Confessions of a DigiPhile V
Entry posted by DigiPete
OK, so I jumped straight into the way way deeper end!
A set of Genelec 8250A’s with a monster 82kg 7271A 2 x 12” woofer was up for grabs at half price pre-owned.
I talked to the guy and set up a meet on Saturday at his office at the local film studio.
Everything seemed ok and in perfect working condition, so I got a total of 110kg of speakers including 980w of amplification and he got a bank transfer.
Fortunately I had teamed up with a moving expert friend, so we could get the frightening monster down from the first floor and into the car.
The next door neighbor, a movie composer, interrupted us to see what was happening. He was surprised that an audiophile would get the idea of using professional equipment at home. So he started quizzing me, and we all ended up in a long discussion on acoustics and high-res recording quality and what not.
3 guys in “the zone” on a Saturday morning – quite fun and educational.
The composer finally agreed that I was making an excellent choice given my knowledge and went on to quiz me on how I planned to deploy the equipment.
“I’ll set them up as my rear speakers” was probably the answer he had expected the least!
Anyway, it turned out that the monster sub had disappeared during our conversation.
The room was no larger than 8m2, and yet the monster had snug out without us noticing!
It turned out my friend and my son had gotten tired of listening to the 3 guys speaking in code and simply gone off with it. Ie. I was let off easy ;-)
My apartment is at the top floor, 4’th floor that is (5’th in American) and the lift is out of order. So I was not left off that easy after all ?. Anyway, we got the monster muscled all the way up with relative ease thanks to my friend and his techniques and experience. Thanks Allan! You are a true friend!
That left me with a 2 + 2 + sub setup, not ideal!
There was no way around it, I needed another 8260A as center to compliment the two others.
So I started rationalizing:
- I’m worth it.
- I have not spent a penny for 20 years
- Genelec’s are never on sale anyway
- I have been planning for over a year, and now I’m so close
- I will not need to spend ANYTHING the next 2 decades
- The bank thinks the world of me, so what is another USD 5000?
You may know the drill, or perhaps you have heard of it?
The following week I had to go and exchange the two 8260A loaners for the brand new ones I had ordered.
I had paid 100% up front, as they are not stock items.
So I returned the one speaker and had to confess: “the other one simply refused to leave”.
I went on and confessed that they would not get to sell me the full setup after all, but the owner took it very well. He did charge for the extra speaker up front though – no surprise.
On the positive side they now have quite a unique story to tell when selling Genelec’s.
And they have insisted on auditioning my rig some day soon. I’m sure we’ll have fun!
My Genelec 5.1 audiophile surround setup is complete, and it sounds – well heaven.
It’s like being there, especially with excellent recordings from iTrax and 2L.
AND I finally get to hear Pink Floyd recordings as they were intended!
The rig::
MacBook -> firewire -> Weiss AFI-1 -> AES/EBU ->
3 x Genelec 8260A for fronts
2 x Genelec 8250A for the rear
1 x Genelec 7271 sub
Punch and power:
3 x (120 + 120 + 150) w = 3 x 290w+
2 x (120 + 120) w = 2 x 240w +
1 x (250 + 250) w = 500w
= 2150w
How could anyone ever need that much?
How could anyone ever justify that much power?
Approx. USD 25.000 worth of equipment, but boy it’s all worth it!
(the 2’nd hand purchase saved me 6000).
An insane amount of money in my book, but quite reasonable considering everything included in the package that leads to the amazingly natural sound reproduction.
All in Stereo, Quadraphonic & Surround sound.
Now I am chasing 5.1 recordings in 24/96 and learning the difficulties in ripping concert DVD’s, DVD-A’s, Blu-rays. My download band-with suddenly seems tiny, considering a single track in 5.1 24/96 easily runs 500mb.
High-resolution stereo is still great, but a new door has opened into a world filled with vivid colours and new delights. At times perhaps even better than live!
FYI: The frequency response in my not very perfect room:
Red = before calibration
Blue = system offset after calibration
Green = resulting frequency response
Left front:
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Center front:
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Right front:
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Left rear:
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Right rear:
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Sub:
All at the press of a button!
Come visit if you pass through Copenhagen, Denmark.
Find my blog: “Confessions of a DigiPhile” at http://www.computeraudiophile.com/blogs/7638-DigiPete<p><a href="
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