What audio system do you have, or plan on getting?

[Mandryka]

Just bought a rug - the biggie. Before it was hard floors. What a difference to the sound - a serious audio upgrade.


Studio engineers used to say that opposite room surfaces should be non-reflective. That includes the ceiling and the floor.

[DavidW]

So what were you playing the CDs on since your Rotel wasn't working?

K

That is the neat part. I wasn't. The Chailly M9 is a digital download. I played it on my Bluesound Node streamer. I won't be boxing up the Rotel until this afternoon and restoring my Audiolab to its position on the rack.

[DavidW]

Just bought a rug - the biggie. Before it was hard floors. What a difference to the sound - a serious audio upgrade.
 

I think that this is the biggest thing. Rug or carpet for the floor, some nice soft furniture, place the speakers and the seating position at least three feet from all walls... and everything past that is diminishing returns IMO. People who put bass traps and acoustic panels all over their listening room are really just as obsessive as those buying crazy expensive gear for that last ounce of SQ.

[Kalevala]

Just bought a rug - the biggie. Before it was hard floors. What a difference to the sound - a serious audio upgrade.


Studio engineers used to say that opposite room surfaces should be non-reflective. That includes the ceiling and the floor.

Nice!  Will also be kinder on your body.  Lovely living room!  I also like your light set up above the speakers.   

That is the neat part. I wasn't. The Chailly M9 is a digital download. I played it on my Bluesound Node streamer. I won't be boxing up the Rotel until this afternoon and restoring my Audiolab to its position on the rack.

I love it that you guys have so much extra audio equipment around.    A male friend of mine keeps putting older audio pieces in his attic above his garage.  One of them is a pair of speakers that he just needs to change (I think that I'm getting this right) the foam surrounds(?); don't ask me why he hasn't gotten around to this yet....it's been a number of years.  He had another pair of speakers (not worth a lot of money) stored on the floor of his basement.  And yes, he's the one whose basement flooded; they were toast.

I asked him why didn't he just get rid of the stuff that he no longer wanted.  Basically, he said that he didn't want to pay to get rid of it at the transfer station.  Now that he is renting a dumpster to get rid of things like ruined sidewall, tiles and other things, I suspect that some antiquated and/or non-working components plus other things from his garage/attic will be going in there.

Can't do 3' here (more like roughly 1 1/2'), but I still love the sound from them. 

K

[Papy Oli]

Just bought a rug - the biggie.

It really ties the room together 

[DavidW]

I love it that you guys have so much extra audio equipment around. 

I don't consider my streamer to be extra. I spend much more time with streaming and downloads than listening to CDs.

[drogulus]

    It took me years to rip all my discs and now that I'm insanely old I realize I could never do it again. This is for a 598GB lossless music collection with a backup, one on the PC and the other on the player. I suppose the smart thing to do would be to create another backup and put it in a safe place.

    Let's do it now!

    (doing it now)

[AnotherSpin]

Just bought a rug - the biggie. Before it was hard floors. What a difference to the sound - a serious audio upgrade.


Studio engineers used to say that opposite room surfaces should be non-reflective. That includes the ceiling and the floor.

The photo is unclear, it's hard to determine the type of rug. But it seems to be a tribal rug, either Turkmen or Afghan? Maybe Baloch?

[Mandryka]

The photo is unclear, it's hard to determine the type of rug. But it seems to be a tribal rug, either Turkmen or Afghan? Maybe Baloch?

1930s Turkmen bokhara, big and red!

[Kalevala]

I don't consider my streamer to be extra. I spend much more time with streaming and downloads than listening to CDs.

Now don't be overly sensitive....I wasn't saying that your streamer was "extra".   

But do you have any "extra/old" speakers/components stashed away? 

Best,

K

[AnotherSpin]

1930s Turkmen bokhara, big and red!

Turkoman teke pattern - this was my first guess...

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Bolsheviks displaced most of the Turkmen from their native territories to northeastern Iran and Afghanistan, where they continued making rugs that entered the West. Half a century later, the Turkmen people who had settled in Afghanistan were forced to move again after the start of Soviet aggression during Brezhnev's era, this time mostly to Pakistan. If I'm not mistaken, most Turkmen rugs today come from Pakistan.

In Turkmenistan itself, production almost came to a halt. Even today, rug production in Turkmenistan is controlled by the authorities, and they are prohibited from being exported, at least it was so couple of decades ago. However, your 1930s rug might have been made in historical Turkmenistan, a true treasure.

[Mandryka]

Turkoman teke pattern - this was my first guess...

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Bolsheviks displaced most of the Turkmen from their native territories to northeastern Iran and Afghanistan, where they continued making rugs that entered the West. Half a century later, the Turkmen people who had settled in Afghanistan were forced to move again after the start of Soviet aggression during Brezhnev's era, this time mostly to Pakistan. If I'm not mistaken, most Turkmen rugs today come from Pakistan.

In Turkmenistan itself, production almost came to a halt. Even today, rug production in Turkmenistan is controlled by the authorities, and they are prohibited from being exported, at least it was so couple of decades ago. However, your 1930s rug might have been made in historical Turkmenistan, a true treasure.

Thanks. The person I bought it from, who seemed a really nice chap and knowledgeable about carpets, said that this rug has a very sturdy and strong pile different to the Tekke types which are thin in foundation. It certainly does have a fabulous pile.

[DavidW]

But do you have any "extra/old" speakers/components stashed away? 

Nope!

[DavidW]

Now don't be overly sensitive....

I mean, I'm fine, but my Node won't stop crying.

[Mandryka]

Can't resist

[Kalevala]

I mean, I'm fine, but my Node won't stop crying.

Give it a nice dust off from me...including underneath ,behind, vacuuming behind the cabinet, etc.

K

[Holden]

You wouldn't believe it, but I have to send the Rotel back... it's skipping!! On new CDs!

A known issue with the CD11 MkI. The first one I got wouldn't read the disk when I inserted it or it skipped. I simply went back to the store and swapped it for a replacement which worked fine and still does. This is a great sounding CD player.

[AnotherSpin]

My last serious CD player was a French made Jadis. An intriguing example of French design, which absolutely had to be unlike everything else simply because it was French. The top metal-machined horizontal lid for loading mechanism was moved by hand, the front panel was gold-colored, and the price tag was exorbitant. It sounded magical. After a few years, it started skipping discs, especially when playing CD-Rs of copied downloads. This was one of the final reasons why I gave up on CDs for good and am now happily streaming music.

[Mandryka]

I also like your light set up above the speakers. 

Thanks. It was an unexpected surprise when I put an uplighter in front of a bass trap. Arguably the best reason to have a bass trap actually.

[Mandryka]

Lovely living room! 

I like the room too, but it is dark despite the big window (hence all the lamps.) The ceiling is good



The house was built in 1910 by someone called John Innes - I don't know if you are aware of him in the US but he's famous here for a sort of compost which he invented. After making his fortune with compost he went into business with an architect called Henry Quartermain to design and build property.

I am the second owner. It was bought off plan by a chap who left it to his two daughters, and they continued to live in it until 2000, when finally the one surviving lady had to move into a nursing home. Architecturally, it is completely untouched - every little carving and moulding from 1910 remains.