Need some help upgrading speaker setup please.

[fobose]

Excellent! Could you put it under your monitor for now, just to get you up and running? I've got my full size amp on my desk but I have a big desk. I had toyed with the idea of building a little stand so it can sit under my under desk mounted draw unit!

 

[Marsman]

I am leaning towards the Nobsound NS-14G Pro amp now. It's quite a bit cheaper (cheaper still on Ebay) than the SMSL options and it seems to be well thought of plus it has seperate knobs for bass, treble and sub.

The nobsound amp has binding post output for subwoofer, meaning it is designed for use with a passive subwoofer. Active/powered subwoofers are far more common, and you can use one, but it would need to have speaker level input, such as the Wharfedale SW150. Some subwoofers have speaker level input, some don't.

 

[pastymuncher]

Excellent! Could you put it under your monitor for now, just to get you up and running? I've got my full size amp on my desk but I have a big desk. I had toyed with the idea of building a little stand so it can sit under my under desk mounted draw unit!

Sadly no because if I put it under my monitor I won't have enough room left for my keyboard. The amp (Panasonic not Yamaha as I previously thought it was) is massive. It's 352mm deep and that's without any cables in the rear!!

The nobsound amp has binding post output for subwoofer, meaning it is designed for use with a passive subwoofer. Active/powered subwoofers are far more common, and you can use one, but it would need to have speaker level input, such as the Wharfedale SW150. Some subwoofers have speaker level input, some don't.

Please forgive my noobishness but speaker level input means that it has binding posts just like that amp does yes? I ask because I see that the SW150 does indeed have them and that wa one of the subs I was looking at. A normal active sub just has the single wire connection to a amp but I could use a active amp (or a passive one) with the Nobsound if it has the same connectors as a normal speaker, ie binding posts/speaker terminals?

Sorry for all the questions guys but I want to get this right the first time and not end up chasing the rabbit down the hole in the quest to put things right that I should have done in the first place. I really do appreciate all of the excellent help and advice you have given me so far.

Got a dispatch email from Richer Sounds earlier and my Dali Spektor 1's will be here on Tuesday.

 

[pastymuncher]

That's everything ordered now.

Dali Spektor 1 speakers from Richer Sounds will be here on Tuesday.
15m of 2x 2.5mm Kabledirect speaker cable from Amazon should be here on Wednesday.
12x Fisual Easy Fix Banana Plugs 24K Gold Plated from Amazon should be here on Wednesday.
Nobsound NS-14G Pro amp from Ebay (cheaper than Amazon due to a voucher) should be here on Wednesday.

I have been watching some speaker isolation foam/stand reviews and the Fluid Audio FA-DS5 that I was going for is pretty poor and doesn't really do the job it's supposed to do. I then watched a video comparing a proper acoustic isolation foam kit (Aurolex Mopad) against a ISO Acoustics L8R155 stand set and what a difference in sound. While the Mopads sounded muted the L8R155 set made the sound really crisp and clear. I am now considering a ISO Accoustics L8R130 although it's quite a jump in price.

Sub wise I have been doing some research and am seriously considering making my own. I am handy with woodworking and it doesn't look very complicated at all. The only thing I seem to be stuck on is that all of the guides are done in America so the links to components used are over there as well. Does anybody know any UK based component places please?

 

[fobose]

I look forward to seeing some pics of your setup when you've got everything

I've just bought myself some k&m desktop speaker stands after much deliberation. I quite like the look of ones you have mentioned but I hate having to dust my desk as it is so any dust traps will annoy me!

 

[Marsman]

I was looking at the Fluid Audio stands, and while I do like the look of them, I think I have to agree with someone's assessment that they are overpriced for some bits of MDF and plastic. Gear4music stands are metal and look far better value. ISO stands look good, but as said; they are quite pricey! Still, at least they are not all plastic. I did wonder that looking at pics of them, but they are metal as well.

Sub wise I have been doing some research and am seriously considering making my own. I am handy with woodworking and it doesn't look very complicated at all. The only thing I seem to be stuck on is that all of the guides are done in America so the links to components used are over there as well. Does anybody know any UK based component places please?

@Kei springs to mind as someone I remember who built his own. He knows quite a bit when it comes to DIY audio. Maybe he can offer some advice.

 

[Kei]

The only complications to making your own subwoofer are choosing the parts to build it. The actual driver needs to suit the volume cabinet you want and then you have the choices of design. There are a great deal of designs to choose from, the most simple being sealed. You also get vented or ported, isobaric, bandpass plus a few I can't remember the names of. The driver also needs to be suited to your design choice. A driver well suited to a sealed design may not work so well in a ported design. A good piece of software for modelling designs is WinISD where you can input the box volume and the thiele small parameters of the driver to model the response plot. Personally, I've used SEAS and Dayton audio drivers in the two subwoofers I've built.

This is a Seas L26ROY in a 38L ported enclosure with a plate amplifier. (built in 2003 using a car audio sub and upgraded about 5 years ago, made of 25mm MDF, hence the battered looking paint)

I built this one for the car using a Dayton RSS265HO in a smaller ported enclosure. (26L IIRC) No amp on this one, hence the speakon connector. (Made of 18mm birch ply)

Good places to look for parts are:
https://www.falconacoustics.co.uk/
https://www.wilmslowaudio.co.uk/
https://willys-hifi.com/collections
https://europe-audio.com/

 

[pastymuncher]

@Kei Thanks for that, some good info there and many thanks for the links to the parts places. That bottom sub looks great.

 

[pastymuncher]

@fobose @Marsman @Demon

Thank you for all of your help and advice. I am up and running now and my music has never sounded better. The Dali Spektor 1's sound fantastic straight out of the box and I am hearing things I never heard before. I have just listened to Tribute (Album) by Yanni (Greek sort of modern classical composer) and the difference is night and day. It sounded ok with the Logitechs but the Dali's are so crisp and clear and the strings really come through. I have a wide ranging taste in music from semi classical like Yanni through 60's/70's/80's pop to rock music ranging from soft rock to the likes of ACDC and Iron Maiden so I will give them a proper listening to over the next week or so which will help the speakers bed in as well.

I also never realised how much difference isolating your speakers from the desk made. For the time being I have a pair of New Jersey Sound Acoustic Isolation Monitor Speaker Pads which are similar to the AccouFoam 5M Studio Monitor Isolation Pad by Gear4music but almost half the price. They seem ok to me and are a big step up from having the speakers on the desk. When I have more money in the upgrade fund I will get a proper set of desktop stands.

Fobose, that Kabeldirect speaker wire and the Fisual Easy Fix Banana plugs are some serious quality. They turned up yesterday in a very heavy package. I thought what the hell is this now and opened it to see the speaker cable and plugs. That cable is, I am ashamed to say, at least 3x as thick as any I have used before. I have always used whatever has come with whatever I am setting up and didn't buy into thicker cable being better. I am now well and truly converted!! The plugs are so easy to use and grip the cable solidly. It's so simple to make your own leads with them and the Kabeldirect cable and I think I will convert everything over in the house to this combination now.

I will put up some pics when I have time and have tidied up my desk. Once again, many thanks guys. I am listening to my music like this at the moment.

 

[fobose]

Glad you have everything and are pleased with it all! I was adamant I would not notice much difference from my old PC speakers (creative thx 2.1 250D - cost me £250 at the time) but boy was I wrong. I am completely obsessed with hifi gear now. I too have a wide taste in music. I was listening to kill bill vol 1 soundtrack when I first got mine. Zamfir - the lonely shepherd came on and my god what an amazing sound on my spektor 2's.

You couldn't ask for more from those cables or plugs for the price, they feel good quality to me too. Don't be tempted to get the 1.5mm version of that cable, it is a real pig to separate both cables from each other without tearing the transparent sheath each time! If you have a lot to do, buy the 50m reel!

 

[Demon]

Also glad to hear it's worked out well! And I'm sure as I do, Listening to music whilst at the PC is just such a pleasurable experience now.

The problem you will now have is you'll notice the difference between a really nicely mastered album and badly mastered album.. I've had to go and find better quality versions of some of my albums as they sounded terribly compressed.