Equipment Change!

Despite the many changes I’m experiencing in College at the moment, with a quiz I have to take already the next day from writing this, to starting a routine of going to the gym every week (hopefully), and the new car I’m sharing with my twin brother who’s going to the same institution, there is one change that I’d like to address, which is obviously related to this blog.

Equipment

As you may have guessed, there is a change regarding my system right now, and how’s it’s set up because of a big change. After about 2 weeks of thinking before the change (which didn’t actually happen this week because I hadn’t had time to write about it), everything was pretty much the same thing as I had described in my set-up.

But NOW, I have to talk about the JVC RM SR7030J MBR receiver that I’ve been “trying” until it was “sold”. Well, I was given an option that I can just keep this receiver, with the reason I’ll talk about later, or stick with the Topping. As the topic is about equipment change, I’ll just say that in the end I ended up sticking with the JVC instead. It’s not going to be sold. I’m keeping it, but I’m also changing it if a good component (think maybe a stereo receiver) comes up. So this is temporary at the same time. But that also means that I’m not using the Topping, and a few things have changed regarding the wiring of the system overall.

Placement & wiring

Other than the change in the cornerstone of the system, which is the amplifier, I’ve switched from an integrated amplifier (technically, but not really one), to a receiver, after I wrote that opinion related to receivers. Ironic, right? Since the receiver is really big however, I’m placing it on my Velodyne Subwoofer. It’s the same place I placed the Auralic Altair and Polaris when I tried it. If you refer to the picture from my set-up, you’ll know where exactly I put it.

Now, since I have a receiver, I have more options in terms of wiring. I’m running a direct connection from the receiver to the SS-K10ED, and using the sub-out from the receiver to send the signals to my Sub. It saves my the trouble of using the 4 wires which go from the Topping, to the Velodyne, and finally, the speakers. It theoretically should eliminate any resistance running it that way, and send purer signals as it’s direct. As such, the setting on my subwoofer has changed as well. For my Sub, I changed the setting from internal crossover to direct, and I’m running a kind of bypass, to my knowledge, by putting the volume all the way so I can just directly adjust the volume from the receiver, which is put at zero because it sounds just fine, as it it was run my previous way.

Why?

Specifically, the JVC sounded as good as the Topping, and it is more powerful, which presented a more effortless presentation for sound at louder volumes (much more details in a review of the JVC later). The dilemma between the two was the sound characteristic and size. Did I want a small, smooth integrated amp, or a more powerful bigger and slightly harsher sounding receiver. I went with the receiver, also because the slightly harsher sound didn’t present much fatigue, and the imaging for a receiver was on par, if not slightly better than the Topping.  Many other factors went into my decision, but I’ll also talk about this in the review I’ll be posting on the JVC in the future as well.

Future plans

As I’ve said, future plans for changes include the stereo receiver, or any better component that will replace the JVC. There is no future plans to replace my Sony SS-K10ED, because they haven’t met their match. It does say that they are a bang-for-buck pair of bookshelves that I’m in love with.

In other new, I’m hooking my other siblings (not my twin) with a system, so maybe she has the potential for another audiophile in the family? (I doubt it though)