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bottom end—they’re a bit thin. I’ll get one
or two Rythmik Audio sub-woofers, cross
them over at around 100Hz. I also have
a new preamp on order—it’s the Emo-
tiva XSP-1—to complement my Emotiva
XPA-2 power amp. [This new preamp was
received before this article went to press
and is shown in some photos. T.W.] When
I work on the acoustics I want to do it in
a scientific way. I’ve used REW (Room EQ
Wizard) with a calibrated microphone to
‘see’ what my room is doing. I plan to
build my own limp-mass bass absorbers,
specifically tuned to my room’s problem
frequencies at 50Hz and 70Hz. I’d like to
reduce or eliminate the room correction di-
alled into my DSP (by DSPeaker) that I use
right now. Lastly, I really should experiment
with other speaker positions in my room—
being dipoles they need more air behind
them to sound their best.My grades were good and my first hi-fi
system was on order.
I went straight to the top of the hi-fi
class with efficient 15-inch Tannoy Moni-
tor Golds in homemade brick cabinets,
Garrard 401 turntable, SME 12-inch arm,
Shure V15 cartridge, and an Armstrong
solid-state amp... all of which made me
very popular with my peers because we’d
all gather at my home to devour the latest
rock and pop albums.
TW: Where do you think your system is
going, or has it arrived?
NN: My system has a long way to go
before I’ll be satisfied. There is work to im-
prove the sound-stage, the low-frequency
response and the room acoustics. I’d also
like to start upgrading my audio library
to higher-res source files. I’m somewhat
happy with the mid and upper registers,
but my panel speakers don’t have a good
TW: We talked earlier of MQA (Master
Quality Authenticated). It hasn’t taken off
yet, perhaps it’s still too early, but do you
see a place for it in high-quality streaming
services perhaps, for example Tidal?
NN: Yes, it may be too early, but 50+
companies have expressed interest in it
so far. I think that 2016 is the year we’ll
see it start to kick off. It’s brilliant as a
mathematical solution to the issue of how
to pack high-res into a small footprint.
Streaming would be a great application
for it. I’d be happy to subscribe to such
a service. I still prefer to have the music/
data local, but streaming is the direction
music is headed. I think streaming is being
promoted because the sellers of the music
don’t lose control over it.
TW: What’s your favourite piece of
equipment at the moment, something that
you wouldn’t sell?My system has
a long way to
go before I’ll
be satisfied.
There is work
to improve the
sound-stage, the
low-frequency
response and the
room acoustics.