The Two Channel Advice Thread

@Jokko

I heard the Q Acoustics Concept 50 at my dealer several months ago and I was blown away how much I liked it. I was also blown away at the price. They are super nice. I think I would push anyone to try them, and especially with how you have described your listening tastes. I would also suggest Kudos based on my personal experience and your location. They are a UK brand but did not take off in the USA. They have a very smooth and warm mid-range with treble that is never harsh while still being excellent with detail and soundstaging. They also have outstanding bass response. You might be able to find a really good deal in your region on them.

The McIntosh is a cool choice. I think their new integrateds are really fun. But unless you are really in love with them, I would wonder if you might get a poor deal in the European market given their US based manufacturing. Do they have reasonable distribution in Europe, or would you be paying a premium to get a McIntosh as an import in your region? Speculation on my part as I do not know for sure. But if I was in your region I would look more into something that would be local so as to not pay a premium on import duties or taxes.

I have been wanting to start another discussion on this, but I am interested to see your desire to use HDMI ARC for TV watching in 2-channel. I would really love to see @schiit and others integrating this. I know it's proprietary and annoying. But as I see the likes of Matrix and some others adding HDMI ARC to their 2 channel DACs I dream of a future where I can use USB from my local music server and HDMI ARC from my TV. Optical from my TV sounds like ass. I use a multi-channel pre-pro even though I am listening exclusively in 2-channel. It seems to be the only thing that sounds good with my Apple-TV source.

 

- avoid metal domes at this price level, they are good tool in studio monitors but not for music enjoyment (Be is great but expensive)
- when size permits get a 3-way speaker - it is just better and might not cost more than 2-way bookshelf (also avoid 2.5-way designs)
- have not heard them, but Schiit Tyr amps look like a killer deal based on how these are built - I would build similar amp for myself
- get a proper DAC with pre or with separate pre and then some whatever cheap BS middleman for the HDMI connection

 

@Climber / @Collusion - Sourced a pair of S400 SE with the improved crossover last night. Came from Buchardt Jan 2020 so I reckon this is the mk1 version. Only few hours played but can report there is no fckery in the mids/highs: ) To be continued... I am still eyeballing a Heritage Special for A/B comparison if it pops up on the market.

@Greg121986 This has me more intrigued on the Concept 50! Wifey accepts also, the Arendal`s she said no way in hell hah. Will try to source in house and report back within the next month or two. Epic battle S400 vs Heritage Special vs Concept50?

@Priidik Good advice! Amp wise I think I am going to stick with all in one box solutions for now. I have my critical listening spot in the office/study. Currently playing with the Model 40n from Marantz, however both the Yamaha R-N2000A and Naim Nova seem to have higher 4 ohm power and in theory from my quick google search "better" internal DACs.

 

How much power do the Dyns require to sing, I hear they like some serious current?

 

For amps, I am enamored with Kinki Studio. I had a Kinki EX-M7 power amp for a period of time and was pretty blown away. I have been wanting to try the EX-B7 but have not been able to find the right deal on a used pair yet. The integrated EX-M1+ has very good reviews from what I have seen. Most recently, they have released a new brand called Choco with an integrated model called the EMEI. I am trying to find excuses to build a small stereo for my office just so I can try this amp. https://www.kinki-studio.com/product-page/choco-emei

 

To tell you the truth, I don't really think it's about the power. Heritege Special's have excellent dynamics and therefore they are pretty revealing on how the amplifier actually sounds. So far I've tested four different integrated amplifiers and my current setup is: Ifi Neo Stream (AES/EBU) -> Soekris dac2541 -> Lindemann 882 -> Dynaudio Heritage Special

Lindemann 882 (160W @8ohm, 300W @4ohm) - Very neutral sounding amplifier, applies to both FR and timbre. Maybe a tad wet but in an uncolored fashion. Excellent with the Dyns, this is what I currently have.

Musical Fidelity Nu Vista 800.2 (330 @8ohm, 500 @4ohm) - Darker midrange, overshoots transients, thin & tinny sounding. Soundstage is more vague than with Lindemann. Middle bass might be a tad more prominent, but technically not any better. Not very good amp IMHO and sounds nothing like tubes to my ears.

Ayre AX-5 (125W @8ohm, 250W @4ohm) - Transients are more lively than strictly neutral, but still tastefully done unlike the MuFI. Has a tad of inherent warmness in the sound, but I wouldn't call this a warm sounding amplifier because of the transients. Might need careful partnering with bright sounding speakers & sources. Not a bad pairing with the Dyns, but I prefer the Lindemann.

Cyrus 8vs2 (70W @8ohm, 110W @4ohm) - Clearly cheaper and less powerful than the others. Brighter overall frequency balance than strictly neutral, but tastefully done and what's more important transients don't feel overdone. Less resolving than Lindemann and Ayre and bass is less controlled, but considering the price difference, not bad at all.

 

Love my PhilharmonicAudio BMR Monitors. Not the most precise in imaging (intentionally) because the builder wanted a really wide dispersion. This has the benefit giving every seat very immersive sound.

In room, the bass I've measured is into the 20s despite advertised as high 30s. Not as sensitive as some still very dynamic sounding to me.

In the North America, less $ than the Buchardt.

 

I've been seriously eyeballing that Emei amp for a taste of that Exicon flav-a-flav. But in the same boat, I can't see it living in the main rig unless I have a chance to audition it first.

 

You could consider a 45-day home audition of Buchardt's active speaker line. Their wireless hub accepts HDMI ARC. The A10/A500SE with the Purifi drivers provide pluggable "master tunings" to change the overall response profile as well as a basic EQ capability in the hub.

My A500SEs are combined with a Dirac Live box from MiniDSP which provides much better time/phase correction than Buchardt's 'free' room correction. Overall it's a very relaxing and musical 2ch system if you aren't one to be swapping components regularly. [Please disregard the leftover component mess behind the right speaker; I need to get around to selling them off...]

 

If you already use a minidsp, why not just go passive and be able to swap amps and tune a bit?

I ask because I use one as well and have stayed passive for that very reason, but sometimes wonder if one component (+cables) less would save me some running around my own tail

 

Since I got the Buchardts in May I have found my nervosa has significantly diminished, to the point where I am thinking "I could make it different but I don't know if I could make it definitively better".

Now I clearly consider my room to be the limiting factor; it probably always was, but there were so many gears and tweaks to try that I couldn't quite accept that fact. The "need to change something" feeling has pretty much gone away (just for now, maybe? who knows) and I don't miss it.

Of course if some revolutionary new room correction system arose, that could change things

 

Well, here's to hoping that with Dutch & Dutch supporting 3rd party applications running on their internal ARM DSP chips (first of which being BACCH) something like this could pretty easily trickle down/across to a brand like Buchardt. I've definitely wished there was a way to try a free trial of BACCH4MAC just to see what the fuss is about.

 

A colleague of mine is very happy with ARC, which is integrated into his system and can make changes to the entire system automagically. I still prefer REW but of course it can't change anything on my system on it's own. Much more effort required tweaking those changes manually. Whether that is fun or not is an exercise best left to the reader.

 

Speaking about Dutch n Dutch they're working on a smaller version and a much bigger version. Might be of interest.

 

I remember a while ago hearing about a Princeton professor demoing this BACCH system at audio shows. From what I read just now on ASR (via Dr. Google) the effect sounds similar to what I hear when I move into the sweet spot of my 2ch minidsp setup. The image snaps into focus as well as expanding wider and deeper. Nothing I’ve read says Dirac specifically tries to eliminate crosstalk, but it does do some phase shifting (at least in the bass) to try and align arrival times at the listening position. Perhaps the end result is similar.

@Kernel Kurtz mentioned ARC. I had tried that about a decade ago and found it pretty useless; it certainly could have improved since then as compute has gotten cheaper.

If you are curious about DSP room correction, Dirac is relatively painless to calibrate and very effective for EQ, phase correction and increasing clarity/separation. You can drive your DAC of choice from the digital output of the minidsp and keep its signature in the chain. The biggest friction point is needing to use A/D for vinyl if you want RC active for analog.

 

Thanks a lot for making me aware of this!!! I will actually get the new A10 from Buchardt and try those FIRST, rather than going down the passive rabbit hole only to find out later I would I end up here anyways. Will report later and A/B vs the S400s.

On a side note, Wharfedale Linton Heritage vs. S400 SE mk1 in my room, I feel the Buchardt does everything the Lintons do, just a tad better. Bass is tighter, soundstage is larger, feels less "stressed" during busy music and all in all more involving. At least on my Marantz that is fed by a Soekris 2541.

 

(On immersive sound and imaging precision) I can attest that as someone moved up from BMR monitors to towers, but I want to point out that I don’t find the imaging precision is lacking at all on either of them; on the contrary, the sound is very “natural” in non- or minimally treated listening environments (e.g. non-dedicated, family-sharing areas) due to its wide AND smooth dispersion pattern so that reflected sounds blended up harmoniously without the need of fussing with speaker positions.

(On sensitivity) their impedance appears to be on the mid to low side in the paper, but the curve only gets lower on higher end of the frequency spectrum, and is overall very smooth, so shouldn’t pose any challenge to amplification.

They just recently announced $150 flat air shipping worldwide for BMR monitors and $400 for HT towers (Mundorf AMT tweeter and Purifi woofers, which I had not heard)

 

Exactly so, IMO/IME. I don't have them "optimally" set up and all and they reproduce the orchestra for me just fine!

Some like that pinpoint imaging (slightly unrealistic imaging, IMO) so just pointing it out.

As an all-arounder, my BMR Monitors are number one of what I've owned.

 

What do y'all think of the Fostex FE206? This is local to me:
https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/det...ull-range-loudspeaker-w-bullet-shaped-wizzer/