Roon Core on Synology NAS (in basement)
PoE switch
RPi 3B+ Ropieee (hidden under rack)
2 x AQ Forest USB cable
Mytek Brooklyn -> Primaluna -> Klipsch Heresy
Topping D10 -> LittleDot and now recently added JDS Atom -> HE400i or HD650 cans
Room correction done with UMIK-1 and REW, brings Heresys to life.
The LPSU and passive pre-amp on the bottom shelf aren’t in use currently.
So, after trying (and failing) to build my own RPi with a HighBerry HAT combo, I returned everything and spent the $175 for a prebuilt Allo DigiOne setup. Added ropieee, running coax out to my Emotiva PT-100 preamp which has some very nice dual Sabre DACs capable of 24/192. Added the Darko Doorstop (thanks @Bob_Findlay, I swear it really made a difference) and I’m very pleased with the upgrade. Might spring for an external DAC somewhere down the road but for now, I’m quite happy with this new setup.
I found when I had a pair of Heresys in that they broke most rules, including where they sounded best - I think it’s very room specific. They did sound good, and preferred valves - Unison Research Simply Italy in my case - so I would think that PrimaLuna should sound very nice with them (on my wish list too).
I’ve got a pair of Fortes in at the moment that are very nice. Might be a bit big for Jon’s room though!
I think the bigger issue is that your listening chair is way more expensive than your speakers…
Deep corner placement can cause bass problems. It cal also fix bass problems, so don’t believe what you read over what you hear. Also, placement close to the walls can degrade the “visual” effects of stereo (imaging, soundstaging). It’s not the placement, but the placement in your room. The characteristics of your room are critically important to how placement affects the sound, so don’t take any suggestions or warnings here as authoritative above and beyond what you actually hear in your room.
The only way you will know is to experiment with different placement. It sucks - experimentation is a pain in the ass. If you want some guidance on how to experiment, here are some popular methods/formulas: Cardas’ golden ratio/triangle; rule of thirds; the Wilson method; the Sumiko method; Kegel. I lied about that last one.
Don’t get to the point where you can’t enjoy your tunes because you keep worrying about whether your speakers are in their perfect positions. Your own tastes in sound should be the final referent - any given room will likely have several speaker/listener positions that may satisfy your taste.
I’m gonna go stare at that picture of your chair a bit more…
I pull my speakers about 3 ft from both the front wall and side walls to get a soundstage that extends beyond the back of the speakers. I have GoldenEar Tritons, but I expect the same is true for Heresy.
With speakers up against the wall, the effect is too flat, IMHO. Yo need some bouncing of sound waves.
Zone 8, headphone Ropieee station. Ropieee, Dragon Fly Black, Grado SR 60. The DFB is temporary until my replacement iFi Nano arrives and cans are being replaced with AKG K550 which I pick up tomorrow missed the post today :(. Have to say the DFB sounds great for such a little device but it will be back for portable usage when the Nano arrives. It goes really well the the Shure iems I bought the other week. Starting to get really in to headphone listening, my main Naim Atoms not had a look in for a while.
Seeing your image now, I can see speaker placement in corners bringing other problems than having them too narrow though. But sometimes the room is what it is and you simply have to work with what you have.
Streaming through choice of direct USB inputs via Innuos Zenith mkII SE or, as back up an ageing, (but still good), W4S Music Server.
Alternatively networking using ROCK on NUC6i5SYH
CD using Theta Jade transport
Vinyl on Voyd turntable
Devialet 1000 Amplifiers
Wilson-Benesch ACT Loudspeakers
The Klipsch Heritage speakers are designed with boundary reinforcement in mind, so you need to have them closer to rear walls than normal speakers. I’m using the Fortes 10" from the wall - Klipsch suggest 2-10".
It really shouldn’t work as they have a huge 15" passive driver on the rear. It does though. Depth of image does suffer a little, but only a little. A classic case of rules being made to be broken
I sold my Jade many years ago. It was reliable and fun. I still have that AES/EBU digital cable that connected it to my DAC (Nordost Silver Ghost?). I’ll probably never use that cable again… What a great transport! I never did hear a difference turning off the display. I wonder if I would with the equipment I have now. I turned it off anyway, just out of audiophilia nervosa.
