Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Fair enough, I would wait till after moving in your situation so less stuff to pack!

If you can’t wait, bass trap sized panels are pretty universally applicable and are effective at reflection points if you’re getting more stuff.

I have 3x 242s as a cloud, 2x 50mm freestand gobos & 2x monster full range traps and the room sounds great.

If it sounds good now, don't bother messing with it if you're possibly moving.

Side topic, interesting that LA housing market is like that. Currently Sydney is going bananas too. Houses routinely selling for 1- 1.5 million over asking. Even small 2 bedroom units that are marketed at 8-900 sell for over a million. It is nuts. I wish you luck.

Yeah, it's wild. Stuff we were going to consider putting an offer in on had $300,00 over asking offers in cash. We just can't even remotely compete with that so I think we're gonna renting for a while. Just

@dramatic_hammer - Oh I can definitely wait! I think it sounds pretty stellar already :-)

Filly Brook, new fancy beer, wine and now okanomayaki place in Leytonstone. Once we’re allowed inside they have a pair of vintage Berkeleys hooked up to a Bryston amp. One for the hifi nerd ride.

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Beer wine and whatnow?

Beer wine and whatnow?

Yeah!

We went on Sunday night, they had the speakers on!

Anyone know much about powering a minidsp 2x4?

I'm using one as a crossover in 2.1 set-up. When the 2x4 is powered via usb from the computer its fine with no noise. However, try and power it with a suitable (correct spec) wall wart or via a usb charger plug then I get a hum (assumed ground loop). My laptop is plugged into the same outlet so have no idea why it's silent through that? Please help!

If you have a USB battery pack then that's a good way to test it with some "clean" power.

assumed ground loop

Is anything actually grounded? With most PSUs being isolated, you may not have a true ground at all. That would be a good starting point, as it allows you to pick one place to ground and star-wire all the other components to that.

I do somewhere, will dig out...

Turntables are grounded to the mixer. Pre and power amp and powered sub I have no idea about (no grounding cables). I did wonder about grounding the 2x4 chassis?

I did wonder about grounding the 2x4 chassis?

The crossover chassis will be grounded to the same point as all the other analogue signals via the phono plugs. If the PSU is grounding it to a separate point, that will create your ground loop.

Free Kenwood AM/FM tuner, anyone?

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/363340/#comment15972842

Turntables ground to mixer. Mixer connects to pre power, 2x4 sits inbetween with jumper cable with outs to power amp and powered sub.

Any issue there?

Every setup is different, but I had hum with my powered sub 2.1 MiniDSP system. Solved it by grounding the sub end of the phono signal lead. Mains plug with a single wire going from earth pin to the phono cable shield. Seems sketchy, but I can't see how it would actually be dangerous.

Once I got a hypex amp with balanced inputs the hum disappeared anyway. I'll sell you a magik snakeoil coated plug with bit of bell wire sticking out for only $789.00 (m8s r8s)

Ha, bargain.

What I don't get is why there is no hum when it's powered via my laptop?!

your USB port on your laptop won't be connected to earth which means when you power it via USB you're effectively lifting the ground. This means that your connection to earth will be via your powered sub (I'm assuming that's grounded).

It could be that your sockets that you're using are earthed to different points. Try plugging everything into one extension lead which is plugged into one socket. If that gets rid of your ground hum then it's likely that the issue is with your sockets.

That's great thanks. I'll try with the extension lead but that still seemed to be problematic.

Based on the lifted ground is there any other way to power it in a similar fashion but not via laptop?

Clearly the other stuff you trying to connect is creating a ground loop, when you connect to the laptop ground loop is lifted.

I had similar... when listening to radio or play acoustic guitar (all connected to same amp) perfect clean sound, as soon as I connect the turntable I would get massive hum sound - that was a very good indication the turntable was creating a ground loop. Turntable was creating a ground loop cause the amp was grounded and phono connector was 'carrying' that ground to turntable. Turntable used a 3 pin plug and was also grounding the phono stage to the plug internally. Solution just removed the internal ground connection from the turntable plug (to the phono stage) and now it's crystal clear sound.

Still hums on one lead into one outlet.

You need to lift the ground on whatever you're plugging it into the wall with, so either use a usb wall plug with a plastic ground pin or crack it open and disconnect the ground wire. Easiest way to do this is with an extension lead without a molded plug. Unscrew the plug head and disconnect the ground wire from the pin.

Yep! That should do it!

Removing safety earthing from your electronic equipment is a bad and potentially dangerous solution. The PSU for the MiniDSP won't be grounding it, there's only 5v + - coming from the PSU. It's the phono cable shield.

Currid won't be removing any safety earthing from my suggestion. The ground loop needs to be removed - when it's powered via a laptop usb connection there's no ground connection and is safe. If the usb port on the MiniDSP is a shielded USB port then it means that there will be an uneccessary ground connection if it's used via a grounded USB plug (which might be causing the ground loop). Additionally, if it's plugged in via the PSU there shouldn't be a ground connection but if there's a ground hum then something funky is going on there. It could be a faulty PSU. By lifting the ground on a power connection connected to the usb port of the MiniDSP they're not creating anything that's any less safe than plugging it into a laptop.