CMonster System Updates

[CMonster]

It's been awhile, and several changes have been made in both the living room and HT.

Living Room:

• New speakers! Focal Sopra N°2 in a limited edition concrete finish replaced the Dynaudio C1 mkII.
• New integrated amp! Atoll SDA300 replaced the Hegel H190. I felt something was missing with the Hegel driving the Focals. Bass seemed dry and lacking, and now is much more lush and full while still being defined. Streaming capabilities are also more robust on the Atoll. I thought about going with the Naim new classic line but couldn't justify the cost.
• New acoustic panels! The wall behind the couch has a built-in metal shelving unit that previously held nine wine-related photos (three rows of three) that we commissioned from Zing. Those photos have been moved to a more prominent location in the main hallway, and I worked with GIK Acoustics to have six custom panels made to fit on the shelving unit (three rows of two). Now, instead of glass and metal behind us, we have combo diffuser/absorption panels.
• Sold! With the Focal/Atoll combo, there was no longer a need for the SVS PC-2000 Pro. I played around with it in the HT as a third subwoofer for a bit, but decided to sell. The Hegel is also gone.

Home Theater:

• New streamer! After watching way too many Youtube video reviews of streamers, I decided on the Eversolo DMP-A6 Master Edition. The main reason I went with Eversolo is because its Android-based OS supports the Apple Music app. That means no sampling manipulation from Airplay and/or the AppleTV. Does that matter? Not sure. (The Atoll included a free six month trial to Qobuz, and it was fine, but I've been in the Apple ecosystem too long to change now.)
• New projector! I went with the Epson QB1000 since my eyes can't handle the technology used by JVC laser projectors. Not going to go too deep right now but will provide more info in a future post.
• New video processor! The Epson has been paired with the new madVR Envy Core.
• Sold! Ugh, this might hurt a bit, but the Dynaudio C2s have been sold. I played around so much with their placement, but could never get them to sound like the first time I heard them at an audio store. A Dynaudio employee posted on AVS Forum that they need more room than I have to sound their best, so I knew it was time to let them go. The C1s from the living room are back in the HT so we have three of them for LCR.
• Sold! With the C2s gone, I decided the Parasound A2 stereo amplifier could go as well. The front speakers and side surrounds are all being driven by an old Outlaw Audio 7500.
• Sold! The JVC projector.

Here's a press photo of the Focal:

 

[Zing]

Damn! That's quite the update. I was going to post that I installed new batteries in my remote but I don't want to upstage you.

 

[heeman]

Those are some serious changes with some top notch gear..............

NICE!

 

[AndySTL]

Chuck, you've never been one to eff around when making changes! We're all drooling over your systems. Congrats! Also, we need more pics!!

 

[CMonster]

Here are a couple pics from the living room. Also note that these changes happened over time. We got the Focals in July 2023 after hearing the Sopra 3s at an A/V expo in KC (MWAVE). The Eversolo and Atoll were purchased in February 2024. The madVR and Epson were purchased in the fall of 2024, and everything sold was done so in July and August.

 

[heeman]

Here are a couple pics from the living room. Also note that these changes happened over time. We got the Focals in July 2023 after hearing the Sopra 3s at an A/V expo in KC (MWAVE). The Eversolo and Atoll were purchased in February 2024. The madVR and Epson were purchased in the fall of 2024, and everything sold was done so in July and August.

I was wondering if you had attended Mwave.

Have you seen Ryan's new MADVR HT?

Curious what you think of the Asendos and all of his massive subs?

Your living room looks fantastic!

Looking forward to hearing more about your changes!

 

[CMonster]

I was wondering if you had attended Mwave.

Have you seen Ryan's new MADVR HT?

Curious what you think of the Asendos and all of his massive subs?

We attended MWAVE in 2023, but that was the only year. Coolest part was the projector demo where you could see various projectors side by side. When they put the Epson LS12000 with madVR against the JVC NZ8 or NZ9 (can't remember which), it was a dead-heat. When the less expensive Envy Core was announced, I jumped on it.

When I went to pick up the Epson QB1000, I did get to demo Ryan's HT. The room itself looks fantastic and the 50" sub at the back is freakin' cool. He had the volume turned up a bit louder than I like, so it was a little hard on my ears, but the speakers sounded really good, clean, no distortion. Overall, it was pretty impressive.

 

[Haywood]

You suck

 

[jamhead]

And here all I did was upgrade my Rotel receiver to a preamp / amp combo for my Dynaudio’s!

Nice upgrades. Couple questions:

1) what was it about the focal that outperformed your C1/SVS combo?

2) were you able to see if the streamer was actually better audio quality-wise vs what you were using before- or did the speaker switch happen at the same time?

3) what’s your sub in the HT?

This is exciting. I was about to come on here and ask if anyone still sat and listened to music instead of it being background noise…..

 

[CMonster]

I'll start with the easy question . We have two Rythmik F12 subwoofers in the HT.

As for the living room, we were having problems hearing dialog plus we were wanting to freshen up the space. The console we had custom-built back in 2006 was a bit too tall; the subwoofer was crammed behind a speaker; the C1s with cat purr-tection (sorry) were looking a little funky (if the pic isn't showing up, it can be found here):

For the dialog issue, maybe the acoustic panels alone would've solved that. But, we went to MWAVE and my wife really liked the styling of the Focal Sopras, and we both thought they sounded good. So that fueled a buying frenzy of the acoustic panels, Sopra 2s, some Focal Bathys headphones, a Salamander AV cabinet, and a fancy-ish pair of speaker cables.

At this time, reality was hitting that my dream speakers, the C2s, just weren't living up to expectations in the HT. Getting the Focals for the living room meant that I could have three C1s across the front with all of them behind the screen (the C2s were off to the sides).

To be continued...

 

[CMonster]

Before selling off the gear, I created a two-channel system in the HT by placing the Hegel and Eversolo in the front off the room. (This was with the C1s in place and the C2s off in a closet.) I was able to test with the Hegel acting as an integrated, and just as a preamp with the Parasound Halo A2 stereo amp. And, since the Hegel has HT Bypass mode, I was able to do this for both two-channel and home theater by connecting the left and right channels from the Anthem pre/pro to the Hegel instead of the Parasound. I also connected the SVS to the Hegel so it could be utilized as well.

The nice thing about this setup was I didn't always need to turn on the Anthem and the three amplifiers that drive the surround sound speakers. It also made it fairly easy to compare the Hegel's internal amplification against the Parasound. I think I also played around with using the Eversolo's internal DAC versus the Hegel's.

One thing became clear right away and remains the case: I just don't seek out to listen to two-channel music in the HT very often. Most of the time, I'll finish watching something with Angela, she'll head to bed, and I just end up watching crap on YouTube for a bit. Although I spent some time playing around with the setup described above, I didn't dedicate nearly as much time to it as originally intended. And with the awkwardness of the equipment on the floor just below the screen, and no appreciable sound difference between any of the combos, I decided to sell the Hegel, Parasound, and SVS.

The Eversolo now resides at the back of the room, connected to the Anthem via optical cable. I deleted all the Anthem Room Correction settings that had been created when the C2s were in place, and haven't gotten around to taking new measurements. I also have a miniDSP UMIK-1 that hasn't been out of the box, as well as a miniDSP 2x4 HD. I feel like the room sounds fine for movies but it could be better for music. I have the tools to make that happen, but so far I've lacked the motivation. There's also a bit of FOMO involved as I've read reviews that say the newer Anthem pre/pros sound much better than the AVM60 I purchased back in 2016. Ugh.

As for video, I have new screen material on the way. My current acoustically transparent screen has a weave pattern that's noticeable at our seating distance. This was an issue with the JVC and now even more distracting with the brighter Epson. When I mentioned the problem on AVS Forum a few years back, the owner of Seymour A/V replied, which I thought was cool. Even better, they released an improved version of what he recommended, so score one for procrastination.

I still need to play around with some of the madVR Envy Core and Epson QB1000 settings, and I've been more vigilant on that side as opposed to audio, but will take a break until the new screen material is installed.

 

[Haywood]

My God, man. Why do you have to suck so much? Sheesh.