigerator humming in the background. Neither room will be perfect, but then few of us have perfect rooms, and with the right equipment and some discreet treatment either could produce very enjoyable sound.

Here are a couple of threads discussing listening rooms that might interest you:

http://www.audioaficionado.org/showthread.php?t=40978
http://www.audioaficionado.org/showt...Dedicated+room

Thanks Aditya and Tony. My wife and I are going to do some speaker demos and see what we like. I'm sure she'll focus on aesthetics and I'll focus on the sound. We're also looking at the pros/cons of each room. One question ... would there be any problem with running speaker cables over a distance of 10-15 feet through a crawl space? One scenario we're investigating is putting the components on some built in shelves and putting the speakers on an opposite wall.

Thanks again.

Gene

Nope. Just invest in good quality cables. Speakers carry amplifier signal.

General cables that carry a small, delicate signal such as a tonearm cables are much more susceptible to signal loss and degradation as the length of cables increases.

By the way, it’s awesome that your wife likes to do this with you. My wife wants nothing to do with Audio hobby!

It is good in a way, as she doesn’t see how much all of this stuff costs!

I think it's more a matter that she humors me ... "what's he up to now?" and at some point I'm sure she'll ask how much we're spending on this. That's when I'll tell her about all you guys and how much you spend!

The :twisted: aka :homer: made me do it! :laughin:

Gene,

15' shouldn't be a problem, depending of course on the cable. The condition of the crawlspace and how you run them are considerations. Is the crawlspace sealed and dry, or does it get damp? Depending on the quality and type of insulation, you can get some oxidation. Also I would keep them off the floor of the crawlspace, e.g. suspend them with some sort of hanger (preferably not metal).

Gene, if I may make a few suggestions.

Most important decision is where you want to place your system. That decision makes the selection of speakers easier and more focused on the right speaker for the room.

I would think about where you envision yourself and your wife enjoying the music together the most. Will it be in the bigger room where both of you are comfortable on the couch enjoying a glass of wine and your favorite music?

Will it be more convenient for your wife to have a choice of either actively participating in the musical experience with you on that couch and also having the pleasure of passively enjoying the music as she is preparing a meal in the kitchen?

Or will that dedicated, smaller room be used more often to have a focused, listening session when the mood strikes?

If you discuss this with your wife and both of you come to an agreement, it makes the plan much more concrete.

Having selected the right room for your musical pleasure, I would focus on the appropriate speaker.

You mentioned you like the Sonus Faber brand of speakers. Fantastic choice. Your musical preference and these hand crafted, Italian music makers are a marriage made in heaven for your taste in music and from the aesthetical point of view. Surely your wife will not mind a beautifully hand crafted wood speaker such as Sonus Faber that the both of you can enjoy and be proud of in the bigger room. The Italian craftsmen sure know how to voice these speakers for that type of music, considering the rich history of violin makers in the region and their obvious taste for music, Sonus Faber is a window into the soul of classical music, any stringed instruments particularly come across with an engaging, emotional quality.

You mentioned you like chamber music. Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Here your bigger room is an advantage. While you mentioned you don't listen at high volumes, you can appreciate the scale and realistic reproduction of that type of music in the bigger room.

The smaller room is certainly not too small to enjoy a 2 channel setup but I would approach my choice of speakers differently. In that nearly square, smaller room, I would suggest you look for a high quality pair of monitor speakers and Sonus Faber offers those as well. My suggestion is based on my own decades of experience and I strongly prefer to have control over the bottom octaves in the form of a subwoofer that you can dial in rather than fighting standing waves in the room and problematic bass response of a full range speaker not well suited for smaller acoustical spaces. Trust me on this, if implemented well, you will have a setup that rivals any full range speaker but sounds much better in a smaller, square room.


As to the supporting gear, that will all fall in place and there are many choices out there to compliment the Sonus Faber speakers, McIntosh being a very good choice as well. I've personally enjoyed many years of such combinations myself and highly recommend it.

Let us know what you decide on the room and we can put our collective effort in moving your dream system forward. :thumbsup:

Gene, if you become a subscriber you get access to the marketplace where you can buy used gear for substantially less than new

Thanks Tony. The crawl space is sealed and there's no moisture so I think that will work. I'll also avoid using any metal to suspend the cables off the ground.

Thanks Randy. I did subscribe and have already made one purchase. I picked up Aditya's Aurender N10 -- he was great to work with and very helpful with advice. I'm almost wishing I hadn't found out about the marketplace -- I could go broke there!! :thumbsup:

Thanks PHC1. There's a lot to digest here. We had a long discussion last night and we're now leaning towards the larger room. I would like to take some pictures of both rooms and post them and get some feedback. I showed my wife a series of pictures of different speakers to get her reaction from an aesthetics perspective -- she wasn't crazy about B&W, but really liked the Sonus Faber and Vienna Acoustics. Her point is that she doesn't want something that's going to dominate the room size wise. Now, we've got to do some listening. I have already purchased an Esoteric K-01X (thanks Ivan) and an Aurender N10 (thanks Aditya) -- I know we want to start with digital and these sounded like rock solid choices based on the reviews and input on the forum. Now, like you say, it's decide on the room, then speakers and then amp/pre-amp -- or would an integrated amp work ok?

Thanks again and (to everyone) I look forward to hearing your feedback and input.

Gene

Welcome Gene!

Welcome to the best audio site with a friendly and helpful group of individuals.
Ed

Hello, neighbor!
 

Welcome! I am in Kentucky next to you, also new. I can't even make my own post yet. I can't read my messages, either (just an fyi, in case you try to message me).

I am in the same boat as you... here to learn and ask some questions.

Take care.

-Brian

bek... Welcome to AA! :wave:

Thanks, Masterlu!

I received your friend request and tried to accept. Not 100% sure if it went through, but if not I will keep trying. Really appreciate the warm welcome.

Welcome Bek!

Gene - there is a pair of Sonus Faber Amati Futura’s in the marketplace. At that price, it is a no sweat safe purchase if you like the aesthetics. I own a pair and they are fantastic.

Welcome, from a Richmond born audiophile :)

Same here
 

Hi y‘all,

From RVA. Just diving in the Mac world... more details soon,

Cheers

Cheers Chris, welcome to AA.

Chris... Welcome to AA! :wave:

Thanks all,
I‘m waiting until i hit 10 posts to start with my stuff...just recently god back (by accident) into my Hi-Fi hobby. It all started with a Dynaudio Xeo30 set for our home in Europe.
For the time being the wife and I life in the US since more than 2 years now. Slowly I start to look around, especially for made in the US hightech products. Initially, the idea was to eventually bring it home to Europe after our time here is over...honestly, between us, i don’t think we will go back.
Anyway, so i not only own a wrangler now, i have a slayer coffee machine and some Mac amps coming! System is way over my not existing budget, whatever.
It’s fun to have one household Digital and the other one analog.
I’ll keep you guys posted

Staying within budget is just so yesterday. :laughin:

:D