Fischus

This was always my main problem. There's nothing worse than losing track of a cable that disappears into a tangled mess. I can't really effectively use cable leads or lay them through the walls because I need flexibility. But this is really effective and simple. Thank you very much for everything.

Decades of anguish solved in one sentence... Why didn't I think of this earlier?!?

If every audio setup needed siltech cables, 99.999% of people would probably use the TVs built-in speakers, me included. Counting every power and connection cable I'm probably at over 100. 30ish power then HDMI, DP, RCA speakers, USB... Even my reclining armchairs have cables for power and controls... I always wonder how neat it looks from a normal perspective, until I look at that unidentifiable black mass of rubber behind my lowboard and desk. Though I always try to get high quality cables where it matters. High quality doesn't mean expensive though. Some cables that cost a few dollars can actually perform very well.

Well there's of course always the recommendation for extra carpenters, electricians etc. who will gladly take as much as the speakers' price to lay all the cables through the floor and walls... which is probably the most profitable part for the B&O retailers. Though I personally prefer to cram everything behind furniture, leaving only around half a meter of cables visible on each speaker. It's messy but looks clean, so it's fine... until I need to change something and curse that idea time and time again... Longevity might be a concern too. While Beolabs enter standby immediately after use or a maximum of 3 min depending on the input signal mode, Genelec's power supplies apparently need to be replaced every few years because they stay on for much longer, at least from what I've heard from a technician, while some people still swear on nearly 50 year old passive speakers.

DSP and 4 proprietory class D amps with 2500W total per speaker certainly makes a big chunk of the BL5's price. There are of course people who change speakers like underwear, so already having the amplifier(s) might be cheaper in the long run too. Although as you said, they have to match. And as you said the electronics have to be accounted for in the enclosure. Having a power cord for each speaker doesn't really bother me. For powerlink and s/pdif, daisy chaining is possible, eliminating some clutter.

Your MLA minis are active as well right? I've always wondered why there are so many ultra high-end passive speakers. Is there any specific benefit? Whatever special cabinet or driver design they engineer, aren't they bottlenecked by something so obvious?

Ah I see. The maximum digital input of my speakers is 88.2khz 16bit, and my rooms noise floor is usually very quiet, to the point where I can hear a mosquito flying from almost 10m away. With a max SPL of 108dB I wondered if a high-end analogue source that supports 24bit input might actually be superior. Although there's always the extra step of ADC before passing through the DSP while coax input skips that and directly goes to the DSP. B&O always says coax is superior, even over their own (outdated) Beosystem 3 preamp. Oh right I haven't said they're Beolab 5 yet have I (please don't kill me for presumably bad price/performance ratio, some audiophiles tend to dislike them, but I like the acoustic lenses) Your thoughts?

Speaking of 192/24, while more than 44.1khz doesn't make sense, what do you think about 16 vs 24 bit? Airplay compresses my 48khz/24bit FLAC and wav files and Amazon music HD to 44.1/16, on the other hand going analogue from a phone probably isn't great either.

With an AVR you of course always spend a lot on multi-channel processing, multiroom, network, video upscaling etc. Rather than on pure audio quality. They do have a digital coax input, which of course perfect for stereo music, but sadly that doesn't help with the TV set up, as surround sound is only possible via analog, and since they auto-sense digital input signals, then ignoring the analog input, I can't just use a toslink to coax converter from the TV for stereo as turning on the TV would disable the input from the receiver when I do want surround, so that one's on a cd player. Got to love the choice between audiophile sound quality and the ability to watch movies in dolby vision/atmos from the same source, even if not at the same time.

Even such a receiver cannot handle that? Wow... so investing 2-3000 dollars into a better receiver that can't hold a candle to that one isn't worth it. Depending on the loudness of the source material I managed to get to around 95ish dB when paying music with the speakers at around 75 and the receiver around 70 with minimal noise that I can either only hear when holding my breath at absolute silence or by holding my ear 30cm from the driver when nothing is playing. I could probably go up to 80 or so on the receiver but I doubt it'll be distortion free past that, voltage limit aside. No need to blow my ears off. Movie reference levels might require it though, voices there a lot quiter than on TV. The mic would definitely be useful to see if 80 is enough for noticable distortion.

Spending 30k to measure distortion of 1k gear would be quite... inefficient... nornal line out from the PC has superior SNR, so the receiver's DAC must be really crappy. So REW + UMIK-1 would be worth a shot if I don't want to remodel my entire setup? Thanks a lot for your help.

Hi, Thanks for the detailed answer So basically as long as I stay within the max 108dB SPL (stereo, pair) of the speakers, no matter which one I turn up, there shouldn't be any danger? Wouldn't usually turning up the pre-outs give a better signal to noise ratio as the power amplifier doesn't need to amplify the overall input as much? I tried turning up the speaker volume all the way up, but there's very noticable noise starting around 80%. Guess that happens when you pair 20'000$ speakers with a 1'000$ receiver... unlike distortion the noise is easier to measure so the way to go would probably be to turn the speakers up to the point where it's not noticable and then lock the receivers volume just below distortion and hope it gets as close to the SPL as possible? Say I would reach the SPL this way with the speakers at 75% as long as I don't turn them further up I'm safe? How would I test for distortion?

Hi everyone, I've got some high-end active loudspeakers that are meant to be connected to an unregulated line-level output with a max voltage of 2Vrms. In order to use them with my TV however I have to connect them to the pre-outs of my AV receiver, which of course do have their own volume control, meaning I would have to somehow find a balance between the AV receiver's and the speakers' volume control and the adjust it using either of them. I've contacted Marantz and asked them about it. In response, they sent me the attached graph, (I hope it doesn't get too compressed) which frankly, I absolutely don't understand. Can anyone roughly tell me what volume output on the scale of 0-98 at the highest possible input to the receiver would be safe for the speakers to handle? Thanks in Advance

Great, Thanks a lot!

Well if you mean the 5000$ processor, then yes thats um... like above my budget... kinda... But the 700$ is about what to expect. Plus they offer it for 100$ less as refurbished. Just to make sure though, these (let's stick with RCA to prevent further confusion) ports have a variable volume output (not just raw line out) and can be used direcrly on speakers that have no volume control of their own right?