The Solid Path, SVS SoundPath Subwoofer Isolation System

I remember my first HT set up in the early 90's with early Dolby surround sound, minus the sub woofer! There was no sub woofer output from the Nakamichi AV1 receiver, one of the top choice of the day. Almost 30 years later, it's quite unfathomable how one can set up an AV system without any sub woofers. And the trend today is to go for either a single 15 inch sub woofer or dual 12 inches, hence the Dolby Atmos 5.2.4 moniker that my system is specified. 

While having more sub woofers has it's advantages such as more even room loading, less hot spots, and more linear LFE response are just the few mentioned. However there are also more problems associated with multi sub configuration. Room boom is there, uneven bass response due to acoustic cancelations and more shaking & rattling of the ceiling. That last part is where I suffered until recently when the SVS SoundPath Isolation footers came along. See pictorial guide below for full story:

I got 2 sets of 4 pcs since my pair of SVS PB-2000 only required 4 feet each in a box.

 

Included in the box are the 4 isolation rubber feet, and 3 screw sets clearly marked M4, M6 & SVS screws. I used the SVS screw pack since I am using the feet set to go under my SVS PB-2000 sub woofers. Also included in the package is a feel good, quality printed instruction card. 

My SVS PB-2000 sitting very close to the floor with it's original supplied feet. The SoundPath isolation feet lifts the sub woofer by at least an inch from the ground, resulting in less surface bounce of the sub sonic kind.   

A quick comparo between the original supplied feet(bottom 2) which is small and tip toe hard rubber material only. The SoundPath isolation feet(top 2) has a metal base, connecting between the actual wooden surface and the soft, thick rubber material that interface with the floor. 

Installation of the Sound Path isolation feet is rather easy, you turn the sub woofer on it's belly, manually un-screw the original feet from each corner of the sub woofer, then re-install the isolation feet in it's original screw hole with the supplied screw set in the bag labelled as SVS. The whole affair taking no more than 10 minutes each PB-2000 sub woofer. 

Upon installation, the sub woofers are put back to where the belong and the quick sound check follows. By comparison, bass in now cleaner, more well defined and less boomy. The impact of explosion scenes is now more felt, but surprisingly my ceiling rattle has been drastically reduced. With the isolation feet installed, I felt the need to recalibrate my Denon Audyssey setting all over again. With the channel levels re-matched and  recalibration, I got a more focused and well defined dialogue, and much more effective main channels too.

Sometimes it's strange how doing improvement to the bass tend to result in better performance in other areas as well, as in a stereo system! Hard to explain but true. And these SVS SoundPath isolation feet are worth every penny of it's asking price. It's well made and bring a whole lot of overall sound improvement to my HT game! Highly recommended for any sub woofer of any brand. If you've got an SVS sub woofer, it's a totally no brainer upgrade!

The Results, My Home Theater

Continuing from my last posting about my HT room project. I have allocated a room measuring 17ft x 13ft x 11ft(W x L x H). My projection screen mounted on the 17ft wall which leaves me the 13ft total projection length. The final outcome is that 11ft projection length(measured from tip of lens) was used as projection length for the Optoma UHD 50 projector to project 120 inch screen size(measured diagionaly as in TVs)  

The 120 inch XY screen dominates the 17ft wide wall. Also noted is a pair of SVS PB-2000 sub woofers, flanked by a pair of Bose 901 MK VI series main speakers partnered with a single Bose 201 MK III as center channel.

Form the next picture below, you can see that my sofa is backed up against the back wall still measuring 17ft wide, but with space taken up entry door on the left, and equipment rack & disc library on the right. Overall, this is a SIM 4K picture quality & Dolby Atmos 5.2.4 sound specification based system. And if you look carefully, you won't see much cabling, as most are either imbedded in wall or in ceiling. All the cabling was laid when I planned my HT room project during my home renovation in 2018.

 

You can also see that the Optoma UHD 50 projector is mounted right above the sweet spot of the sofa! Flanking the projector is a pair of Bose 101 surround speakers. If you look carefully on the right, next to my equipment rack, is the Bose Acoustimas 5 passive sub woofer, which is set to high pass at 80Hz as part of the rear surround system. 

My equipment rack from top: Denon AVR X-4400 H receiver for Dolby Atmos & DTS-X processiong & powering center channel & 2 pairs Dolby Atmos ceiling speakers which are Bose Model 25, Oppo UDP-203 4K disc player with the Oppo BDP-95 Full HD player with Cinivia free. Further below is the Cambridge Audio A120 4 channel power amp, powering front main speakers & surround sound duties. Further below is the Weiduke AC 8.8 power conditioner which powers the whole stack of equipment as seen and my dual HDD toaster for my 4K movie collections. 

On the right side corner of the back wall, is a compartmentalized area, mainly for library of disc collection. I also installed a dedicated MCB box in my HT room. If the book shelves looked familiar, is because they are from Ikea!

I also did some acoustic diffuser works on the ceiling to break up sound waves, coupled to heavy drape curtains on both sides of the side wall upon the first reflection points of the Bose 901 MK VI main speakers. The ceiling acoustic diffuser also works as the mood light & 2 pairs Dolby Atmos ceiling speaker mounts, if you look carefully.  

Overall for the money I spent, at about MYR25,000 on all equipment count, I feel satisfied with the intangible return on entertainment values, especially these days of MCO where the cinemas are closed. The 120 inch screen give big picture cinema feel when just sitting about 13ft away. When viewing Full HD movies, the picture is bright, vivid tonal pallet and very punchy, if some what veering slightly bluish(like most Sony or Samsung TVs factory calibration). Upon having sifu Michael Wong(contacted via FB) coming over to help calibrate my projector, the picture quality improved in terms of field of depth layering of majestic scenes from movies. Since the Optoma UHD 50 is a SIM 4K(i.e. non native or up sampling to 4K), the picture quality in 4K post calibration took a turn for darker and being a budget projector, the blackness(or greyish black) weakness is laid bare and exposed for all to see too clearly. Movies like Batman's The Dark Night should be avoided in 4K mode, due to the projector limitations. Bottom line is if you're expecting JVC level of 4K reproduction here, you'll be sorely disappointed. However if you are like me, where my majority of movies are on Full HD, with only the occasional 4K viewing diet, then this projector will get the job done very well.

The sound is an area I am more than happy with. I run the Denon Audyssey Auto  Calibration with the supplied OEM mike and already gor very decent results. I then further fine tune the channel levels, the high pass frequencies for speaker and low pass for LFE, and timing compensation with EQ off. It was just some tuning from disc to disc over time and until a point, I never need to fine tune the Dolby Atmos settings again, until I changed something that is.

The sound is with effective in surround panning, & the Atmos ceiling speakers are especially effective when watching raining or thunderstorm or aircraft scenes, especially is movies like Top Gun & Mid Way, just to recall the 2 movies that impressed me. The dual SVS sub configuration gives thundering bass and full on explosion impacts, to the point that is room and plaster ceiling shaking! I love using Bose speakers all round for HT because they are really good value at used prices and they can really go loud without popping their drivers! They are also very warm sounding for music concerts, and especially enjoyable when playing those Vienna Philharmonic New Years Concerts! 

I have made some improvements along the way since system installation over a year ago, and I'll get to those later. What do you think? Kindly feedback on comments section with thanks if any opinion or questions............

Audio & Visual, My Home Theater Set Up

All this while I have only talked about my hifi. Now it's time to switch to my AV adventure. I started building my AV system at the end of 2018 and it has gone thru a few small but worthy upgrades since. I will start with an equipment roll call, which are based on items currently in used. Drum roll please! 

Starting with the most basic 4K compatible, 120 inch XY screen. Here is a China made screen that offers great bang for buck.

The XY screen features rigid aluminum frame with instructions for DIY mounting if required. I got the dealer to wall mount it for me. It has nice 80mm side frame finished in black velvet like material to frame in the projected picture.

The Optoma UHD 50 projector was chosen for it's ability to throw the biggest picture size at a reasonably short distance. In this case, it must achieve 120 inch screen size at a projection distance of just 11 feet or so. It's also cheap considering it's entry level status, but still comes with Sim 4K, i.e. up sampled 4K, non native. Picture quality is good with vivid, punchy colours and offers great contrast. Only let down is the greyish black quality, as expected from an entry level projector. Still if one doesn't compare, one will not notice. I tried to upgrade to a JVC projector, but the projection length doesn't fit my space constraint. 

Source is by default the Oppo UDP 203 4K disc player. I am glad I got this as Oppo announced they are stopping production of BD players. Very nice picture quality in up sampled 4K mode and certainly reliable too. 

As a 2nd option source in the system, I included an old Oppo UDP 95 Full HD BDP. This dinosaur BD player come from the Cinivia free period in time. I still get very decent picture quality from this player.

The back end of the Denon X-4400 H is certainly busy with lots of configuration options. I choose to set up a 5.2.4 Dolby Atmos surround system, which means 5 chanels including center, 2 sub woofers and 4 Atmos ceiling effect speakers.

When it comes to AV Receivers, my choice is always a toss between Marantz or Denon range. I chose Denon X-4400 H at the time due it's punchy sound quality. Due to the Denon's tendency to overheat when the whole 5.2.4 system is powered by it, I have decided to hook up a power amp to compliment the Denon. Hence when planning a HT system, make sure the AVR has some kind of a configurable pre-out, for the flexibility of  expanding to pre-power set up. The whole Denon X series AVRs have a tendency to overheat, from the X-1500 H to the X-4500 H, and now X-2600 H series onwards.

Little is known about this Cambridge Audio A120 4 channel power amp, except that it was a 1990's product. It pumps out a healthy 120 Watts per channel and doesn't seem to run very hot which is good.
 

I use this Cambridge Audio A120 amp for front & rear surround channel duties, taking the load off the main Denon AVR certainly helps in the sound quality and reliability of completing the whole movie. The Denon on it's own tends to overheat and trip in the middle of an average 90 minute movie! 

I managed to fulfill another childhood dream when I scored the used Bose 901 MK VI series speakers in piano gloss black. As a hifi speaker, this Bose will not meet my audiophile requirements anymore, no matter how much it inspired me during my much younger days. However as a HT main speaker. it's a great step up coming from my previous BOSE 301 MK II. The sound is lush, less direct and offers a more enveloping front effect to movie soundtracks. It also great for my occasional concert watch too! 

For my center speaker duty, I go for a single Bose 201 MK III series speaker. Tonally, it complements the Bose 901s and it's small size makes it easy to place below the screen, yet that 6 inch mid driver means I can set the center x-over point to 90 Hz for the full male vocal effect!

I use the Bose 101 series for wall mounted rear surround & Model 25 series for Atmos ceiling effect speakers. Both the Bose 101 & Model 23 series are just slightly different variations of the same speaker design. The 101 being for home in/out door use and Model 25 for pro/commercial use. The 101 has a built in passive high pass inside, while the Model 25 has a 16 ohm transformer inside, both of which I had by passed, sending audio signal direct to speaker driver, making whatever differences inside a non factor. These are great surround & Atmos speakers due to their easy wall/ceiling mounting brackets.
 

I am a self confessed bass freak and nothing can change that, so having multiple sub woofers in my HT set up can only satisfy me. This Bose Acoustimas 5 series sub woofer is used to augment the Bose 101 as part of rear surround solution. The built in x-over in the Acoustimas helps to protect the rear surround channel from being over loaded in the loudest soundtracks, yet also allows me to set my rear surround to 80 Hz high pass, for that full range surround effect! By the way it doesn't count as a sub woofer in my system, even though it is one by any physical means.

When it comes to sub woofers, the SVS PB 2000 is my main squeeze. I started with a single one, as a 5.1.2 Dobly Atmos system, but as I moved to 5.2.4, it just made sense to add another SVS PB 2000 as the single one was feeling somewhat lonely. Adding the extra sub woofer allowed to bass management response to be more linear, projects more even bass spread around the room and less clipping in high octane explosion movie scenes.

If there ever was a best value trophy component in my HT system in terms of functionality, this Weiduka AC 8.8 power conditioner takes it! These days LED lighting source rules and my HT room is filled with all kinds of soft glowing LED lights. LED lights however come with very noisy switching power supply. I starting having high pitched dee.....eeeeee sound when my HT was switched on together with the LED mood lights when I didn't want to watch movies in the dark. I then fitted this Weiduka device in, powering all my source, AVR & power amp, and poof! The dee.....eeeee high pitch noise was gone........... And that's no psycho acoustic effect either! I also power my HT system with a variety of power cords from Lapp, Gotham & Furutech.  

All low level audio signals are routed via Monster THX 400 RCA for HT, 2 pairs were used to connect between the Denon AVR & the Cambridge Audio power amp. love those rubberized soft touch, yet grippy RCA plugs for easy handling, especially once installed behind my HT equipment rack. 

 

And lastly speaker cables are all generic use budgetary roll. 3 rolls of 30 meters was used to complete my HT project.

 

I initially had 12 meters of pro grade HDMI cable installed between my source/AVR to beam visual signal to my projector. At point of planning & wiring the project room, 4K compliant cables were few & far in between. While most of my disc collections are Full HD BD, the few 4K source that I had were problematic. The picture would blink every now & then with 4K source. I check on the web indicated I needed this optical HDMI cable. And so I bought this 15 meter roll from FIBBR during one of my trips to Guangzhou back in 2019. 

As you can see, virtually all my chosen components for the HT system are either entry level, or well used items. I also don't want to spend too much $$$ on cables or accessories. Next, I will show the whole completed she bang in my HT room, measuring 17ft x 13ft x 9ft(W x L x H).

A Hi-Fi Trip to Ipoh - Part 3 - KUZMA / AUDIO RESEARCH / VITUS / MAGICO

Mr. Lam's system was the third and last stop on our Ipoh trip. The system was tucked into a cosy room in the house that also doubled as an AV room. 

The room was tastefully decorated, with the fittings also doubled up subtly as room treatment, as can be seen in the photos below. The uneven bricks making up the front wall, and the timber strips on the ceiling would also act as sound diffuser, while the randomly placed foam pieces on the ceiling and the carpet on the floor would help to dampen the room. 

To treat the side walls, acoustic panels from Vicoustic were placed on the reflection points: 

Lam's system was as follows:

BMC Audio CD player, which Lam did not play during our visit

We listened exclusively to Lam's all Kuzma analogue rig shown above. The turntable was the Kuzma Stabi R turntable...

with the Kuzma 4point arm...

...and the Kuzma CAR-50 cartridge,

...feeding the Audio Research Reference Phono 10 phono stage, which came with a separate power supply

The line preamplifier was also from Audio Research - the Reference 10 line stage also with a separate power supply chassis

A peep into the Reference 10's separate, tube-based power supply

The power amp was a 85kg behemoth, the Vitus SS-103. It came with 50w on tap in class A mode and 150w in class AB mode. Lam thought the class A mode sounded better, that was also how we listened to the amp during our visit

 

The loudspeakers were the Magico S5 

...fitted with very substantial-looking upgrade spikes from Magico

Power conditioning was taken care of by a Powertrans power conditioner fitted with 9kVA isolation transformer

I like this idea. The Powertrans was placed outside the listening room, and the power cables were routed through drilled-through holes on the wall to get into the room. 

The sound from Lam's HiFi system was big. It was room-filling and then some, given the pedigree of the equipment here, that was no surprise. 

The 50w Class A power from the Vitus amp controlled the big Magico S5 very well, I couldn't hear any compression let alone any distortion at any time, not even during orchestral crescendos. The sound also had an overall roundness to it, it was dynamic but never aggressive, very similar to my past experience of Magico loudspeakers. In addition, there was a layer of what I think many audiophiles would call 'analogue-ness' to the presentation, wherein one wouldn't term the sound as 'analytical' but still there was a high degree of details in it. Here, that was further coupled with a buttery, smooth flow of the music. Well, it must have been the combined effect of the LP frontend and the top-of-line tube preamps, perhaps?  

The highs from the Magico's Be tweeters were very smooth. The mid was vivid, it came with a good saturation of tonal colours, definitely not the thin nor washed out kind that lesser speakers could exhibit. The lows, with two 10in woofers per side operating in a midsize room, dug deep and was very strong, just as expected. The bass notes sounded big, but, and this was critical, they never spilt into the muddy, boomy territory. Overall, I thought the bass region stole the show a little bit, though that also added excitement in the listening session. We were invariably swept up in the unbridled energy exhibited by the music and went on a thrilling ride, what a sensation that only a sizeable and capable system like this could deliver!

A well put together system coupled with a conducive room equals sensational music replay. Lam sure has reaped great rewards from his effort!

Thus concludes our Ipoh trip. There are many more HiFi systems in Ipoh, hope I'll get to savour more of them in the near future.

Chasing A Childhood Dream, Nakamichi DR-2 Cassette Deck

 

The Nakamichi DR-2. Love those amber display illumination!

If you have followed my hifi journey long enough, I had always talked about one particular childhood experience that started me on the road to audiophilia. That was when I was a young teenager, visiting my friend's house for the first time, he played Papa bear's hifi system, which was set up in the family lounge. It was a simple set up comprising a Nakamichi(an RX series I think) cassette deck, a Sansui amplifier and a pair of Bose 901 speakers. That system really sounded out of this world to me then. Since then, I always wanted 2 items from that system, a pair of Bose 901 speakers, checked! And that elusive Nakamichi cassette deck.

I could never bring myself to afford one and eventually settled on the Teac V-670 that I wrote about sometime ago. For more than 30 years, that Teac 3 head cassette deck had served me well. My recent refurbished Teac had gave me hours of fun, rekindling with the cassette format. I was a happy bunny until I saw this Nakamichi DR-2 on a local hifi classifieds, which I told my self, it's now or never. 

The simple line in and output RCAs typical of a cassette deck. The rear panel and chassis bottom is double layered!

And so here I am, a proud owner of a Nakamichi DR-2. It had all the right specs I wanted in a cassette deck, like 3 heads(a must), 3 motor, dual capstan transport design, illuminated cassette compartment and if possible a remote control! Dolby S never featured highly on my wish list, as B & C was more then enough for noise reduction. This Nakamichi is a 90's product, made from 1992 till 1996. The DR series comes after the well loved CR series from the 80's. In the Nakamichi scheme of things, the DR-2 wasn't considered particularly high end either. Well, it certainly was no Dragon, or the 1000ZXL or the ZX-9, BX-300(a.k.a. baby Dragon) or the CR-7 either. Those are just some of the best tape decks ever produced by Nakamichi, not forgetting to mention the RX-505 which was an auto reverse playback stunner, but as a recorder, not so great. 

The 3 head, 3 motor, dual capstan transport is originally developed by Nakamichi in the 70's and first appeared on the 1000ZXL model. 

The Nakamichi DR-2 had great build quality, not flagship level but luxurious enough to include a metal cassette door, the opening action of the said door is well dampened, satin black finished aluminum face plate, dual layer back plate & chassis. Weighting at 5.6kg, it's almost twice as heavy compared to my Teac V-670. Some of the flagship feature omissions include lack of peak hold VU meter, no auto tape type selector(only the flagship DR-1 had that), non-motorized cassette door and a remote control. I would say this DR-2 had all the basic requirements of a good tape recorder & playback, but gave up on luxurious features for market price point. In cassette time line, the 90's was already sun setting for the format, so if one wanted a top player, the 80's would be a good time line to start. Mid 80's flagship cassette decks from Japan like Teac V-980 & Aiwa AD-F990 had all the best features that looked like a dream list.   

The 3 motors that drive the transport can be clearly seen here!

As with any Nakamichi, the tape transport is an in house design, and not one of those standard of the shelf Sankyo solutions used by many other manufacturers. The 3 motor design, incorporating idler wheel for tape spool is very complicated and the transport design is multi layered. Also new in this generation of Nakamichi is the pressure pad lifter system. What's this you ask? If you look at the cassette on the side with the exposed tape holes, you'll find a sponge like pad in the middle as the tape head contact area. Nakamichi believes this pressure pad contribute to variable sound quality as each tape is using different material and density for the pad! Nakamichi was very confident that their dual capstan transport drive was powerful and accurate enough to give proper & constant pressure to the tape in contact with tape head, that the pressure pad was no longer needed during playback. This gives the DR-2 very low wow & flutter during playback as direct result. You can see from the naked photo below, the power supply transformer is over sized and has more than a few regulator circuits in a separate PCB from the audio section on the left. The internal build quality is typical 80's -90's Japanese thru hole PCB type for easy repair. And no, for some reason Nakamichi didn't see fit to give gold plated RCA sockets either!

The internals of the Nakamichi DR-2 cassette deck shows much attention to detail.

Lastly we come to the sound, I was not disappointed at all, once I plugged the DR-2 in to my system and start the first tape playback. The first thing I notice was a total lack of hiss or white noise, which is always good for sound quality. Next comes the rich, layered with full bodied tonality and that dynamic transient of the snare drum! Bass was ripe, full and tuneful. In comparison, the Teac V-670 sounded neutral in tonality, and offering more clarity yet conjured a more 2D version of the musical proceedings. The Nakamichi does lives up to it's sonic superiority promise. Every cassette I put in sounded good, even those pre-recorded original tapes. The better the tape type, the better it sounded.

The Nakamichi DR-2 is a very nice addition to my hifi collection indeed and it enhances my cassette playback experience too. Simply love it!