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My "accidental" office audio system






PHOTOS: TOP > The old days: 12.06 when I was trying out three vintage tuners with the Audio Research LS3 and D130 office system. BELOW: The new days: Logitech Z-2300 THX 2.1 powered speaker system

Mates,

I never intended it, but it appears I may be changing my office system from high end components to a computer based one.

The photo shows parts of the office system I've been trying to refine the last 4 years:

Cambridge Audio 640C / Revox B160 tuner > Audio research LS3 > ARC D130 > Infinity Primus 360 speakers. IC's were Audioquest King Cobra and Diamondback, Speaker cables were AQ Type 4 though I also used "Home Depot HD-14" home brew for awhile.

I moved a month ago to another house and the larger of the two secondary bedrooms became the office. This room unfortunately has a door at the NE and SW corners with closet doors the entire E side such that I can't come up with a practical position for the Infinitys nor for placing the stack of components without 25' speaker cables.

As a temporary measure, I changed my $20 Harmon Kardon powered computer speakers for a Logitech Z-2300 THX 2.1 system with subwoofer (35W each satellite, 130W subsoofer, doen to 75Hz)($115 plus $25 shipping from Amazon) and changed the connection to my beloved 1996 Audiowerk 2 soundcard. I either stream FM- I listen to BBC3, KUSC, KCRW, KPCC, KPFK, WGHB, and Radio Netherlands or use the CD players of the 2005 Dell (XP home/ 3GHz/1.5 G RAM / 500 and 160 GB HD's). I do not keep music files on this computer.

At first the Logitech system was not only disappointing but the subwoofer was actually annoying in the way it seemed to only make an indistinct boom- no pitch or timbre- and loudly. About 50 hours leaving it streaming FM seems to have improved it substantially and the subwoofer now seems better integrated into the overall sound. Raising the subwoofer- which is really at the limit of being too large- 11 x 11 x 15 to just under the bottom of the desk was a major improvement.

The sound has a bit of hollowness to it, but is not bad at all with the Audiowerk card. The main selling feature of the Logitech Z-2300 over for example the similar Klipsch system was the very convenient remote control with power/mute, volume, subwoofer volume and a headphone jack.

Given the good positioning of the satellites next to the monitor, I'm actually having some imaging. This placement is far better than the past three situations in which the speakers were either behind me, directly opposed to each other on the sides or with one behind and one to the side.

Almost by accident, because the speaker placement is so effective, I may have derived a really good situation for office use.

By the way, the new system will have a good workout. I received 43 CD's today: Dowland Collected Works (12), Leonhardt Jubilee (15), Rubinstein Chopin (11) and a set of works for Gamba (5). In case you think I'm wealthy these were all together $120. I recommend the Rubinstein set- 11 CD's of some of the nicest Chopin playing for $18.34, the Leonhardt 15 CD set was $17, the viol set was 5 CD's for $11. The Dowland Collected Works I've wanted for a year and has excellent recordings by Anthony Rooley and the Consort of Musicke. As I have a several of these same recordings on LP, I can compare the sound with my newly set up main system: Oracle III/SME V / McIntosh MR67 / Cambridge Audio 640C > Audio Research SP10 > ARc D115 > Vandersteen 2C.

For me, a computer-based audio system seems to be a reasonable answer to a tough placement problem in the office- more later.

Cheers,

Bambi B


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Topic - My "accidental" office audio system - Bambi B 19:12:08 07/22/09 (9)

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