Looks Great! I had some questions on the amps you tried with the Vivid speakers. Looks like you settled on Luxman. This is the guy you almost bought the V1.5 and B1 from :) Feel free to PM or e-mail me if you prefer.
Your system is very impressive! I could imagine the depth of image your speakers can create. Which model of Vivids did you help Philip set up?
I just pitched in with some unpacking and moving things around at Newport.
Philip has such a grand personality you cannot help wanting to be around him. I did not contribute one bit to the wonderful sound he created, just some labor to help out.
The Vivid was the B1 I believe and they also had on passive display two other models from Vivid.
Sound was superb, Philip received two awards for best sound from Positive Feedback and Audio Beat. Well deserved based on my time listening in the room.
I'm always impressed with the sound of Vivid speakers at shows. This last show at Newport I spent a good amount of time helping Philip O'Hanlon with the Vivid room (He is "On a Higher Note").
Philip had great sound, In fact I was so moved by the LP he played me, "Grace" by Tim Buckley, that I bought a copy for myself.
There were sub woofers in the "On a Higher Note" room but I cannot recall the brand. They integrated magically due to some software program or box that Philip was showing with.
System edited: The Vivid Audio B1's speakers are true to the source and very dynamic. Although they don't play as loud as the horns, they are a little easier to integrate with my 3 pairs of tact W210 woofers. With 6 10" drivers per side, the mid bass on down is phenomenal. The only weakness with them is the low bass which is why i added a pair of JL F113's to supplement 30hz and below. I use the Tact 2.2XP to time delay and crossover and room correct the W210's. Nothing really to complain about but maybe a bigger room?
System edited: Over the past year I've been doing a lot of experimenting with speaker placement and the effects of room correction. I have gotten really comfortable with the tact equipment and learn to use a great percentage of the functions. I found in my room that the widest spread my speakers can go is about 7.5 feet apart. Any farther, the soundstage collapses and the images and center voice gets really big. Maybe because i sit nearfield to my speakers (about 7 feet). Now with everything calibrated, the center voice is exactly where my turntable is and about that size. I am very happy with the sound right now and finally starting to enjoy music than to keep fiddling around. Maybe eventually i will incorporate the tact crossovers in the avantgarde horns and do my own digital crossover. One day......
System edited: It's been a while since my last post. I've added another Tact S2150 amplifier to power my second set of Tact woofers. I now have one amp powering each set of drivers. Inserted a PS Audio AC12 power cord powering the Premier regenerator. And last but not least, rid of the W4S Dac2 and replacing it with the Emm Labs Dac2 to match up with my Emm Labs TSD1 transport. The new dac is head to toe better than the W4S. The music just flows out without being forced like my previous dac. I wouldn't have noticed if i hadn't heard it side by side. Everything is much smoother with excellent detail especially on vocals.
When it comes to my stereo, I believe in the simplicity of analog amplification. I actually used to design digital circuits, so I'm quite familiar with them. My room response is remarkable with no extra correction necessary. I'm thrilled to be one of the lucky ones. If I didn't have the finest sound I've ever heard in my life, I would try to fix things, but as it is, I love my Avantgardes in their purest form. I'm happy that you too have found a sound you enjoy.
Thanks for the compliments! I've had big tube buffers with my solid state pre and amp. I was running kt88's, kt66's and 845's. While i found them great sounding, i couldn't live with the heat they were giving off, the start up times and noise issues. With the tact system, it's super flexible. You can almost make any sound u want as long as u have a lot of patience. Room correction with corrected time delay on all drivers are a must on the avantgardes.
System edited: System overhaul: Got rid of the pass labs equipment and went all digital with the Avantgardes. The tact equipment has a steep learning curve but i have plenty of time for that instead of swapping cables. With the tact, i can make my own crossovers between the midrange, tweeter, and the woofers. At the moment, i am just using the crossover between highs and lows. When i feel more adventurous, i will definitely do my own crossovers with all the drivers. The addition of a second pair of W210's made a significant improvement. The output of 2 pairs matches better with the horns than with one pair. I love the detail, transparency, and aliveness that i would not trade anything for.
Thank you for your comments. You're right about the 1.5k dac but since then i picked up a Tact 2.2xp and i'm feeding the transport directly to the xp (pure digital). As for my system, i did a big overhaul after getting the horn speakers. I have yet to update. I'm waiting for a friend of mine to get a good photo of it before i post it. Let's just say everything is gone on that table except for 2 pieces.
Hey Bmw, Great looking grear you've assembled. But I gotta say it strikes me as odd that you're using a $11K CD transport to feed a $1.5K DAC . . .? Am I reading that right in your component listing?
Like your attention to room acoustics too. I see some thin foam at the top of your front wall - presumably to kill slap echos, - but what are the dark squares - diffusion or more absorption? Do you use bass traps anywhere or PEQ to tame bass peaks?
Love the speaker's colour - it matches the readout on your various hifi boxes.
Hello Runmeshaw. Sorry for the late reply. As for the polarity, I just reversed it for the subwoofer to tweeter. You will know when the bass is right. I set my crossover at 1 click to the right of 12 o'clock and the volume at around the same. I actually disconnected my 225's and use tact w210 subs. I use the tact preamp and amplifiers to integrate the subs to the horns. It's very seamless and fast enough to integrate the horns. Let me know how you make out.
Hi Bmwmcab, great looking system!! I just bought the avantgarde unos and had some questions for you. Did you reverse the polority on your tweeter also or just the subwoofer. I keep reading different threads who say to reverse the polarity of the tweeter and subwoofer. Im trying to get mine to integrate properly and wanted to get some advice from people who already have the speaker.
System edited: With my newly acquired avantgarde speakers, the change in sound is top to bottom better than my previous nautilus 802's. The fast music comes out much livelier, slow songs have better transparency in the voices without losing the excellent midrange. The bass goes lower and more powerful without losing the texture. Avantgarde speakers need a lot of time to set up correctly. I'm still in the process of "perfecting" it, but at the moment very happy with the sound. If anyone owns any avantgarde speakers, set up and positioning advice would be greatly appreciated.
Samhar: after listening to vinyl, i'm hooked! The music is so much more engaging and more like live performance. Mgmmgm: my room is about 18' long x 15' wide x 9' high. It's not a huge room but it's my own (man cave) that's why i can put up the room treatment and pulling the speakers out 6 feet! I would love to AB the 0.2 and the xp20 but unfortunately i cannot.
