Since I started writing about audio and video technology people have often asked me what I use at home. I’ll try to answer that in my first blog on this, the Rumblefish, platform. I’m not really sure you’ll like it, since the systems I use are somewhat eccentric – a mixture of old and new technology – and specific to my taste and demands. As those who know me will expect, I always try to get the most out of limited budget and this sometimes requires ideosyncratic ways to go about it, involving equally ideosyncratic electronic gadgets. Enough said, here goes.
Actually I use two different systems. One is my ‘Home Cinema’ setup, the other one is my ‘listen to music’ setup. Both profit from a NAS (Network Accessible Storage) on my home LAN.
Listening to music
This is what I use in the largest room of the house and it is mainly totally conventional. As I have stressed many times in previous articles, the most important (and most expensive) thing here is the analogue part and the quality of those components has not been bettered during the last 50 year or so. Although prices have fallen; not that much even for new components, but certainly because people seem to want to get rid of this ‘old gear’and are offering it second hand for very low prioces indeed.
At the heart of my system is a 30 year old Yamaha amplifier; their top-of-the-range model at the time. It’s got a number of s/pdif digital inputs and DAC’s (Digital-to-Analogue Converter) which are still now highly regarded by HiFi enthusiasts. It also has 4 loudspeaker outlets (originally intended for ‘quadrophonic sound’) and simulated surround sound when using 4 speakers.
For loudspeakers I use fairly large boxes as this is, according to conventional wisdom, the only way to get a really good sound. (I know, ideas have changed nowadays – I’ll get to that here below). They are of a design, invented in the 1980’s, the ‘pipe’ design: small footprint and tall (1,2m). I must admit I paid quite a bit for them, some €6000,- for the pair in today’s money. These are passive loudspeakers. (The active models of the same brand came with their own amplifier, the characteristics of which were finely tuned to the characteristics of the loudspeaker boxes. However, a demonstration didn’t really convince me of this advantage and they were far above my budget anyway.)
In addition I have two fairly small speaker boxes in the back. Although despised by connoisseurs, I must admit that for many kinds of music I do like the electronically generated ‘echo’ in the rear boxes; it provides a kind of presence of the music, a sense of actually being in the concert hall or jazz café. Of course, real surround sound would be better – but see below.
As sound-sources I’ve got several. A really good CD-player of course. By the way, almost all DVD-players can play CD’s as well and, provided they have a digital output, the sound quality is just fine, even from the cheapest models. Yet, durability and ease of use for playing CD’s is another matter.
I also have an excellent record player, a Lenco L78, a model introduced some 60 years ago. Bought it in a charity shop for peanuts, out of nostalgia mnore then anything. It was in a deplorable state; a crucial part, the bearing of the arm, was broken and of course everything involving rubber had dried out. To my lasting surprose, however, I found that this old model still boasted devoties, who on their website, solely dedicated to this model, not only pointed me to an address where I could order the new parts I needed, but also provided lots of pratical tips on how to rejuvenate an old specimen. Thus, the record player I had been using up till then (a Sony – OK but not excellent) moved upstairs to the ‘Home Cinema’ room.
Additions for digital music
But now for the modern additions. Streaming sound from internet services is what most people do these days. And I already mentioned the NAS box, which holds my digital music collection. For years I’ve wrestled with the best and most convenient way to play these files, whilke also catering for playing music from streaming services. The number of options seemed dazzling and I spent literally hundred of hours on web-forums (not to mention the money I spent on components which didn’t quite do what I wanted) before daring to choose for the use Google’s ChromeCast ‘dongle’. (Mind you: the original, simple, ChromeCast, now ‘Version III’). It’s a very popular and very cheap device. It’s got a hdmi output and I use a separately bought hdmi sound extractor to extract the digital (s/pdif) sound signal and convert it to an optical feed accepted by the Yamaha amp.
The Chromecast dongle is connected to the home network most often by WiFi, but I’m rather weary of needless wireless connections (as I’m not going to walk around with my big amp and speakers), so I bought a wired ethernet connector for it (available from Google in the US, but only from Asian supplyers in Euroipe).
All these components are very cheap and remember: these are all digital components, and they either work or don’t – sound quality is not an issue.
I wrote a detailed article about the unique way the Chromecast dongle works, but here is the gist of it: I use my smartphone to choose some music from either the internet (Spotify, Youtube, you name it) or from my own music collection on my home NAS. Then I instruct the ChromeCast to fetch these music files (or video’s with music) directly from either the internet or my home NAS and play them. The word ‘directly’ is essential here: e.g. when playing music from my NAS the signal goes directly, by wired connection, to the Chromecast and my audio system. The Chromecast is a popular device; hence there are very many apps supporting it’s peculiar way of working, including most iof not all streaming services.
The number of sound formats the Chromecast can stomach is limited, but it supports all mp3’s, FLAC files up till 24/96 quality and even surround sound when it is encoded in (Dolby) AC3 format. Regrettably, my Yamaha amp doesn’t support true surround sound but as the offerings of music with true surround sound are very limited and offer little extra experience for the kind of music I like I haven’t, so far, replaced the Yamaha nor felt the need to add additional speakers.
Home Cinema (& TV)
In my setup upstairs I aimed for a ‘Home Cinema’ and explore ‘Surround Sound’. I also wanted to watch TV programs the best way, but that is secondary.
The core of this system is a hefty ‘old’ Harman Kardon amplifier which I bought for a ridiculously low price from a guy who inherited it and found it ‘bulky and complicated and old-fashioned’ and din’t seem to realise it was (and is) an excellent piece of hardware, even when I told him so. It has a series of digital inputs (optical as well as coaxial) and supports all current ‘surround sound’ formats (AC3, NTS, etc.). It’s got 5 loudspeaker connections and an additional line-out connecfion for an active sub-woofer.
In previous blogs I explained why the concept of a common sub-woofer for all channels was initially opposed since it required analogue filters, which deteriorated the signal, but was revived in the digital era where, at least in ‘true’surround sound, the lowest frequencies come in a seperate channel. And even when this channel is not available, the lowest frequencies can be filtered off in the digtal stage, which – or so they say – gives less distortion then an analogue filter. I also explained why most sub-woofers have their own amplifier built-in and thus are fed by a line-output.
I purchased, second hand, two small but fairly good Bowes&Wilkes boxes for ‘Front left’ and ‘Front Right’; again for a ridiciously low price (€40,-) since since people seem to intend on ‘getting rid of old stuff’. For the ‘rear’ speakers I got for even less money two decent Philips boxes which could be relied upon to limit the sound range rather then to distort sounds outside it’s range.
Seen the quality of the two B&W boxes and the samll size of the room, I didn’t see the need for a ‘Front-Center’ speaker. On the Harman-Kardon I can indicate this speaker is missing, but I couldn’t truthfully say what the amplifyer does to adjust to this situation. But of course I did add an active sub-woofer (Yamaha again).
For the ‘Home Cinema’ idea I needed a fairly big screen and ended up buying a complete TV for the purpose since it was much cheaper then a monitor without TV-functionality of the same size.
Sound and video sources
For overall flexibility absolutely nothing can compare to a computer. I use a desktop, as I happened to own a decent one already. It’s got a digital s/pdif output (coaxial) connected to the Harman-Kardon amplifyer and a hdmi output connected to the ‘big screen’. It has a dvd-player of course, and a wired connection to the internet.
I use the excellent (and free!) VLC mediaplayer to play everything digital I have ‘in house’, either on the NAS or on CD or DVD. It’s one of the few players boasting a pass-through mode for sound where the signal is sent straight to the s/pdif output without in any way meddling with it. It’s also one of the very few players which can handle, in a convenient way, multiple language soundtracks and subtitles if available in the video file. It can even handle seperately downloaded subtitle files.
Of course everything from the internet or any cloud service can be played by this desktop (or any computer) as well – and here is where I particularly appreciate the convenience of a decent size screen.
Television
For this I use a Humax TV-receiver with recorder. I watch ‘live TV’ only very occasionally; for decades I’ve been making recordings of TV programs and playing them later. If only for the convenience of being able to ‘fast forward’ through the ubiquitous publicity announcements. Fortunately, a number of options is available even in this digital age where making your own recordings from TV program is discouraged everywhere as using paid online services brings in a lot more money.
I extensively wrote about this subject before; suffice to say here that the Humax does an excellent job for me. We sometimes watch the recording strauight from the Humax, but mostly I periodically transfer the recordings to my NAS for later viewing or viewing in another room.
Surround sound
Like most amplifiers of it’s type, the Harman-Kardon automatically recognizes which encoding is used for the sound signal and switches to it automatically, showing it on the display (e.g. ‘Dolby Digital’). In addition, one of the really neat features of the Harman-Kardon is a small display showing 5+1 loudpeaker boxes with for each box an indication whether or not a seperate channel is available for it in the active source. This, more then anything, made me realize how very rare ‘true surround sound’ really is. Some DVD’s provide it (the majority does not, despite what it says on the cover) and the recordings I bought directly from (small) record companies or from the website of the artist.
Comparison upstairs/downstairs
As I made clear, my downstairs ‘music only’ systen didn’t come cheap, while my upstairs ‘Home Cinema’ system was gobbled together very cheaply, mainly from 2nd hand components. But even allowing for the fact that I greatly profited from the urge to ‘throw out everything big and old-fashioned’, the upstairs system is still fairly cheap comparatively – and I was really amazed at the sound quality. It’s true I still prefer the downstairs system for classical music and jazz; it seems to sound more ‘pure’ somehow. It’s especially noticeable when playing vinyl on the Lenco record player but also with high-quality (24/96) ‘vinyl rips’. Yet the upstairs system just sounds better for many other kinds of music. And for the recordings I bought which were originally mastered for ‘surround sound’ I also prefer the upstairs system: the quality of the sound may be somwhat less, but the ‘listening experience’ is better, I find.
Hans Bloemendal