Pulled the trigger; ordered the HT2-TL!

jazzcat1 · « **on:** 22 Jul 2009, 01:25 pm »

Ordered them yesterday and using Figured Red Gum Veneer and going in the dedicated 2 channel listening room.

http://www.certainlywood.com/detail.cfm?ID=2674

Will be placing them as close to the Cardas diagram A as possible initially. Going to start researching room treatments on the GIK website.

They will be paired with a PS Audio PCA 2 and a Denon DVD3930CI completely modded by Matthew at sacdmods. com, including XLR balanced stereo outs. Jury is still out on the amp choice.

I need to get busy!

Mark

mathgeek97 · « **Reply #1 on:** 22 Jul 2009, 02:00 pm »

jazzcat1,
Great to see that you've been sucked in to the Salk family. Congrats. You really picked out some great wood. I bet Jim's going to build some beauties out of that!
As far as amps go, I believe Audio by Van Alstine has new stuff coming out soon and you've now got a good two months or so to wait for reviews, and several other HT2-TL owners have been happy with AVA gear.

K Shep · « **Reply #2 on:** 22 Jul 2009, 02:15 pm »

jazzcat,
That's great news! I think you made the correct choice going with HT2-TL, coming from a guy with ST RTs. If you went with the STs you would always wonder what if, that is until you upgrade. If you are considering building your own room treatments let me know, I just completed a set of my own. We will all be here to support you as you wait.

vintagebob · « **Reply #3 on:** 22 Jul 2009, 02:46 pm »

Alright jazzcat!

Welcome aboard.

rahimlee54 · « **Reply #4 on:** 22 Jul 2009, 02:53 pm »

Congrats.

Everytime I listen to mine I really enjoy myself, I hope you will as well.

martyo · « **Reply #5 on:** 22 Jul 2009, 02:55 pm »

VERY pretty veneer.

MaxCast · « **Reply #6 on:** 22 Jul 2009, 03:23 pm »

Very nice, Mark. You won't be disappointed, that's for sure !

Nuance · « **Reply #7 on:** 22 Jul 2009, 03:48 pm »

Mark,

Congrats and welcome to the family! Great choice of veneer, by the way; gonna look spectacular after Jim puts his touch on it.

I agree with the Van Alstine amp recommendations, and will also add the following manufacturers:

Parasound (A21)
McCormack
Wyred4Sound
ATI
Audio Research
Ayre
Rogue Audio

I look forward to your completion date!

joelmilr · « **Reply #8 on:** 22 Jul 2009, 04:57 pm »

You're really going to like them. Congratulations!!

jazzcat1 · « **Reply #9 on:** 22 Jul 2009, 06:25 pm »

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I have some work to do to pass the time. going to add a 20 amp dedicated circuit or 2 and get a rack so everything will be set-up so all I will have to do is plug in the HT2's.

Should I hold off doing any room treatments until everything is in place? K Shep, do you have any pics of your treatments? Not sure if I have the time to do any myself but will consider that.

vintagebob · « **Reply #10 on:** 22 Jul 2009, 06:44 pm »

Quote from: jazzcat1 on 22 Jul 2009, 06:25 pm

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I have some work to do to pass the time. going to add a 20 amp dedicated circuit or 2 and get a rack so everything will be set-up so all I will have to do is plug in the HT2's.

Should I hold off doing any room treatments until everything is in place? K Shep, do you have any pics of your treatments? Not sure if I have the time to do any myself but will consider that.

Jazzcat1, come join us over at this thread and you can see what others are doing while they wait.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=68360.0

If you go up to K Sheps's post you'll see a small link called "gallery". Click on that and it will take you to a large thumbnail picture. Click on that picture and you will get to see all of K Shep's pics. He has a neat setup!

No reason to wait on the room treatments IMO.

K Shep · « **Reply #11 on:** 22 Jul 2009, 06:46 pm »

Quote from: jazzcat1 on 22 Jul 2009, 06:25 pm

K Shep, do you have any pics of your treatments? Not sure if I have the time to do any myself but will consider that.

Jazz,
I just sent you a PM.
Kirk

oneinthepipe · « **Reply #12 on:** 22 Jul 2009, 06:55 pm »

Quote from: jazzcat1 on 22 Jul 2009, 06:25 pm

Should I hold off doing any room treatments until everything is in place? K Shep, do you have any pics of your treatments?

There are some essential room treatments, such as tri-corner absorption, and other treatments, based upon your room, that you will probably want. If you are DIY'ing them, you can get started. You won't know exactly (if ever) what you will want until your speakers are placed, etc. But you can plan out tri-corner treatment, finalize the panel/whatever design, purchase the materials, etc. OC703 is priced better wholesale in larger quantities.

There is good info on the Acoustics Circle.

jazzcat1 · « **Reply #13 on:** 22 Jul 2009, 07:50 pm »

Kirk, you have mail.

Great thread link vintagebob and I love the title

I will have to hang there some too.

I will mosey over to the Acoustics Circle and check that out.

Room info: Placements are just preliminary.

oneinthepipe · « **Reply #14 on:** 22 Jul 2009, 10:59 pm »

Quote from: jazzcat1 on 22 Jul 2009, 07:50 pm

Kirk, you have mail.

Great thread link vintagebob and I love the title I will have to hang there some too.

I will mosey over to the Acoustics Circle and check that out.

Room info: Placements are just preliminary.

Not knowing your room, but knowing your speakers and having a slightly larger room, I think that you might consider bringing the speakers out another 12" (the speakers are 17" deep; and having the baffles 36" away from the front wall leaves only 19" behind the speakers), moving them away from the side walls another 6", and moving your chair forward another 6", making your triangle 84" (you don't want to sit any closer than 78"-84", and you might need to toe-in the speakers a slight amount).

You will need tri-corner absorption, and lots of it, and absorption (and/or diffusion) behind your chair, behind your speakers, and at the first reflection points on the side walls and ceiling. I think with a 12'X14' room, you will need a lot of broadband absorption/bass traps. I believe 6" or thicker panels and/or bass traps would be best. If you DIY, the cost difference between the different thickness panels is not very much.

I already have (14) 6" panels, (4) 4" panels, and (4) 2" panels, and I am going to add another (8 ) 6" panels to tame the bass even more. It's not the speakers, it is my room. If the room were larger, there wouldn't be anywhere near as much of a problem (it isn't a big problem; I just keep trying to reduce any boom, but my system sounds great). When you get set up, Ethan has a link to a pink noise file on the Acoustic Circle. When you play the pink noise through your system, you can hear exactly where the boom comes from. Rigid fiberglass is your friend.

Rocket · « **Reply #15 on:** 22 Jul 2009, 11:41 pm »

Hi Jazzcat1,

I have a ps audio hca 2 that I use on and off in my system. In its stock form it is a reasonable sounding amplifier. I found that the bass performance was a bit lacking and as a consequence the amp did not sound balanced i.e. it sounded like the amp had been designed from the top down.

I have had it extensively modified and it responds very well becoming a much better sounding amplifier. If you are handy with a soldering iron adding 3 blackgate gates in the sound path greatly improves its performance.

As an alternative Cullen Circuits offers a $500US modification to this amplifier that I'm sure would be an excellent modification.

I have the non tl ht2's and they are a fine sounding pair of speakers. Enjoy

.

Regards

Rod

funkmonkey · « **Reply #16 on:** 23 Jul 2009, 02:56 am »

Jazzcat1- congratz on the decision. Very hard to make a bad one when ordering from Jim, but making up your mind about which model and what veneer to get deserves a congratulations!

That Red Gum is going to look incredible. When bookmatched, you are going to get some very cool effects with that veneer. Some arrow shapes pop into my head... or if you don't mirror them you could get some patterns that look more like lightning with the sap-wood. Either way they are going to be exceptional. Great choice on the veneer.

Can't wait to see the end result.

jazzcat1 · « **Reply #17 on:** 23 Jul 2009, 01:29 pm »

Thanks, funkymonkey, Jim is going to do bookmatched (right, Jim?

I think they will really stand out.

Been researching treatments thanks to all the advice I am getting from you folks. Bass traps and absorption panels are my first priority. I still am learing about diffusers and where to place them. Maybe I won't need them at all?? I can't use tri-traps in the back of the room as there is an entry door and a bathroom door in each corner there. I can hang panels on the doors though. Guess that's my only option there.

Should I do bass traps along the whole back wall behind the listening seat?

For the front wall, panels behind speakers and tri traps in the corners?

The OC703 is 2" thick so do you just use multiple sheets to achieve 6" thickness?

Off to lurk in the Acoustics Circle!

nyc_paramedic · « **Reply #18 on:** 23 Jul 2009, 04:16 pm »

I would like to make two suggestions.

First, please investigate the Real Traps line of products. I will wholeheartedly agree with oneinthepipe, in that size of a room you might need substantial amounts of absorption.

Second, also consider experimenting with long wall placement of the HT2's. It works beautifully here with my HT2-TL's in a similar (13x17) sized room. If this setup works well in your room, it can afford you a much wider sound stage. Think panoramic 16:9 versus 4:3.

jazzcat1 · « **Reply #19 on:** 23 Jul 2009, 05:04 pm »

Quote from: nyc_paramedic on 23 Jul 2009, 04:16 pm

Second, also consider experimenting with long wall placement of the HT2's. It works beautifully here with my HT2-TL's in a similar (13x17) sized room. If this setup works well in your room it affords you a much wider sound stage. Think panoramic 16:9 versus 4:3.

Ok, if I do a long placement and bring the speakers farther away from the front wall as oneinthepipe suggested, I think I will be right against the back wall with the chair which is not optimal. I don't know if 12 feet is enough to work with. How far away from the rear wall is your seating position?