OT: Puttin' a STEREO schystem together! And I feel like a teenager again.

nolaegghead · January 2013

I was inspired by one of the threads here that probably went sideways off-topic, but had some great information on audio systems.

I realized, we don't play our music in the house any more - just the car, the shop and outside with the ghetto blaster. Mrs B has a huge collection of vinyl and CDs, and music sounds less than mediocre on the surround sound system hooked up to the TV in the living room. Movies and TV sound great (man, great) but not music.

So inspired, I set off to build and buy and assemble a modest system.

Goals are:

1. Great sound.
2. Dedicated to music. So stereo.
3. Keep the expenditures reasonable. Budget is 2K.
4. Sources - turntable, optical disk, tuner, computer
5. Must be able to achieve extremely loud volumes.
5.1 cause bleeding ears
5.2 piss off neighbors within 100 yards.

Ok. So this will be an ongoing thread, I'll be adding a bunch of stuff to it tonight, and in the next few days. I should have it done and mostly set up by Monday night.

I already bought pretty much everything, so I'm sure I'll be regretting some of the purchases after I get some feedback from the forum, but I'm strong, I can take it.

Here's what I have so far (I'll post pics later)

Integrated amp: Emotiva USP-1 http://shop.emotiva.com/collections/processors/products/usp1
Power amp: Emotiva UPA-200 http://shop.emotiva.com/collections/amplifiers/products/upa200
Speakers: Klipsch RB-81 II http://www.klipsch.com/rb-81-ii-bookshelf-speaker
Sub: BIC America F12 http://www.acoustechspeakers.com/showpage.php?brand=2&type=8&spkrID=84
Turntable: Techniques SL-BD20 and SLBD-10 (already had these)
Optical Disk: my old Blue-ray player, but would like to upgrade to an Oppo BDP-103 (if someone can talk me into the virtues of it)

Environment - Living room - about 25' x 15' rectangle. Not a pretty shape. Hard wood floors, but large carpet in listening area. Lots of reflective surfaces. This system will co-exist with the surround 5.1 system - they will be completely separate.

IrishDevl · January 2013

Don't go converting any honeys to the dark side like back when you were a teenager.

bigphil · January 2013

i just did my sound system little over a year ago went with B&W front speakers and center rear are klispch speakers, and surfire sub,integra theater amp and a furman linear power conditioner . B&W give the best sound for music and movies . its hard to find great speakers that do both if your going for music B&W book shelf rock i have floor standing ones . in order of sound quality Floors are the best then book shelf then in wall and last in ceiling speakers .kliscp speakers are the best for movies most theaters in the U.S, use them

Little Steven · January 2013

You mean I dumped a thousand LP's for nothing?

nolaegghead · January 2013

Thanks bigphil, good info. I used some warped logic for the speakers. Like them because my high school biology teacher had some klipsch horns in his classroom hooked up to a Macintosh tube amp. And they're efficient - 97 dB/watt/meter/1kHz. So I can get some serious headroom on volume with a modest 125 Watts. Helps on items 5.1 and 5.2 above.

JRWhitee · January 2013

My buddy has an Oppo and loves it.

Browninggold · January 2013

Nice setup...I really like Klipsch speakers. I've been into HT for a few years. Also have a Emotiva XPA-3. If your into Airplay enabled products I have a Klipsch G17 and plays tunes around the whole house and outside through my wireless network. I wish I would of known of the Egg a little sooner and I would of held back on something else

..the upgrade bug will hit you I have around 25K in my setup. Oppo bluray, Klipsch RF7IIs, Emotiva amp, Sony pj, SV sub etc....have fun. I changed my profile picture earlier that's part of my setup. If you want to get into HT big time check out this forum...http://www.avsforum.com/f/ I'm lifetime member same screen name

nolaegghead · January 2013

Little Steven said:

You mean I dumped a thousand LP's for nothing?

Dumped in the trash or ?

We needed to poop or get off the pot with the albums - have a huge shelf unit dedicated to them. So we're pooping.

henapple · January 2013

My jams....

nolaegghead · January 2013

Browninggold said:

Nice setup...I really like Klipsch speakers. I've been into HT for a few years. Also have a Emotiva XPA-3. If your into Airplay enabled products I have a Klipsch G17 and plays tunes around the whole house and outside through my wireless network. I wish I would of known of the Egg a little sooner and I would of held back on something else ..the upgrade bug will hit you I have around 25K in my setup. Oppo bluray, Klipsch RF7IIs, Emotiva amp, Sony pj, SV sub etc....have fun. I changed my profile picture earlier that's part of my setup. If you want to get into HT big time check out this forum...http://www.avsforum.com/f/ I'm lifetime member same screen name

Sweet setup! So, can you hear the difference between the Oppo and a regular CD player?

nolaegghead · January 2013

henapple said:

My jams....

Doubles as a walker for short people!

Browninggold · January 2013

The Oppo I have is the 93 which is a few years old but does have great audio DAC. plays really good CDs. I usually run in 5 channel stereo with a Denon A100 reciever and sounds great. The 93 is basically like the new 95 on Oppos site. We usually have 2-3 bluray movie night per week. In my profile px I have a 50" mounted but a 110" electric screen drops down for my Sony VW90ES pj. Just wish I had a egg now while enjoying really great food and movies...soon though

Browninggold · January 2013

BTW If you go to the link on my post a couple above I guarantee who will get the upgrade bug

...so make sure you have all your Eggcessories first

henapple · January 2013

nolaegghead said:

henapple said:

My jams....

Doubles as a walker for short people!

No...I stand on it.

nolaegghead · January 2013

@Browninggold ; Yeah, I got all my eggcessories

I run my shop system on 5.1 stereo for music and it sounds incredible. I think it's mostly the room - acoustically, it's awesome.

I'll be doing some reading on the oppo. And I'll browse the AVS forum. So that's the premiere forum for AVS stuff, in our opinion?

Browninggold · January 2013

Yeah AVS full of info...been a member for awhile now. A wealth of great info for all things A/V. As is this site for egging. Awesome. Nothing better than a nice 5 channel stereo setup and listening to music. I had 7.1 hooked up @ one time. My reciever can do 11.2 someday....heights and wides

Austin Egghead · January 2013

That a nice set up. Thanks for the links. We have a set of 3 foot Klipsch speaker we bough thirty five years ago and still the best speakers we have. When we did our house all of the speakers are Klipsch, including the ones in the garage and back porch.

The Sansui 5000A receiver that he brought back from Japan via Vietnam is up in my office and still going strong.

You will pay dearly for good equipment, but it will last a lifetime.

Badong · January 2013

Klipsch is not the same company today that they made their reputation on.

If you can find them in your area, I would check out Monitor Audio. They make a full range of speakers from the entry level Bronze series all the way up to Platinum. If you get a couple of floor standing towers you probably wouldn't need a subwoofer for music.

I have a pair of the RS6 running off an Emotiva UMC-1 and XPA-5. I love them and several people have been astonished when they learn how little I spent on my system. I did have them hooked up to an Onkyo receiver which was also nice.

Skiddymarker · January 2013

Nola- always exciting, enjoy the regression!

Me, for over 35 years I've run a Crown pre-amp through a McIntosh amp, lighting Dalquiist DQ-10's and a pair of Technics SB700As (for area B. B&O tangent track turntable, Pioneer RT 707 tape with a dbX128 range expander. CD's through the computer and a Sony 2400 7.1. It is getting harder to find quality tubes. The last sovtek batch sucked.

Haven't found anything I like more, although I do not listen as much as I once did. Still have some direct to disc recordings I bought in Chicago in 1979. The range on vinyl is unmatched, although some of the processors today can do a pretty good job.

nolaegghead · January 2013

@Badong ; Those RS6's sure sound good here http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/306monitor/

I don't have the room for floor standing. I already have some AV speakers on stands, and there's no floor space left suitable. So I had to go with bookshelf, and the sub.

Browninggold · January 2013

I like McIntosh Amps. I always wanted to do a nice 2 speaker setup with Klipschorns and a Denon turntable....everything I want to get I'd have to live to be around 150 years old. Just not enough time...

nolaegghead · January 2013

I would love to have a Macintosh amp. Skiddy, you got some nice gear there.

I'll probably build a tube amp in the near future, I have all the equipment to build and set up (including a o-scope).

Wish I still had all my dad's Heathkit quadraphonic stuff.....also had a 4 chan Teac.

When me and my brothers were kids, we coveted the gear at the PX on base - they had high end stuff - Crown, SAE, etc. Especially like the SAE stuff.

Browninggold · January 2013

Heathkit.....that's going back a ways. The younger eggers won't know what you are talking about.

Mickey · January 2013

@nolaegghead were you an army brat? Where?

nolaegghead · January 2013

Browninggold said:

Heathkit.....that's going back a ways. The younger eggers won't know what you are talking about.

Yeah, you're right. My dad built it in the 60s. Back when quadraphonic was the bomb. I remember he next got a Marantz - remember those flywheel tuners? I got the Heathkit stuff.

Botch · January 2013

nolaegghead said:

This system will co-exist with the surround 5.1 system - they will be completely separate.

This statement has me a bit confused. So you're going to have a 5.1 system, and a stereo system, in the same room?

I'd gotten a lot of mileage out of my original stereo system: Yamaha electronics, Shure phono cartridge, "new" Advent speakers and a few CD/DVD players, originally purchased in 1979! I still have everything in the basement.

Three years ago I upgraded my living room system: 5.1 Yamaha electronics, same Shure phono/Yammie turntable, Oppo BDP-83 player, and my new, beloved Monitor Audio Silver speakers. Just before Xmas, my Oppo failed. After consideration, I bought the Oppo BDP-103, and sent the -83 to Oppo for repair (I will add it to my basement system now).

While I have a nice LG LED tv with local dimming, I'm primarily a music fan too; I VERY HIGHLY recommend any of the Oppo players, and love 5.1 Surround Sound music! The Oppo's play DVD-Audio disks, SACD disks, and the newer Bluray Audio disks (Porcupine Tree, Tom Petty, King Crimson). Some classical and jazz labels still release DVD-A and SACD 5.1 discs (check out AIX Records) and that's a lot of the kind of music I prefer, so they're worthwhile purchases. I've spent some coin on "out-of-print" surround-sound disks: Dark Side of the Moon, some of the Elton John and Spiro Gyra disks, Fagen/Steely Dan, Dire Straits, and when I retired my mortgage I splurged and got Roxy Music's Avalon, oh Wow!

Finally, a few words on Oppo. They're expensive players, but imnsho worth every penny. I've played several disks/night for three years on my -83, that the disk drive is only now crapping out doesn't bother me too much. (I'm told by other owners that, when I send it in, Oppo will probably repair it for me gratis!)

My -103 is even better! I've read that its video processing is stellar (I don't watch much video so can't comment personally) and even upconverts to 4K, which is the big buzztech at last week's CES. Oppo has made the electronics more efficient: the new unit doesn't have a fan anymore (which bugged me on the -83) and the disks come out cool, not hot like they did on my -83. The -103 connected to my home Wifi off the top, and has updated its own OS twice already in the last two months, with no interaction from me. Finally, I can set it to select the highest audio quality (DTS vs. DVD) and automatically play that section without having to turn on the TV and "select" it; Rawk!

nolaegghead · January 2013

Mickey said:

@nolaegghead were you an army brat? Where?

My dad was in the Army, finished his tour then worked for them the rest of his life. He worked at Rock Island until 72, then Patton Barracks in Heidelberg from 73-81, then San Antonio. After I graduated, I moved to New Orleans, been working for the same company for 21 years.

Having bad ass stereo equipment and being in the Military went hand in hand (my observation back then). Don't know if it's still true.

Browninggold · January 2013

nolaegghead said:

Browninggold said:

Heathkit.....that's going back a ways. The younger eggers won't know what you are talking about.

Yeah, you're right. My dad built it in the 60s. Back when quadraphonic was the bomb. I remember he next got a Marantz - remember those flywheel tuners? I got the Heathkit stuff.

Flywheel tuners. Yep I remember them the Marantz style back then were kind of like the McIntosh now...blue dials

seems like on the older fm radios of my Dads the flywheel tuner would be static. He must of had electrical currents through his body because if he touched my radio it would do the same also

Mickey · January 2013

Born Germany Fort Hood Bad K Germany Fort Hood Darmstadt Germany Fort Hood Fort Chaffee Fort Hood All as a kid

Browninggold · January 2013

Yeah the Oppo 103 is the one to have now. The Flagship. Both for music and bluray. Now you need to purchase the Sony 1000 projector. It plays the new format 4K. It will only set you back around 15K

. My buddy who I purchased the Sony VW90ES Projector from after he wrote a review up of it has a Sony 1000 hanging on his ceiling right now. Awesome picture

Botch · January 2013

nolaegghead said:Having bad ass stereo equipment and being in the Military went hand in hand (my observation back then). Don't know if it's still true.

Nope, they're all hooked into iPods now... :-??

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