ddrueding
Fixture
Thanks, but the kid is less than a week old. I would be in serious trouble.
Even better audio from a laptop v. Audio-gd NFB-15.1 + Emotiva Pro Airmotiv 4
- Thread starter Stereodude
- Start date
Stereodude
Not really a
Where's your sense of adventure? :bstd:
Did you buy them?
Stereodude
Not really a
No, I'm on the fence. I don't need another pair of speakers, but I'm afraid that's not a very strong deterrent.
Stereodude
Not really a
Exactly where I left it.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
ddrueding
Fixture
I did just order a new bike frame and 24Ah of batteries for my new drone. So the adventure is there, but it is elsewhere.
Stereodude
Not really a
Oh look we have our own resident Jean K. Jean here.In his mother's womb.
Sorry, I had to say it. I'm so evil.
I sure hope that was better in French.
They're on sale for $639 in case it tempts you still.
I can take your airmotiv 4s off your hands. They're also on sale for $299.
ddrueding
Fixture
Ugh....such temptation, along with the easy out for my current gear. Mine are lightly used but without any of the original packaging or documentation. Name your price including shipping (they offer free shipping, so I should as well to make the math easier).
ddrueding
Fixture
Ugh...and their DAC looks perfect.
Stereodude
Not really a
Oh, I bought them before when they were $669, so I've already got a set.They're on sale for $639 in case it tempts you still.
Nice. How are the Stealth 8s? Are you using them nearfield? If I could sell my CM9s, those Stealth 8s would pair well with my Marantz AV7005 for my home theater.
Stereodude
Not really a
They're nice, but they have a faint hiss that I can hear from my seat when the house is very quiet. I'm not really listening to them nearfield.
That's unfortunate to hear. Does the level of hiss change based on the input level or is it constant? My XPA-5 amplifier has a faint hiss when I put my ear near the tweeter but I don't recall being able to hear it from my listening position. It's a constant hiss even with the RCA connections removed from my pre/pro.
Stereodude
Not really a
The hiss is there with or without anything connected to the inputs. It's not based on input level. I turned down the gain on them as much as possible (which isn't a lot). This reduces it some. I am driving them from my fully balanced headphone amp / DAC. It's not noticeable when you're listening to music, so more of an annoyance.
ddrueding
Fixture
After chatting with my local home theater guy I decided to go with the ADAM audio A8X instead. He cut me a pretty sweet deal and I couldn't pass it up. So Handruin should be getting some Emotiva 4s by the end of next week.
ddrueding
Fixture
I knew they were going to be larger, but this caught me a bit by surprise. That is a 30" monitor.
Sounds amazing so far, I'll know more after 5pm when I can open them up a bit. I am completely shocked at how clear they are at very, very low listening levels.
Sounds amazing so far, I'll know more after 5pm when I can open them up a bit. I am completely shocked at how clear they are at very, very low listening levels.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Hey look, your secretary wanted to listen to your speakers while your weren't there. Look at the picture your webcam snapped :
Those look really nice. They are quite large given the area.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
ddrueding
Fixture
I have a Creative USB sound card below my monitor, mainly for the volume knob.
fb
Storage is cool
Nice setup, makes my old Scirocco Spirits look tiny.
ddrueding
Fixture
The guy with the office next to mine looked at them and said "man, you're gonna get cancer or something..."
8" speakers 18" away is a bit nuts, but it sounds so good. Not sure the sub is really contributing anything.
8" speakers 18" away is a bit nuts, but it sounds so good. Not sure the sub is really contributing anything.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Highly doubt cancer... but don't be surprised if you get the occasional head-ache. (localised EM fields off the speakers can cause weird stuff to happen to the brain, either causing blood flow issues, or the occasional neuron misfire, especially if you jack up the volume and have several hundred watts hitting the magnets in the speakers).
A lot of testing has gone into localised EM fields and all (published) studies have shown no long term effects from it, but you just need to take a break occasionally...
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Double post...
fb
Storage is cool
No, they are studio monitors. But I doubt they will have several hundred watts hitting them very often during office hours.
ddrueding
Fixture
They are only 180W peak anyway (each), but normally in the 15-20W range I'm sure. And normally they are 30" away, so not really a big deal.
I'm looking for a solution for a 2.1 setup now and it looks like the Onkyo TX-NR717 is down to $549. Is that receiver a reasonable option as a bass management solution for a 2.1 audio setup paired with the Airmotiv 4s? The chain would go from my desktop PC via optical out to the NR717. The next level up TR-N818 is only appealing because of the jump from Audyssey EQ2 to Audyssey MultEQ XT32, but the price goes up dramatically to only gain that ability at $799. That may help manage the setup a bit better in my office but I don't see much else in that receiver that makes it worth the increase.
I was doing some research on your suggestion of the Power Sound Audio subwoofers and they seem to have a positive acceptance from the user communities of various forums. What I haven't been able to easily answer is the pros and cons regarding the XV15 and the XS15. I know the XV is vented and the XS is sealed. The vented looks to be able to play a little louder and lower with a small increase is cost. I was leaning towards that one over the sealed but wasn't sure if there are other reasons to get the sealed vs the vented?
Also, I was considering putting foam wall treatment on the wall behind the speakers. Would there be a benefit to something like this wall treatment?
Last, I'm planning to build a pair of small speaker stands out of wood to bring the height of the Airmotivs up to my ears. Where ideally should I raise them to? Should the tweeter be ear level or somewhere between the tweeter and the mid?
fb
Storage is cool
It's almost impossible to say without testing, it depends a lot on the room. Some speakers are designed to sound good in real rooms where it's pretty uncommon to have sound dampening on the walls, but they might have carpets, curtains, furniture and other things that affects the sound.
fb
Storage is cool
My point in the previous post was, you can try and add/remove/move around some natural damping materials in the room if you think the sound is "wrong". If more damping on the wall improves the sound, go ahead and buy some permanent wall treatment.
When it comes to vented vs closed enclosures, the vented tend to pay louder and lower but the closed design usually plays tighter and more controlled.
When it comes to vented vs closed enclosures, the vented tend to pay louder and lower but the closed design usually plays tighter and more controlled.
Stereodude
Not really a
The 717 should do what you're after. You'd be paying a lot to get XT32.
I guess it depends what you're listening to, how loudly, and how many subs you'll use. I'm a pretty big fan of sealed subs. If properly designed they couple nicely to room gain and give a flat response with minimal EQ. In an office I doubt you're listening loudly enough to need the extra output of the ported sub.
If you have that much control over exactly where they end up I'd put ear level between the midwoofer and the tweeter.
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions on room treatments. My room is fairly square in a 12' x 12' size with hard wood floors throughout and no carpet or curtains. The walls are Sheetrock of an unknown thickness with a window behind where I normally sit. There is a small bed in the room but it probably doesn't do much. My office desk is against one wall and the speakers are on the desk beside the monitors.
I thought it might help dampen some sound if I started by treating the back wall. It sounds like I'll just need to experiment to decide if it makes sense. I'm not sure the sound is wrong, I just don't have anything to compare against.
Thanks for the feedback. After hesitating on the decision, I decided to re-purpose my Marantz AV7005 to my home office/room and I'm using that as my DAC + pre/pro for my PC. I've connected it via the fiber optic out from my PC and it seems to work perfect so far. I also have an older model Cambridge Soundworks BassCube 10 (sealed) that I've setup to try out for now. It does fill in the bottom end but it's a bit muddy sounding at times. I set the crossover to 140 HZ (it's highest) and let the Audyssey's MultEQ setup do it's thing with the microphone and room correction/crossover. I had to crank down the gain on the sub until the AV7005 could dial back without saying -12dB. I can't really tell the sub is in the room but there is more bottom end. I still think I'll pick up a newer sub as it will be used for both games and music to get a cleaner bottom end. I don't think I'll get more than one sub at this point. If I were to get more than one, is sealed the better option? I'm happy to be able to make use of the Belkin PF60 remote switching from the AV7005 and it does a nice job becoming the on/off switch for the speakers when I turn on or off the pre/pro.