ALXAndy's all valve based cinema. Mostly..

[ALXAndy]

So something very different.

 

Up until now I have never built a true 5.1 cinema rig. Mainly because it's hard to do it properly and tidy with the cheap sets you buy. My lady and I recently decided it was time to do it properly, so here's what I got. I had two stipulations.

 

1. I wanted all Scandyna Podspeakers (B&W drivers in pod shells)

2. I wanted as much of it, or all, to be based on valve (tube for you yanks) amplifiers.

 

Mission set...

 

My first purchase was these. These RRP over £400, I paid £239 brand new boxed.

 

 

They're called Scandyna Smallpods. Another pic.

 

 

And you can clearly see why I wanted Pod speakers. They're absolutely stunning and sound incredible too, given curved pods eliminate nearly all standing waves.

 

To power the Smallpods I bought this.

 

 

The Koda T-5002. It's a transistor based output amplifier but the pre amp stage is all valve. Meaning you get the valve sound. I managed to buy this on Ebay from a seller in Greece for £90. They retail at over 350 Euro, so it was a damn good buy.

 

Then it was time for the rear stage, enter the Scandyna Micopod. 

 

 

These RRP at £300 but I managed to find a Bluetooth set on Amazon for £119. I took apart the amplified speaker and removed all of the bluetooth circuitry, then rewired the crossover to speak directly with the drivers instead of the amp. Totally successful there

 

So now I needed another valve based amp for the rear stage, I chose the Fatman Mitube 2.

 

 

I did hunt high and low for another Koda but sadly to no avail. The Mitube cost me £190, more than I wanted to spend but he's a beaut Clark. Again, transistor output but this one has a magic eye that flashes as sound passes through it. Nice touch !

 

Then it was time for a subwoofer. I originally bought a Vibe Cinesound 6 which is a 6" sub powered. It's fine, but after digging on Ebay I found this. It's a Scandyna Bass station MKII. These retail at £750, I bought this one for £129.

 

 

 

 

You can clearly see the problem. However, I've been assured it works 100% so the two faults are that it's come apart and the spiked sputnik feet are missing. Thankfully I have spare feet from the Smallpods, and I'm pretty sure I can fix it for less than £10 with some fibreglass matting and epoxy. I'll strip it, fix it, then put it back together.

 

Now. Obviously by going this route I need some sort of decoder, enter the HD Audio Rush.

 

 

This is a 5.1 optical decoder and DAC to 5.1 RCA. Talking of RCA. I made all of the inter connects myself for £15.

 

 

Rockford Fosgate.

 

 

China FTW

 

Of course, no cinema rig would be complete without a TV. Enter the Hisense 65" 120hz 4k.

 

 

Which will be going on the wall above the fireplace when I can get my brother round to help me

 

It's currently all set up and working beautifully. The sub should be here Tues, so I'll update on that

[NeatSquidYT]

That's fucking awesome.

#24Inch1080pTVArmy

[SuperPug]

2. I wanted as much of it, or all, to be based on valve (tube for you yanks) amplifiers.

 

Skipped this line... was extremely confused as to what this had to do with valve software lol

[ALXAndy]

Skipped this line... was extremely confused as to what this had to do with valve software lol

 

/Duke Nukem... I fucking hate valve puzzles

[genkifd]

that decoder doesnt support any of the HD audio - such as TrueHD or DTSHDMA.

[HippY]

Would you marry me?(20 yo/M kinda social akward but very very goood electronic student)

Or would adopt me?

or anything among these lines?

[ALXAndy]

that decoder doesnt support any of the HD audio - such as TrueHD or DTSHDMA.

 

I'm not fussed. You can immediately tell the stuff that is broadcast in surround, anything that's not supported is pseudo which is fine with me.

 

It's the audio quality I'm after, and I do believe I got that

 

Would you marry me?(20 yo/M kinda social akward but very very goood electronic student)

Or would adopt me?

or anything among these lines?

 

Sadly you were too late Hippy, I'm getting married to the woman of my dreams on 2nd Jan

[genkifd]

if you are after audio quality in regards to HT then DTSHDMA and TrueHD is so much better than your standard DTS.

 

Stereo listening totally different - your setup would be awesome for music.  but the DAC / Decoder is the weakest part by far.

[RogueCow]

Very interesting.

You say you are into the surround sound and want the home theater experience, but dont tube amps change the tone of the sound; making them great for music but less than desirable for movie audio fidelity?

Im not disagreeing with you, actually im just interested in your reasoning since i am planning an ht build in the coming year but dont have much experience/knowledge in ht audio yet.

Thanks!

And i do love your freaky spaceships lol

[ALXAndy]

if you are after audio quality in regards to HT then DTSHDMA and TrueHD is so much better than your standard DTS.

 

Stereo listening totally different - your setup would be awesome for music.  but the DAC / Decoder is the weakest part by far.

 

It's mostly music yes  I did buy one of these..

 

http://www.rcblogic.co.uk/p-449-cyp-hdmi-audio-de-embedder.aspx?st=22&source=paidclick&gclid=CL2B_K_6x8ICFeHHtAodaEcA5Q

 

But it was DOA. I bought the cheaper one first but tbh? I'm so happy with it I'm not going to bother with anything better.

 

Very interesting.

You say you are into the surround sound and want the home theater experience, but dont tube amps change the tone of the sound; making them great for music but less than desirable for movie audio fidelity?

Im not disagreeing with you, actually im just interested in your reasoning since i am planning an ht build in the coming year but dont have much experience/knowledge in ht audio yet.

Thanks!

And i do love your freaky spaceships lol

 

Valves have a warmer sound. That's about it really. It's definitely a matter of taste. Kind of like LCD vs plasma (though LCD has gotten a lot better of late)

[HippY]

Sadly you were too late Hippy, I'm getting married to the woman of my dreams on 2nd Jan

i heard polygamy is not prohibited in UK;)

Congratulation and good luck

[genkifd]

Andy link doesnt work for me.

 

DAC is a very important part of an audio system. 

 

What about the Source? what are you using?

[ALXAndy]

I'm using the optical out of the TV mate..

 

Sub came today.

 

One hour was all it took.

 

 

Basically it wasn't broken, it had just slipped the mounts. Took it all apart and bolted it back together then rebuilt, job done. Very happy would not even begin to describe how I feel right now lol.

[ALXAndy]

Update. So you'll note the black trim from where the sub joins is missing. I found it inside the sub, and have glued it in for now. Sadly there is about 6" missing. It looks a bit crap without the trim, so I spent twenty mins digging on Ebay and found this.

 

 

10m of the same stuff for 99p. Will probably take a month to arrive but hey, it's perfect. Thankfully the sub is ported with a massive port so it doesn't make it air tight

 

Gave it a testing too with some Creep by Radiohead. I wouldn't want to be the Polish people in the basement flat.....

[ALXAndy]

Fixed the rubber trim and stuck the feet from the Smallpods in with epoxy and...

 

 

Poifect.

[genkifd]

did you do the subwoofer crawl, or did you decide to place the woofer their due to aesthetic reasons?

 

Also please calibrate your tv.

[ALXAndy]

TV is fine it's just my camera in low light scenarios.

 

It's going on Monday any way, the 4k TV is going up

[ALXAndy]

And how appropriate it was that I took the pic, from my sitting position, whilst Mr Kerridge was dishing up some of his best.

 

 

Proper Lush !

 

I totally agree Tom.

[genkifd]

nice - didnt realise how tiny those speakers are. 

 

just a suggestion you should lower the front two speakers to ear level.

[ALXAndy]

nice - didnt realise how tiny those speakers are. 

 

just a suggestion you should lower the front two speakers to ear level.

 

Impossible due to the height of the radiators and the fact that I use the floor space below the TV (my desk is in the left corner).