I can take one. Maybe I'll wait until I have it all tidy - there are still wires trailing everywhere now and I have to remove shelves from walls etc over the weekend to hide them.
Buy normal inexpensive cables. If there were any basis to the claims made for the sooper-dooper cables, somebody would have relieved James Randi of his million dollars years ago. You want better sound, tinker with the position of your speakers and the acoustic characteristics of your room. Moving your speaker a few inches can noticeably change the sound. Expensive cables won't.
Also don't be taken in by the 'gold' connectors, which of course should be called gold-plated. Gold is inferior to common tin coated contacts for cables that rarely plugged and unplugged, like the ones in your stereo system. Even though gold is usually desirable for applications that call for frequent plugging and unplugging, tin is preferred in some applications such as microphone cables. However, if your equipment has gold-plated connectors, you should use gold-plated plugs with them. Normally when you mate a pair of connectors, the wiping action of the contacts cleans them. If you mate gold and tin contacts, the tin is too soft to burnish the gold and clean it, and the hard gold contact quickly wears down the tin if you keep plugging and unplugging the cable. For the same reasons, you shouldn't use gold plugs with equipment that has tin contacts.
The worst offenders are the super HDMI and digital audio cables. It's a digital signal. If it makes it through the cable, it's going to be the same. I'll grant that a severely out of spec cable could degrade the signal so badly as to introduce errors, but it probably wouldn't work at all. It's a thin line between working and not working in the digital world. Leaving out defective cables at either price point, you can't tell a $20 cable from a $2000 cable by looking at the screen or listening to the speakers.
On the low-tech front, I very recently had a "Doh!" moment regarding listening to music at the office - our "hi-fi" system there consists of a ?1994 Panasonic dual-deck boombox with separating speakers (all cast in the finest plastic), the tape mechanisms of which are years beyond trust, so the Line In has been affixed to a Discman for years, quite satisfactorily, and I finally realized I could just bring the 16GB iPod with me and hook it up right to the same cable, and voila, music transported magically from my computer at home. And it sounds good - it ain't like the home system but hey it's the office - and I can always hold the threat of the 90 song Iron Maiden playlist over my co-workers, or Ozzy!
From the Dept of Gadget Overload: Streaming over my network to the iPhone just doesn't work all that well, unfortunately. Very dropsy. iPad, in contrast, works just fine. Why, who knows?
Was going to add that the iPad doesn't scrobble, but just checked, and it's scrobbling up a treat! First-World problem averted.
I finally got my computer audio system up and running a couple of nights ago. iTunes library on an external HD, connected to a Mac mini, which is then connected to my receiver's CD input through a USB DAC. I can control everything with the Apple remote app on my iPhone. Finally finished ripping 1000+ CDs to the external drive in lossless form, which was a huge PITA. Now, though, I have everything I own, except vinyl, on the 2TB hard drive (more than half are lossless from CDs, the rest MP3s from eMu, Amie and elsewhere) with plenty of room for more. Sound seems identical to CD for the lossless tracks, and I can access them all pretty much instantly from the phone. I'm very happy and looking forward to putting the CDs in storage.
So I've moved into a house that has speakers in the walls, and I can't figure out how they work. Can anybody help?
So here's the setup; the family room has four surround sound speakers in the wall. The upstairs has two ceiling speakers; and the attic has two speaker wires. Downstairs in the family room closet, there is an HDMI cable, an hd cable of some sort that resembles a single red RCA plug, two wires with red, black, green and white wires (I figure these are the surround sound wires), 4 wires with just black and red. Over where the tv goes, there is the other end of the HDMI cable, and another red and black speaker wire, which must be for the subwoofer?
The main thing I can't for the life of me figure out is how these speakers get power, and how to turn them on. Help?
I'm guessing all these speakers are passive and need to be connected to an amp of some sort. It sounds like the TV/Surround Receiver was in the closet. Re the upstairs speakers, do you mean the ends of the speaker wires are in the attic or do they go elsewhere? It's possible the previous owner had them installed when he put in the downstairs speakers but never got around to hooking them up. If the wire ends aren't separated or stripped this is somewhat more likely (only a dick would cut the cables to disconnect some hypothetical device in the attic). If the ends are neatly coiled and tied up it's almost certain they were never connected. Is there a power outlet in the attic? How about the rec room closet? Post some pictures of your HD plug(s) and let our staff of inexperts try to identify them.
Ok, the attic wires are separated and stripped - my theory is that some speakers were attached to them, which were maybe linked to whatever was in the closet. I've also just discovered two side by side "ports" in the living room, each of which have what look like 4 RCA jacks. I will try to find pictures.
Oh. Finally solved some longstanding home networking issues by updating wireless card drivers on older PCs, including the basement "music computer." Now can use the iPhone to stream music all over the house, hurrah!
ac2, those living room ports sound like what you'd use to connect AV components, eg, DVD player.
The system is great, thanks for asking. Obviously I've got used to the sound upgrade somewhat now so am not quite as filled with chuckling wonder as in the first few weeks, but I am loving the sound. Some thoughts:
1. It's always gratifying to shell out for something and then find additional reviews tht suggest you made a good choice - this review compares the Hsu shelf speakers favorably to a $24k reference system, which is leagues beyond what I'll ever get to spend on speakers. I do highly recommend the Hsus.
2. it has been fascinating to discover which music gets enhanced and which doesn't. I've bought CDs of several of my very favorite albums to see if they got better as compared to high bitrate MP3s. One of my favorites is Field Recordings from the Cook County Water Table by Brokeback, a wondrous slice of mellow beauty that everyone should own. On CD, not only does the whole album sound very noticeably more vivid, but one moment suddenly makes sense. In the middle of one track there's a feedback-drone interlude that always used to sound harsh and grating, especially in the midst of a very melodic and non-droney album. Even I had to be in the right mood for it not to be a distraction. Now on CD on the new system, suddenly that interlude is a pure, resonant, glowing note - my old speakers/media were simply failing to reproduce it. On the other hand, First Narrows by Loscil did not sound appreciably different on CD, even when testing passages side by side with the MP3. On the first hand again, Gute Luft by Thomas Fehlmann sounds breathtaking in its richness of sound layers. And so on. I guess the system really brings alive which recordings have a superior production and recording process behind them. It is making me buy more CDs again, which had become a rarity. I had thought there might be a risk here, that having the new system would make me regret things I used to love being spoiled, as it were, as their deficiencies are exposed. But actually I would say more that it's been a pleasure to be able to home in on the really excellent stuff; no regrets.
3. As I thnk I predicted at the time (I know I did in my head), it is shifting some of my tastes. I always used to find (most) solo piano music faintly annoying. Now I am rapidly becoming a huge fan - again if it's a superior recording. Hearing the resonance and purity of the notes rather than the tinkling I used to hear makes a huge difference, and suddenly I understand why people love the piano. (It has to be said here that my listening pleasure often comes from timbre as much as or more than structure and melody). I'm going "oh, so that's what a piano sounds like." Again, some recordings are particularly luminous, and I can now tell which ones.
4. To the joy of my daughters, the subwoofer produces a very resectable wub, so dubstep parties in the lounge are a new feature of family life. (The new Infected Mushroom release sounds awesome). A really positive outcome in terms of our family life has been bringing my kids out of their bedrooms to listen to their music in the family space with us, because it sounds so much better there.
5. I am feeling no impulse toward upgradeitis at all, which is a good sign - I am very happy that this system will last me for a while and is every bit as good as I need it to be. I remain greatly indebted to all on here who helped me with the purchase and the learning curve - thanks again everyone.
I'd forgotten about this until reading Prof's comment...last night I had a dream that I'd found a fantastic old high-end amplifier, cheap. Maybe I should stop by a couple second-hand shops today!
Comments
Also don't be taken in by the 'gold' connectors, which of course should be called gold-plated. Gold is inferior to common tin coated contacts for cables that rarely plugged and unplugged, like the ones in your stereo system. Even though gold is usually desirable for applications that call for frequent plugging and unplugging, tin is preferred in some applications such as microphone cables. However, if your equipment has gold-plated connectors, you should use gold-plated plugs with them. Normally when you mate a pair of connectors, the wiping action of the contacts cleans them. If you mate gold and tin contacts, the tin is too soft to burnish the gold and clean it, and the hard gold contact quickly wears down the tin if you keep plugging and unplugging the cable. For the same reasons, you shouldn't use gold plugs with equipment that has tin contacts.
The worst offenders are the super HDMI and digital audio cables. It's a digital signal. If it makes it through the cable, it's going to be the same. I'll grant that a severely out of spec cable could degrade the signal so badly as to introduce errors, but it probably wouldn't work at all. It's a thin line between working and not working in the digital world. Leaving out defective cables at either price point, you can't tell a $20 cable from a $2000 cable by looking at the screen or listening to the speakers.
Was going to add that the iPad doesn't scrobble, but just checked, and it's scrobbling up a treat! First-World problem averted.
So here's the setup; the family room has four surround sound speakers in the wall. The upstairs has two ceiling speakers; and the attic has two speaker wires. Downstairs in the family room closet, there is an HDMI cable, an hd cable of some sort that resembles a single red RCA plug, two wires with red, black, green and white wires (I figure these are the surround sound wires), 4 wires with just black and red. Over where the tv goes, there is the other end of the HDMI cable, and another red and black speaker wire, which must be for the subwoofer?
The main thing I can't for the life of me figure out is how these speakers get power, and how to turn them on. Help?
ac2, those living room ports sound like what you'd use to connect AV components, eg, DVD player.
1. It's always gratifying to shell out for something and then find additional reviews tht suggest you made a good choice - this review compares the Hsu shelf speakers favorably to a $24k reference system, which is leagues beyond what I'll ever get to spend on speakers. I do highly recommend the Hsus.
2. it has been fascinating to discover which music gets enhanced and which doesn't. I've bought CDs of several of my very favorite albums to see if they got better as compared to high bitrate MP3s. One of my favorites is Field Recordings from the Cook County Water Table by Brokeback, a wondrous slice of mellow beauty that everyone should own. On CD, not only does the whole album sound very noticeably more vivid, but one moment suddenly makes sense. In the middle of one track there's a feedback-drone interlude that always used to sound harsh and grating, especially in the midst of a very melodic and non-droney album. Even I had to be in the right mood for it not to be a distraction. Now on CD on the new system, suddenly that interlude is a pure, resonant, glowing note - my old speakers/media were simply failing to reproduce it. On the other hand, First Narrows by Loscil did not sound appreciably different on CD, even when testing passages side by side with the MP3. On the first hand again, Gute Luft by Thomas Fehlmann sounds breathtaking in its richness of sound layers. And so on. I guess the system really brings alive which recordings have a superior production and recording process behind them. It is making me buy more CDs again, which had become a rarity. I had thought there might be a risk here, that having the new system would make me regret things I used to love being spoiled, as it were, as their deficiencies are exposed. But actually I would say more that it's been a pleasure to be able to home in on the really excellent stuff; no regrets.
3. As I thnk I predicted at the time (I know I did in my head), it is shifting some of my tastes. I always used to find (most) solo piano music faintly annoying. Now I am rapidly becoming a huge fan - again if it's a superior recording. Hearing the resonance and purity of the notes rather than the tinkling I used to hear makes a huge difference, and suddenly I understand why people love the piano. (It has to be said here that my listening pleasure often comes from timbre as much as or more than structure and melody). I'm going "oh, so that's what a piano sounds like." Again, some recordings are particularly luminous, and I can now tell which ones.
4. To the joy of my daughters, the subwoofer produces a very resectable wub, so dubstep parties in the lounge are a new feature of family life. (The new Infected Mushroom release sounds awesome). A really positive outcome in terms of our family life has been bringing my kids out of their bedrooms to listen to their music in the family space with us, because it sounds so much better there.
5. I am feeling no impulse toward upgradeitis at all, which is a good sign - I am very happy that this system will last me for a while and is every bit as good as I need it to be. I remain greatly indebted to all on here who helped me with the purchase and the learning curve - thanks again everyone.