It's almost 2 different systems sharing a preamp and speakers. I keep the video and audio stuff isolated from eachother completely so as not to compromise on the audio side. 2 dedicated circuits. 1 for audio, one for video. When building the surround setup, it was optimized for multichannel music - the benefit on film soundtracks is just a bonus. (plus, it's cool to tell your friends when watching the Lord of the Rings DVDs that the soundtracks were mastered and mixed using the same speakers) The sound is nothing short of fantastic. The Meitner combo, i feel is among the finest sources available, regardless of price. Those who remember my system before will notice that my Teres 265 table, SME V arm and VdH Colibri are gone. The reason? Because I firmly believe that with quality Redbook CDs, the Meitner combo equals the sound of the LPs. And on well-recorded SACDs, the sound surpasses the quality of my old TT rig. Those who haven't heard the Meitner combo - I highly recommend hearing it. There's *way* more information on those CDs than you ever thought there was! The dynamics are explosive and the transients and decays are so natural, you'd think you were listening to pristine vinyl - were it not for the absence of clicks and pops. The atc all active surround 5.1 setup (except for the linn active sub, which i don't use for 2-channel) along with the Meitner combo is nearly identical to what sony uses to demonstrate SACD, and that Telarc uses to master their recordings. They (the ATCs) are neutral, dynamic, accurate, transparent, clean, clear, coherent, and LOUD when necessary. For room tratments, I use Auralex diffusors, absorbers, and bass traps in the corners. Anyone looking for reasonably-priced room treatments shuld look. They are used in recording studios all over the place, and have a more industrial-type look to them. They're not ugly, but they're not as pretty as some of the more expensive room-control products. They are, however, extremely effective. For multichannel music, I use no bass management at all - all speakers are run full range, except for the Linn sub. The linn sub is crossed over internally at 40hz and is turned way down, only gently augmenting where the 50s start to roll-off. It mixes so well that sometimes I have to put my hand on it to make sure it's playing. :-) Anyhoo, that pretty well does it. Thanks for reading and lemme know whatcha think!
gets clocked from DAC6 and upsanmples regular CD to double SACD sampling rate. easily better than the Philips.
Emmlabs Dac6
6-Channel DSD/PCM dac. 2-channel CDDA converted to DSD before processing.
Emmlabs Switchman mk3
6-channel, balanced analogue-only preamp. Receives multichannel inputs from the Dac6 (CD, DAD and SACD)and the Sunfire (DD, DTS)
ATC SCM 50asl - custom walnut finish
3-way, fully active, 700 watts. more free of coloration than any full-range speaker i've ever heard. superb resolution and dynamics. also internally hardwired with DNM solid-core speaker cable.
ATC SCM 50asl (used for center)
on loan from my brother. replaces an SCM-10 Active. having identical channels across the front is a HUGE deal.
ATC SCM-50 asl (pair for surrounds)
finally have active 50s in the back as well! 5 identical full-range multichannel! hells yeah!
Denon DVD-1600 for DVD-A and DVD-V
DVD player, no chroma bug, progressive scan, DVD-A.
Pioneer DVL-? Laserdisc
Laserdisc player, DTS/AC-3 out
Nakamichi RF Demodulator
For AC3 decoding from laserdisc
Panasonic PTAE-900U Projector
Front digital projector, shining on a 96" screen. 720p HD.
Sunfire Theater Grand III (processing only)
surround processor. only being used for video switching (dvd, cable, laserdisc, games, etc) and DD/DTS/DPL processing. No music sources pass through it.
Boston Acoustics - (for 7.1) VR-MX
bipolar speakers for surround-rear effects. (dolby EX, dts ES) again, movies only.
RCA small 2-channel amp for surr back
stricty for the surround-back speakers. (very few movies actually utilise this feature, so it's not necessary to have a high-quality amp here)
DNM Reson Solid Core Interconnects
solid core, non-braided interconnects. fast, transparent, musical, inexpensive (in comparison, anyway) terminated with eichmann bullet plugs on rca terminations and neutrik xlr's where necessary
Mana Acoustics for the 2-channel stuff
mana improves anything you put on it. it's the weirdest thing i've ever experienced.
Linn Sizmik
Beautiful, accurate, incredibly versatile. not used in 2-channel.
she's trying to sharpen her non-existent claws on it. :-) back when i got her, i didn't know how awful declawing cats really is. my other kitty, who was off sleeping while the pics were being taken has her claws (and only 3 legs), but she's been trained to use the kitty-condo-bass-trap for sharpenings.
System edited: you all know that i hate hyperbole, but the CDSD is the best component ever. only kidding. but, the CDSD is truly a step above the modified philips. the timbre of instruments and the spatial cues that the DAC6 does so well are truly brought to a new level with the CDSD. i wouldn't have believed it. i've never heard harmonica and cymbals sound so real. not on any format. the only disappointing thing is that you can really start to hear the difference between CD and SACD. cds on this thing sound as good and in a lot of cases better than any vinyl i've ever heard. SACD sounds real. i mean, real. a well recorded SACD (after all, recording matters more than format) is just jaw-dropping. whatever Ed Meitner did when making the CDSD is some sort of amazing. (to paraphrase to Andreas Koch, they sought out and eliminated all things in the circuitry that negatively affected sound) this guy really is an amazing engineer and he knows what he's doing. the proof is in my living room.
System edited: finally updating the fact that the active 10s have been replaced by active 50s! now i have the same 5 speakers all around. pics will be added soon.
nreddy - yes, yes, and yes. i think the emm front end is the best i've ever heard. i've never heard any of the super esoteric preamps, though. my pream before the EMM was the larger ATC preamp, and they sound virtually identical. i doubt i'd be able to tell a difference between the two in a blind shootout. the EMM is more expensive, but it's also 6-channel. comparing it to the ATC is a compilent, though, as the ATC and EMM are the most neutral pres i've ever heard.
as for the firewire - yeah. i'm using the three glass optilink cables between the APL/EMM SACD-1000 and the DAC6. one goes from the DAC to the trasport to clock the transport using the clock of the DAC. one goes from the transport to DAC with the returning clock information. the last one goes from the transport to the DAC with the DSD data stream. the DAC then decodes it and outputs it to the preamp.
and mana stands are really wonderful. they do the most for turntables, though. the difference with other devices is present, but not huge. it all depends on how sensitive the device is to vibrations. the first time i heard mana was a side-by-side demonstration where i heard a new order LP on a linn lp12. i first heard it on a coffee table. then he picked up the tabe and set it on a mana stand and played the same track. it was quite amazing.
nrchy - i can't recommend them highly enough. i've used and heard some very highly-rated speakers over the years, and i've neve been as wholly satisfied with anything as i am with the ATCs. i've heard some lowther-based speakers that got the middle of midrange down a little better than the ATCs, but at the sacrifice of having no bass response to speak of, and also that upper-midrange honk that many lowthers have. and they don't have the sparkle at the extreme top of the spectrum that the best electrostats have have. what they do successfully, however, is the coherency from top-to-bottom of the spectrum. and, all in all, i don't think you'll find a better midrange driver anywhere.
also, ask they guy you're buying them from if they have the new tweeter/baffle. i had mine upgraded and the new tweeter is audibly better.
i really don't think you can go wrong with 'em. you'll enjoy.
and also, getting the ATCs effectively ended my constant upgradeitis for speakers, which speaks wonders.
avalon sounds unbelievable. besides being one of my top 10 albums of all time, i'm hearing things i never knew were there, that are so subtly buried in the mix. little things like a few parts on 'more than this' where he double-tracks the vocals on certain phrases. you can hear both vocal tracks clearly, and it adds to the ambiance of a very atmoshperic, as you know, album. and speaking of the vocals, holy crap! it's like bryan ferry is RIGHT there - you can hear every nuance.
strangely, though - adding the 50 in the center also affected the ability of my system to image from the sides. ie, if a sound is panning in 360 degrees, the ppan from RF to RS is smoother, and the sound will be centered at the right center of the room, as it should be. also, bass notes coming from the rear speakers now have much more authority, and sound more real. i assume this is because those particular bass notes are also mixed into the center and the omnidirectional properties of bass notes make it sound fuller all around.
although i don't like the whole album, or the mix that much, james taylor's hourglass - especially the first track is stunning. while avalon's vocal's are magic (not just in musical quality, but in realism), the first song on hourglass, 'line em up' has the most realistic vocals i've ever heard. i said earlier that it sounds like bryan ferry is in the room with you on avalon, but on 'line em up' it sounds like you could reach out you hand and rub james' bald head for good luck. the bass is a little fat on the song, but that's just how it's recorded. other than that, it's reference-quality stuff.
and, please - if you're ever around texas, feel free to come by and hear for yourself.
nreddy - congrats on the 150s! you can scare cats several blocks away with those things!
one thing, though - if you can swing it, i would try to get 150s all around. i know it's pricey, but i'm learning after having replaced the 10 with the 50 in the center that having perfectly matched speakers makes a *huge* difference in multichannel audio. especially in the front three channels. one of these days i'm gonna replace my active 10s in the back with active 50s so i have 'em all around.
but, i do have my HT rig running through the switchman as well. i say the stereo and HT are separate, because none of my music sources are connected in any way to the HT rig other than the fact that they are both using inputs on my switchman, which effectively isolates them from one another.
as for not going with an ATC sub, i have no experience with ATC subs and i'm sure they're amazing, but they're crazy expensive, and i was familiar with the linn already and knew that it mated well with the ATC speakers. plus, it costs a hell of a lot less.
System edited: replaced the active 10 in the center with an active 50 on loan from my brother. HOLY CRAP! i'm not kidding. this made a difference like you wouldn't believe.
nreddy - it depends entirely on the recording. on the 3-channel living stereo and living presence recordings, the 3-channel mixes are truly more realistic than the 2-channel ones.
other choral recordings i have also do a far better job of conveying space, dimension, placement, and tonal accuracy (oddly enough) with multichannel.
as far as rock and/or popular music goes, it's a mixed bag. many recording are better in multichannel because the works lend themselves to more experimental mixes, and therefore succeed. it tends to fail sometimes, though, when a conventional 4 or 5 piece song is mixed with aggressive surround channels.
multichannel recordings that are WAY better than the 2 channel mix: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon Roxy Music - Avalon Peter Gabriel - Up Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (i don't like the album much, though) Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
recordings where the m/c version is hit-or-miss Beck - Sea Change Ryan Adams - Gold Beach Boys - Pet Sounds T-Rex - Electric Warrior James Taylor - Hourglass
Recordings with *AWFUL* m/c mixes: Bowie - Reality (2-channel mix is good, though) Bowie - Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (2-channel mix is also great) Nick Drake - A Treasury Norah Jones - Come Away With Me James Taylor - JT
i'm really looking forward to the upcoming Moody Blues albums on SACD and the future Pink Floyd releases. hopefully we'll see their earlier stuff get the same tratment as DSOTM. i'd love to see an SACD expanded version of Piper At The Gates Of Dawn done multichannel with the early pre-album singles See Emily Play and Arnold Layne.
as for the Moody Blues: if ever an album was made for a quality MC mix, it's On The Threshold Of A Dream. It should be available sometime this year, and i can't wait.
so, short answer: multichannel has the potential to be better, depending on the implementation. i can give further examples of good mixes and can explain when multichannel should and shouldn't be used, but i'm typed-out for the moment.
mooner - the emmlabs pre is *marginally* better than the SCA-2. the reason i changed it out for the switchman was to have a quality 6-channel analog pre. and as far as the cabling goes, rewiring with DNM smooths it out in the higher frequencies. the difference is notable. all in all, rewiring it is, to me, more effective than putting them on MANA stands, although i use those as well.
System edited: Finally updated this from over a year ago. No more vinyl, new digital source, no more tv killing my soundstage. No more girlfriend, so I had to remove the previous references to her, (i swear i'm not bitter) but I do have a dog now to go along with the 2 cats who act as "Organic Acoustic Dampeners" when sleeping on the Switchman or one of the speakers. If anyone is interested in experiencing the audio-enhancing capabilities of either cat, they are available for rent. Reasonable rates. The only caveat is that I come with them and stay during the rental period. And please, any 'Goners who are in the San Antonio area who would like to come by, throw back a few Lone Star or Shiner Bock beers, and spend some time jamming out, just let me know! Especially if ye be an attractive female around my age-group! (i'm not desparate, i swear)
