Just updated my virtual system

What do you use as digital music sources?

@classdstreamer Quboz and Tidal. I thought they both pretty much had the same library but they really don’t. I also have about 300GiB of my personal music library most of which is ripped from CD’s I long ago donated to a library.

I do have a few DSD files downloaded from Blue Coast Records. (that's a deliberate plug!)

I’m wondering how connected your HT and HiFi are.

The LG provides all of my streaming needs, which are pretty basic. Netflix, Amazon and Funimation. I used to use a Roku because of the Crunchyroll app but the are so unreliable I refuse to pay them a cent more.

The TV to MRX connection is via the HDMI Audio Return Channel. When I spin a BD or DVD it goes through the MRX to the TV.

The MRX has 7.2 preamp outputs. I use the L and R outputs to feed the amp in on the Luxman. When I want to watch TV I hit "Separate" on the Luxman remote and then the TV remote takes over for everything. When I’m listening to music I hit "Separate" again to reconnect the preamp to the amp in the Luxman and I’m in 2-channel mode.

The MRX powers my center and surround speakers, and feeds my subwoofer.  The sub is not used for stereo.  See the article above for why.

@erik_squires 

Nice first approach. Be ready to make some adjustments as you go. My personal experience with GIK is they pushed too much absorption for my house of stereo design. It obviously was great at taking care of resonance, but it took me about a year to balance it with many diffusers to finally get the liveliness I had lost and wanted. Take a peak at my system where I describe the experience and square footage of absorbers vs. diffusers used. Enjoy the journey.

Reading you are planning to replace them with tri-traps, could you tell me what it is you currently don’t like for your 2 channel listening that you hope the tri-traps will bring? Sadly we can’t demo acoustics panels so I’d rather not make a mistake with the purchase as the soffit traps are their most expensive! Thanks.

@pabs85 Alone, the soffit traps are simply excellent.  If you read the blog post I wrote about using EQ with my stereo you'll see that I start from an extremely smooth starting point.  I'm moving away from them only as a matter of overall room balance. 

However, as @baylinor has experienced, having a good mix of absorption and diffusors is important.  In the long term I'm going to trade my 2 soffit traps for 4 corner traps which will be floor to ceiling.  The two on the floor will have diffusor panels which AFAIK are not available on the soffit traps.  Also, I'm switching from burgundy to white to make them seem less huge.

@baylinor  GIK actually recommended more diffusor panels, but they block my side windows.  They also recommended diffusor panels behind my couch, so in my case their recommendations were reasonably well balanced I think.  I'm just

@baylinor , IMHE not enough absorption is used by many. People are use to the bright glare caused by higher frequency reflections. When you remove them the first impression you get is that the system sounds dull. Which at first disappoints until you listen more carefully to the image. The instruments, particularly cymbals are much better contained and have a more solid image in space. I think the problem for many of us is that we do not have enough late reflections because we are using smaller closed rooms.  Larger rooms that are open to the rest of the house usually sound better to me al least. If GIK over does it it is probably because they do not factor in the dispersion of the speaker as they can be hugely different and many do not require as much as they recommend. 

@erik_squires , Good work with the crossovers! I might make one suggestion. Stuff the drawers in your speaker stands where the crossovers are located with a folded bath towel nice and tight. Cavities resonate. Putting one right under the speaker could be a problem and make sure the drawers/crossovers do not rattle. Do the towel and let me know what you think. -Mike

@mijostyn  Those stands are inert.  The speakers are heavier than they look.  There's no drawer rattling. :)