KrautNotRice
Well-Known Member
Hi AK,
Welcome to Kraut's new listening space build log. I will be chronicling the build of my current system into this new space, sharing the progress and pictures with all to comment, critique, share their advice.
About the space:
I recently moved into an older, large building that my dad bought. I'm helping my dad full time to restore the building. Our living area is the upstairs which features solid, hard yellow Pine wood floor (1950's). I actually just got done restoring about 700 sq ft of this floor (including my room). Now that the drywall and ceiling are also done, I'm moving my stuff into my new 16 x 18 sq ft room. Yes my bedroom is in my listening room (not the other way around haha). I'm tailoring the layout of this room around the stereo system's needs.
About my history with stereo equipment:
I acquired my first real system when I was 15 and living in Germany, this was the late 90's. My uncle was (is) a serious 90's Technics nut, so he helped me pick the (lightly pre-owned) gear:
Technics SU-V620 (1995) integrated amp 100 wpc
Technics SL-PG570A (1995) cd player
The two components matched and looked great together.
Then I sourced a pair of German Heco Ascada 220 (1997) speakers brand new old stock on sale:
Active sub: Magnat Alpha 30a (1999) (our neighbors LOVED me):
I had to source the pics online, unfortunately I don't have any pics of this setup.
It sounded great and was fantastic for me at the time. The Hecos were a 3 way bandpass with (I think) a 7" woofer.
A year later I moved to the States and have since owned a number of different brands' components, speakers, pro audio equipment, DJ gear and countless subs and about 10 car systems.
Most of the speakers I've owned were studio monitors, so I've gotten really spoiled with great detail and clarity, something that leaves me wishing oftentimes when I audition home audio speakers.
About my current system:
I bought these Teac Reference 500 series components (early 2000's) when i was 16 or 17 and already lived in the States. They've been with me for the last 16 or so years no matter what other gear I've gone through. They're simply fantastic!
Amp: Teac A-H500
Cd: Teac PD-H500
Tape: R-H500
I did at some point even try out the matching Teac LS-H500 speakers when I saw them cheap on ebay but they sounded offensively bad. In fact, Simon Cowell would've called them 'utterly atrocious'. At that time I've had several different pairs of studio monitors and other good speakers as well, plus all my brother's sets in the same house. We really gave the Teac speakers a fair shot, but compared to anything else we had they were simply 'rubbish', so I junked them.
For the last 10 or so years, I've had the Jamo E825 (2006 / 7) bookshelves hooked up to the Teac with a variety of different powered subs over the years. Those little Jamos have done me well and I'll never get rid of them. They're not as bright as studio monitors but they're musical and pleasant to listen to.
However, I recently came across a good deal on a set of NHT SuperTwo (1999) towers in GREAT condition and snagged them up. My brother's owned a number of NHTs and has always spoken highly of the brand, and I always wanted some floor standers.
These are my first ever floor standers! I'm absolutely in LOVE with the NHTs. For those not familiar, they're a 3 way design with a 1" soft dome tweeter, 6.5" mid bass (both Foster / Fostex units) plus a down-firing 6.5" Peerless sub. The sub's airspace is separate from the tweet and mid and accounts for the lower 2/3 of the total tower, low-passed at 120 hz. So it's pretty much a NHT SuperOne slapped on top of a ported sub. It works
The NHTs are very bright, revealing, crystal clear, dynamic with lots of bass. To me they sound like a studio monitor with the treble turned up a smidge. Very, very nice to my ears.
They ALMOST don't even need a sub. But I like subs and I'm building a DIY 15" JBL right now (low budget). More on that later.
Since I picked up the NHTs I realized (from reading lots of reviews) that I need about triple the power behind them than my little Teac can give them. The Teac, at 50 wpc 8 ohms, actually sounds great with them at reasonable levels so far, but I'd rather be careful and do the right thing. See how easy it was to talk myself into a power amp?
I've been looking for power amps in the 150 - 200 wpc 8 ohm segment. I'm on a tight budget, so that rules out a lot of the nicer stuff (Adcom GFA 555, H/K Citation 16, Yamaha M2 or dual M4s running bridged, etc).
I was days away from pulling the trigger on 2 new Dayton Audio APA-150 'mono blocks'. They're not really mono blocks but I was going to bridge them for 150 watts 8 ohm going to each tower.
That's when lots of reading and research lead me to the vintage Yamaha pro audio amps, mainly the P2200 and P2201 (late 70's). They're still out of my price range, but trying to find a deal on one of those, I ended up finding a brand new in box (new old stock) Yamaha P1600 (1997) pro audio power amp. 160 wpc 8 ohm should do nicely, with a chance that it's slightly underrated like lots of Yamaha pro amps.
Unfortunately the Teac integrated amp doesn't feature pre-outs (wth) so I needed an affordable, sorta matching preamp.
I don't love the looks of the 80's Yamaha preamps with the fold down lid, I really love the C-2 series (late 70's).
I found an amazing deal on a Yamaha C-2 preamp (1976) in near MINT condition. I still can't believe my luck, the thing doesn't even have a scratch on it, it looks so new nobody would ever guess it's made in 1976 - 78.
At this point I'm setting up my new listening space, building new furniture for everything out of affordable wood. I have a modest vinyl collection that I might incorporate into the new stand, even though I don't have a turntable right now (had a few different DJ decks over the years), I'm saving up for a U-Turn Orbit. I just can't make up my mind which damn color looks best to me and next to my other equipment...
I apologize for the lengthy intro and I'll be sure to mostly let the pictures do the talking in future posts.
Right now I only have a couple low quality Sony point-and-shoot pics of my old and new gear together, I need to learn how to use my DSLR (Canon Rebel XTi).
The Teac tape deck is missing in these shots as it's downstairs in the wood shop for sizing. It sends its regards.
My next posts will be mainly build pics of the audio furniture / diy sound treatments plus shots of the room as it develops.
Thanks for looking!
Please let me know if the pics are showing up or if something went wrong.
Welcome to Kraut's new listening space build log. I will be chronicling the build of my current system into this new space, sharing the progress and pictures with all to comment, critique, share their advice.
About the space:
I recently moved into an older, large building that my dad bought. I'm helping my dad full time to restore the building. Our living area is the upstairs which features solid, hard yellow Pine wood floor (1950's). I actually just got done restoring about 700 sq ft of this floor (including my room). Now that the drywall and ceiling are also done, I'm moving my stuff into my new 16 x 18 sq ft room. Yes my bedroom is in my listening room (not the other way around haha). I'm tailoring the layout of this room around the stereo system's needs.
About my history with stereo equipment:
I acquired my first real system when I was 15 and living in Germany, this was the late 90's. My uncle was (is) a serious 90's Technics nut, so he helped me pick the (lightly pre-owned) gear:
Technics SU-V620 (1995) integrated amp 100 wpc
Technics SL-PG570A (1995) cd player
The two components matched and looked great together.
Then I sourced a pair of German Heco Ascada 220 (1997) speakers brand new old stock on sale:
Active sub: Magnat Alpha 30a (1999) (our neighbors LOVED me):
I had to source the pics online, unfortunately I don't have any pics of this setup.
It sounded great and was fantastic for me at the time. The Hecos were a 3 way bandpass with (I think) a 7" woofer.
A year later I moved to the States and have since owned a number of different brands' components, speakers, pro audio equipment, DJ gear and countless subs and about 10 car systems.
Most of the speakers I've owned were studio monitors, so I've gotten really spoiled with great detail and clarity, something that leaves me wishing oftentimes when I audition home audio speakers.
About my current system:
I bought these Teac Reference 500 series components (early 2000's) when i was 16 or 17 and already lived in the States. They've been with me for the last 16 or so years no matter what other gear I've gone through. They're simply fantastic!
Amp: Teac A-H500
Cd: Teac PD-H500
Tape: R-H500
I did at some point even try out the matching Teac LS-H500 speakers when I saw them cheap on ebay but they sounded offensively bad. In fact, Simon Cowell would've called them 'utterly atrocious'. At that time I've had several different pairs of studio monitors and other good speakers as well, plus all my brother's sets in the same house. We really gave the Teac speakers a fair shot, but compared to anything else we had they were simply 'rubbish', so I junked them.
For the last 10 or so years, I've had the Jamo E825 (2006 / 7) bookshelves hooked up to the Teac with a variety of different powered subs over the years. Those little Jamos have done me well and I'll never get rid of them. They're not as bright as studio monitors but they're musical and pleasant to listen to.
However, I recently came across a good deal on a set of NHT SuperTwo (1999) towers in GREAT condition and snagged them up. My brother's owned a number of NHTs and has always spoken highly of the brand, and I always wanted some floor standers.
These are my first ever floor standers! I'm absolutely in LOVE with the NHTs. For those not familiar, they're a 3 way design with a 1" soft dome tweeter, 6.5" mid bass (both Foster / Fostex units) plus a down-firing 6.5" Peerless sub. The sub's airspace is separate from the tweet and mid and accounts for the lower 2/3 of the total tower, low-passed at 120 hz. So it's pretty much a NHT SuperOne slapped on top of a ported sub. It works
The NHTs are very bright, revealing, crystal clear, dynamic with lots of bass. To me they sound like a studio monitor with the treble turned up a smidge. Very, very nice to my ears.
They ALMOST don't even need a sub. But I like subs and I'm building a DIY 15" JBL right now (low budget). More on that later.
Since I picked up the NHTs I realized (from reading lots of reviews) that I need about triple the power behind them than my little Teac can give them. The Teac, at 50 wpc 8 ohms, actually sounds great with them at reasonable levels so far, but I'd rather be careful and do the right thing. See how easy it was to talk myself into a power amp?
I've been looking for power amps in the 150 - 200 wpc 8 ohm segment. I'm on a tight budget, so that rules out a lot of the nicer stuff (Adcom GFA 555, H/K Citation 16, Yamaha M2 or dual M4s running bridged, etc).
I was days away from pulling the trigger on 2 new Dayton Audio APA-150 'mono blocks'. They're not really mono blocks but I was going to bridge them for 150 watts 8 ohm going to each tower.
That's when lots of reading and research lead me to the vintage Yamaha pro audio amps, mainly the P2200 and P2201 (late 70's). They're still out of my price range, but trying to find a deal on one of those, I ended up finding a brand new in box (new old stock) Yamaha P1600 (1997) pro audio power amp. 160 wpc 8 ohm should do nicely, with a chance that it's slightly underrated like lots of Yamaha pro amps.
Unfortunately the Teac integrated amp doesn't feature pre-outs (wth) so I needed an affordable, sorta matching preamp.
I don't love the looks of the 80's Yamaha preamps with the fold down lid, I really love the C-2 series (late 70's).
I found an amazing deal on a Yamaha C-2 preamp (1976) in near MINT condition. I still can't believe my luck, the thing doesn't even have a scratch on it, it looks so new nobody would ever guess it's made in 1976 - 78.
At this point I'm setting up my new listening space, building new furniture for everything out of affordable wood. I have a modest vinyl collection that I might incorporate into the new stand, even though I don't have a turntable right now (had a few different DJ decks over the years), I'm saving up for a U-Turn Orbit. I just can't make up my mind which damn color looks best to me and next to my other equipment...
I apologize for the lengthy intro and I'll be sure to mostly let the pictures do the talking in future posts.
Right now I only have a couple low quality Sony point-and-shoot pics of my old and new gear together, I need to learn how to use my DSLR (Canon Rebel XTi).
The Teac tape deck is missing in these shots as it's downstairs in the wood shop for sizing. It sends its regards.
My next posts will be mainly build pics of the audio furniture / diy sound treatments plus shots of the room as it develops.
Thanks for looking!
Please let me know if the pics are showing up or if something went wrong.
