Greetings from a music lover!
My home office (24' x 18’) doubles as my personal audio listening area . A repurposed Denon 3803 AVR hides under my desk, driving either my 300 ohm phones or my main 2.1-channel rig. The Denon utilizes BB PCM-1791 (DS) DACs, 2 per channel operating in differential mode. I hang on to this equipment because I have not yet discovered any other solution offering me more audible goodness.
The 2.1 Denon front end feeds an ADCOM GFA-5802 (MOSFET aficionado) fronting Usher BE-718 'Tiny Dancer' bookshelfs (nominally 8 ohm but with complex impedance), supplemented by a Definitive PF-15 acoustic-suspension sub (internal amplification removed, now driven by an external mono Outlaw Model 200). Likely not the sharpest/fastest response in bass speakers, its usable attribute for me is that it goes down low and accurate. I keep a lid on the power, so it doesn’t provide big thumping, but rather musically some very low harmonics reinforcing the 40Hz bottom of the bookshelf speakers, to the point that I can just feel the extended bass.
The BE-718s stand on top of a 28" high heavy bookcase, their upward-angled facia aimed toward me as near-field monitors, 6' from me and 6' apart, occupying just 1/4 of the total room space. Every home audio space presents many audio compromises; but this small system overcomes them nicely to my ear.
My choices of audio equipment emanate from my audio taste: natural instrumental/vocal sound, absent harshness/shrillness/glaze, airy open sound/stage, always smoothly musical even when prompted to slam if the composer demands. I enjoy the bass/rhythm lines as fundamental to appreciation (when I attempt composition, I start with these). Yet I am not a head banger; for me, loud is the enemy of music except perhaps for short passages for contrast/emphasis. Listening to an entire hour’s worth of LOUD music fatigues me. Fortunately the loudness wars that produced popular CDs with no headroom are a bad memory. My equipment may seem overpowered, but it enables soft playing to remain in a critically low distortion band of the amp/speker combo where authority and reveal are maximized..
My audio hobby started when I was in my mid-20s. This experience was realized in three periods: the Servo Statik I (single guy searching for truth while exploring limits); the Magneplanar (minimal WAF inputs); the BE-718 (WAF emphasizes hear, not see). I never considered myself to have golden ears, so never toyed with valve amplification or 'high end' wires. I jumped into CDs as soon they appeared, digitizing any of my vinyl greats that did not make it to CD. I relegate vinyl and valves to the past and enjoy my Redbook streamers thru MOSFETs. My library of streamers includes 1100 albums stored on a Mac Mini's SSD in Apple lossless .m4a files.
(Help. I just couldn't resist another experiment in sound perfection, so bought a Fiio K11 R2R DAC; I hope it will control treble better than sigma-delta types, so as not to spotlight some unwanted brightness around the speaker's 2kHz crossover; also to further enhance the amp's musicality. I will feed its analog output into the Denon's L/R/Sub external analog inputs, which supports 2.1 channel analog pre-outs with bass management support. I will post how I like the result. I considered the BB PCM-1704, an R2R DAC with great respect in audio circles, but it is an obsolete part and I have not found a used application that’s not several times more costly than the K11 R2R.)
My handle hints at my aversion to working on great equipment. I have ruined more than I have enhanced. I did build a car audio amp from parts found on the Internet and it worked great for under $40 and drove two pairs of 4 ohm, 4" speakers. But even then, it was a messy effort. I rest my case.
Our 77” Samsung OLED lives in the living area accompanied by its own matched Samsung bluetooth surround separates. Works great for movies. No interest in modifying anything there. All content streamed via wireless.
My home office (24' x 18’) doubles as my personal audio listening area . A repurposed Denon 3803 AVR hides under my desk, driving either my 300 ohm phones or my main 2.1-channel rig. The Denon utilizes BB PCM-1791 (DS) DACs, 2 per channel operating in differential mode. I hang on to this equipment because I have not yet discovered any other solution offering me more audible goodness.
The 2.1 Denon front end feeds an ADCOM GFA-5802 (MOSFET aficionado) fronting Usher BE-718 'Tiny Dancer' bookshelfs (nominally 8 ohm but with complex impedance), supplemented by a Definitive PF-15 acoustic-suspension sub (internal amplification removed, now driven by an external mono Outlaw Model 200). Likely not the sharpest/fastest response in bass speakers, its usable attribute for me is that it goes down low and accurate. I keep a lid on the power, so it doesn’t provide big thumping, but rather musically some very low harmonics reinforcing the 40Hz bottom of the bookshelf speakers, to the point that I can just feel the extended bass.
The BE-718s stand on top of a 28" high heavy bookcase, their upward-angled facia aimed toward me as near-field monitors, 6' from me and 6' apart, occupying just 1/4 of the total room space. Every home audio space presents many audio compromises; but this small system overcomes them nicely to my ear.
My choices of audio equipment emanate from my audio taste: natural instrumental/vocal sound, absent harshness/shrillness/glaze, airy open sound/stage, always smoothly musical even when prompted to slam if the composer demands. I enjoy the bass/rhythm lines as fundamental to appreciation (when I attempt composition, I start with these). Yet I am not a head banger; for me, loud is the enemy of music except perhaps for short passages for contrast/emphasis. Listening to an entire hour’s worth of LOUD music fatigues me. Fortunately the loudness wars that produced popular CDs with no headroom are a bad memory. My equipment may seem overpowered, but it enables soft playing to remain in a critically low distortion band of the amp/speker combo where authority and reveal are maximized..
My audio hobby started when I was in my mid-20s. This experience was realized in three periods: the Servo Statik I (single guy searching for truth while exploring limits); the Magneplanar (minimal WAF inputs); the BE-718 (WAF emphasizes hear, not see). I never considered myself to have golden ears, so never toyed with valve amplification or 'high end' wires. I jumped into CDs as soon they appeared, digitizing any of my vinyl greats that did not make it to CD. I relegate vinyl and valves to the past and enjoy my Redbook streamers thru MOSFETs. My library of streamers includes 1100 albums stored on a Mac Mini's SSD in Apple lossless .m4a files.
(Help. I just couldn't resist another experiment in sound perfection, so bought a Fiio K11 R2R DAC; I hope it will control treble better than sigma-delta types, so as not to spotlight some unwanted brightness around the speaker's 2kHz crossover; also to further enhance the amp's musicality. I will feed its analog output into the Denon's L/R/Sub external analog inputs, which supports 2.1 channel analog pre-outs with bass management support. I will post how I like the result. I considered the BB PCM-1704, an R2R DAC with great respect in audio circles, but it is an obsolete part and I have not found a used application that’s not several times more costly than the K11 R2R.)
My handle hints at my aversion to working on great equipment. I have ruined more than I have enhanced. I did build a car audio amp from parts found on the Internet and it worked great for under $40 and drove two pairs of 4 ohm, 4" speakers. But even then, it was a messy effort. I rest my case.
Our 77” Samsung OLED lives in the living area accompanied by its own matched Samsung bluetooth surround separates. Works great for movies. No interest in modifying anything there. All content streamed via wireless.
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