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Hi-Fi

I went the other way. Got rid all the fiddly bits and got a set of speakers with built in amps, blue tooth and WiFi. Simple yet the best sound I’ve ever had. The future of HiFi?





Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
 
SpurMeUp said:
I went the other way. Got rid all the fiddly bits and got a set of speakers with built in amps, blue tooth and WiFi. Simple yet the best sound I’ve ever had. The future of HiFi?





Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
Click to expand...
Ive heard nothing but good things about the sound quality on the LS50 and I’m a big Kef fan. I had multiple pairs before I switched to Dali (the Rubicons were just different gravy!)

I think there’s definitely an argument for the 1 box solution he and you talk about. The ‘pairing’ of the amp to speaker being matched and done for you already ‘in box’ has many positive aspects.

My personal reservations would be (and this is just me as I suffer from Upgraditis) a) would I want everything including my analogue sources being converted to digital? And b) what if I want to upgrade anything - I.e I might like the sound of a different DAC, or it doesn’t have the new streaming source yet which I want to use So need to add a device, or I like using a separate preamplifier (valves or mono blocks or a bi-wired power amp for instance).

But all of that is clearly not what it’s designed for and you wouldn’t buy it if those were your preferences! It’s strengths are providing a ‘cable cut’ modern one box solution - of extremely high quality. And I believe it massively exceeds at that goal.

A Very very nice system!

Nb - do you notice an improvement streaming with WiFi rather than from Bluetooth? BT is not a great quality method of streaming, even though APTX technology has improved it.

What are you using as your source? Eg Spotify, Tidal, Roon etc?
 
Kandi1977 said:
I worked with building professional P.A speakers for DPAC and NPAC (Danish and Norwegian PA Centre), so I'm not a total noob in speaker design. Crossovers on the other hand, is not something I'm very skilled at, as all the pa stuff used active crossovers (digital).
If you want a near perfect, smooth frequency response, a passive crossover can get quite complicated, with L-pad, notch filters, baffle step correction in addition to the Hi-pass and Low-pass. And quite expensive too!
The x-over I'm most pleased with for this project, is getting close to £200 in parts for just the x-over :eek:

Designed another one with fewer parts, and pretty close response for around £70, which is probably what I'll go for.

I just want it to sound good, not exceptional :)

I'll post some pics when I get going.
Click to expand...
Nice one thanks!

You’ll appreciate I’m using Danish speakers then, with your DPAC background! :)

I’d read about the crossover being the most complex but key element of good speaker design.... I’ve got a Rel T9 sun woofer which wants you to wire it off the back of the Front L and R pair, then go through an arduous set of testing with two people to try to find and set the crossover from the stereo speakers to the sub! (So a similar concept, just using multiple cabinets I guess!).

My floor standers are at the very top limit of the size for which my room is capable of accommodating without the bass booming anyway so I don’t need the sub for music - only for LFE on movies.

I therefore used this as a good excuse and bottled the crossover set up - Just running the LFE .1 channel cable from the AVR to the sub only. Job done!
 
The KEF LS50's are good, in terms of imaging, as they are as close to a point source as you get, but as with all full range speakers (technically the KEF uses a co-axial driver), they suffer with the doppler effect, which i'm (overly?) sensitive to.
And no one driver can produce linerity across the entire frequency band. It's just not possible. But despite all the flaws, they sound pretty good, but I just can't live with that doppler effect for any lenght of time.
 
Kandi1977 said:
The KEF LS50's are good, in terms of imaging, as they are as close to a point source as you get, but as with all full range speakers (technically the KEF uses a co-axial driver), they suffer with the doppler effect, which i'm (overly?) sensitive to.
And no one driver can produce linerity across the entire frequency band. It's just not possible. But despite all the flaws, they sound pretty good, but I just can't live with that doppler effect for any lenght of time.
Click to expand...
Interesting! Would a separate sub provide the wider expansion across the frequency band? Or is more between the conventional mid range/tweeter to the bass cone where that effect occurs?
 
Jon said:
Ive heard nothing but good things about the sound quality on the LS50 and I’m a big Kef fan. I had multiple pairs before I switched to Dali (the Rubicons were just different gravy!)

I think there’s definitely an argument for the 1 box solution he and you talk about. The ‘pairing’ of the amp to speaker being matched and done for you already ‘in box’ has many positive aspects.

My personal reservations would be (and this is just me as I suffer from Upgraditis) a) would I want everything including my analogue sources being converted to digital? And b) what if I want to upgrade anything - I.e I might like the sound of a different DAC, or it doesn’t have the new streaming source yet which I want to use So need to add a device, or I like using a separate preamplifier (valves or mono blocks or a bi-wired power amp for instance).

But all of that is clearly not what it’s designed for and you wouldn’t buy it if those were your preferences! It’s strengths are providing a ‘cable cut’ modern one box solution - of extremely high quality. And I believe it massively exceeds at that goal.

A Very very nice system!

Nb - do you notice an improvement streaming with WiFi rather than from Bluetooth? BT is not a great quality method of streaming, even though APTX technology has improved it.

What are you using as your source? Eg Spotify, Tidal, Roon etc?
Click to expand...

They say Wi-Fi is better than Bluetooth, but the difference is slight. I have a turntable plugged in...and that is it. They have 2 amps per speaker, driving each part. The sound is super clean. Which some don't like. I remember having a set of speakers with a rip in one of them. Aretha Franklin album sounded that much better on them (and not the same on new clean speakers). Cleaner sound is not always to peoples liking. Sometimes you'll think a sound from the speakers is real. Like someone has shouted to you or just come in the front door. Fools the cat too.

You do hear things afresh with them. All the detail. You want to listen to all your tracks again to get a new perspective. I can see why people say they lack character. But they are awesome. And so neat.
 
Jon said:
Interesting! Would a separate sub provide the wider expansion across the frequency band? Or is more between the conventional mid range/tweeter to the bass cone where that effect occurs?
Click to expand...
Not really. A sub would only cover up to 80-100Hz. The "outer" cone will still have to travel a fair bit at 100Hz, and push high freqs forwards and backwards as the cone moves, and this is what causes the doppler distortion.
Some don't find (or hear) that a problem at all, but I notice it very well. That said, traditional 2-way, 3-way systems are not without flaws, far from it, but I find the compromises in those to sound better than a single/co-axial driver.
 
SpurMeUp said:
They say Wi-Fi is better than Bluetooth, but the difference is slight. I have a turntable plugged in...and that is it. They have 2 amps per speaker, driving each part. The sound is super clean. Which some don't like. I remember having a set of speakers with a rip in one of them. Aretha Franklin album sounded that much better on them (and not the same on new clean speakers). Cleaner sound is not always to peoples liking. Sometimes you'll think a sound from the speakers is real. Like someone has shouted to you or just come in the front door. Fools the cat too.

You do hear things afresh with them. All the detail. You want to listen to all your tracks again to get a new perspective. I can see why people say they lack character. But they are awesome. And so neat.
Click to expand...
Yes, the imaging from a point source is exeptional! But the "sweet spot" is very narrow i think.
 
SpurMeUp said:
They say Wi-Fi is better than Bluetooth, but the difference is slight. I have a turntable plugged in...and that is it. They have 2 amps per speaker, driving each part. The sound is super clean. Which some don't like. I remember having a set of speakers with a rip in one of them. Aretha Franklin album sounded that much better on them (and not the same on new clean speakers). Cleaner sound is not always to peoples liking. Sometimes you'll think a sound from the speakers is real. Like someone has shouted to you or just come in the front door. Fools the cat too.

You do hear things afresh with them. All the detail. You want to listen to all your tracks again to get a new perspective. I can see why people say they lack character. But they are awesome. And so neat.
Click to expand...
The digitilisation and DSP processing will be lending itself to that ‘cleanness’.
I do like the clean sound myself as well. The Arcam bought was mostly because they use the ESS sabre 9038 Pro DAC chips - total industry leading, but some people do complain they find ESS DACs a little clean.

That’s why I enjoy the vinyl experience - driven though valve and analogue amps - so I have the best of both worlds option! :)
 
Kandi1977 said:
I once had two of these little babies at home
https://www.lsionline.com/news/sound/vega-buys-d-pac-as-2-self-powered-subwoofers-y3m7io
Double 18" Beyma 18PW1400FE woofers, with in-built 4000W RMS Class D amp with DSP. 139dB peak. No price for guessing what the neighbors thought of that :D
Click to expand...
Bloody hell thats a beast. I bet they just moved out. :D

Ive got this one - selected for smaller size but still enough punch. The room is also used as the main living room so I need to be skilful around some tech choices!

 
Jon said:
Bloody hell thats a beast. I bet they just moved out. :D

Ive got this one - selected for smaller size but still enough punch. The room is also used as the main living room so I need to be skilful around some tech choices!

Click to expand...
You know your brick! REL knows how to build subwoofers!
 
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