re: Two channel audio/cd 'hi-fi' on a budget

So, obtuse and others have given you some great information about speakers and subs.

Now, let's talk about sub placement. Simply putting a sub in a corner or where you think it will be hidden or look best in the room can be a bad idea. All subs are going to create standing waves. A standing wave has troughs (absence of bass) and peaks (tubby, boomy bass). Someone sitting in the trough may feel that the bass is weak or anemic. Someone in the peak will feel that the bass is boomy and overcooked. There are a lot of ways to correct this and the most certain is to have two subs (not on the same wall) to smooth out the response curve in the room.

For single sub owners there is a simple cheat to subwoofer placement that doesn't cost anything. Hook your subwoofer up and place in it your main listening position. Then move around the room and listen until you find a spot on a wall that has the smoothest response and isn't boomy or missing bass. Then place your sub at position. You'll get the same response at your listening position from that sub location. This works great for someone who listens alone as you are loading the room for that spot. In a theater with multiple people listening the two (or more) subwoofer approach will work best (with proper positioning).

With all that said there are subs (SVS is a notable one) that have built-in room correction software so you can tweak the response curve to work on eliminating those standing waves. But, this does come at a price which is much more money for the sub but incredible performance.

An inexpensive SPL meter can help you set up the speaker placement. Radio Shack used to make a great one. Most receivers also have built-in room correction software.

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Good luck with that one.

I went to a minimalist approach. I have an NAD that is streamer, 380 wpc amp into 4 ohms, preamp, phono stage and has an HDMI input for viewing. That, a pair of speakers and a sub and a turntable is the entire system now as opposed to the two 5' tall racks of gear I used to have.

I gave a Node 2i to my son. Great little streamer but I didn’t want to blow the OP’s budget.

That said, can you return to the F1 thread for 2023 at least until Ferrari fricks up again? Scuderia!

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That said, can you return to the F1 thread for 2023 at least until Ferrari fricks up again? Scuderia!

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I'll be back this year. I was convinced my 3 win requirement was just a time out but it ended up being the rest of the season. Honestly, watching them revert to the keystone cops of the 80s really did demoralize me. While I don't think they would have won either championship watching them toss points away just cut.


I did think of one note about sub placement while the sub crawl that was mentioned (sub at listening position and crawling around listening for best performance) is an excellent way to hone in where to place the sub it needs to be balanced with phase and timing, though if you have a good ear you will hear it in the crawl. Since in this setup there is no DSP you have to consider them. The SVS sub does have a fully variable (0-180) phase control so you can match the phase of the mains there is no way to control the sub in the time domain. As a result, it is best to match the distance from the mains to the listening position IE: all three speakers should be equidistant from the ears at the main listening position. This will insure the sounds all hit the ears at the same time and will also ensure they are in phase. If all of these positions result in the listening position being in a node or anti-node (causing a big peak or trough in some frequency of the sub) try moving the mains and listening position a little. Often a foot or two can make a huge difference.

Timing and phase are important. Waves in the range where both the speakers and sub are both producing the frequency will result in cancellation or reinforcement depending on the phase. If the timing is off and those waves reach the ears at different it causes smearing so say a kick drum almost sounds like to distinct hits, this actually requires a big delta in the distance but smaller distances make the kick less distinct aka smeared.

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Oppo made great optical disc players but due to the shrinkage of the market they went out of business and their used pieces generally sell for what I considered high prices.

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Fyi Oppo as a company is still around and just stopped making blu ray players; they make cell phones etc in Asia.

Even though they are out of that business; they still do firmware updates for the players as needed. Also, if your unit has issues you can ship it to them in California for repair.

I've got both a Oppo 103 and 203.

NAD uses BluOS and it's very easy to use.