"Krell" is a buzzword

Hi Margin: I have our second mini system hooked up at the computer station now, soon to be set up for near field listening (all I need is a pair of 30" stands). Before, the computer was set up in the living room with the main system ($2500.00 total for the whole ball of wax -w- some of the items purchased used). I am not hooked on the sweet spot and always try to set the better system up so that it sounds its best in a general seating area. We are talking about 10% off axis at the most for the extremes of the entire listening area. If I feel like doing critical listening or when I am auditioning something new at home I just move a chair into a near field arrangement for that purpose. Some speakers like Maganapans and my old Castle's sound good to me slightly off axis, maybe because thay are a little bright for my taste to start with. Also interesting for near field listening at the computer are some little DIY planer speakers at the Decware web site that I would like to try to build at some point and use with a flea watt amp that I would run the mini system through. I at one point ran the mini system through my Musical Fidelity amp and the cheap little five disk CD player sounded pretty good. The tape decks sounded well, like tape decks. I also tweaked the mini system with Vibrapods, Kimber Kable and some sound damping (sticky) sheets that my mechanic gave me installed to the inside of the CD tape player module The speakers were replaced with Polk Rt-15's that were being given away locally when the new version came out. The system itself is a Sony MHC-NX1 that is very handy for my wife's old massive collection of CD's that I wouln't bother playing on the main system due to their background noise and general lack of high fidelity.

Addendum: I meant my wife's massive collection of cassette tapes, not CD's (whish they were CD's, cause if they were I would be listening to Mink DeVille, Cadillac Walk" in the living room right now).

Dekay, you sound very practicle with your set up. Since you like to listen to music and serve at the same time, have you consider using the PC as a source? I saw some new D/A sound card which was featured in Sept. issue of Stereophile, but have not read through the article in details. Has any heard anything about this product? How do you all feel about the PC eventually becoming your one source of music?

Hi Margin: Yes, I have wondered about that mainly to download/play music samples from BMG and Columbia. We do not listen to the radio and I have found it hard to select new poular music by unknowns and know that I am missing out on a lot of stuff that I would enjoy. I have a patchcord to hook the mini system up to the PC, but have not plugged it in yet. I gave the old computer speakers away when I moved it to the bedroom as we only used them to listen to musical greeting cards. I was just thinking of using one of the downloadable software programs offered at the sites to start, but do have three extra drive slots in the CPU for adding a zip or whatever drive that would be needed for a more elaborate setup. However, my main goal for this little listening station is to incorporate a small inexpensive SET amp (like the Decware Zen or a Bottlehead) into the system just to have something different than the other sytem, and since the room is small it should sound pretty good. Even the little Polk's would probably work under these conditions, but the little DIY planer speakers look like a real trip and would be a cheap and fun project. There are people at this site that have invested thousands in music computer software which is not my intention.

Dekay, you sound very practicle with your set up. Since you like to listen to music and serve at the same time, have you consider using the PC as a source? I saw some new D/A sound card which was featured in Sept. issue of Stereophile, but have not read through the article in details. Has any heard anything about this product? How do you all feel about the PC eventually becoming your one source of music?