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[mojave]

On April 27, 2013, there will be an Audio GTG in Des Moines, IA. There is a thread about it at AVSForum. I am helping with setup, measurements, and EQ. We will be using JRiver Media Center for all playback with a signal chain of computer > DACs > amps > speakers. Mark Seaton (Seaton Sound), Jeff Permanian (JTR Speakers), Phil Bamberg (Bamberg Audio), Steve Crabb (iRule), and Roger Schermerhorn (Lynx Studios) will be present. Unfortunately, Matt is not able to attend. Does anyone else want to represent JRiver. 

Here are the speakers that will be present:

Seaton Sound Catalyst 12C
JTR Speakers Noesis 212HT
Salk Veracity HT2-TL
Bamberg Audio Series 5 TMW
GR-Research LS-6
SVS Ultra

The DAC's used will be two Mytek Stereo 192-DSD for the formal listening session and Lynx Aurora 8 for the blind listening portion. We plan to have three Mytek Stereo-192 DSDs for use later in the day for multi-channel DSD. Lynx Studios also plans to have a Lynx Hilo available for our use. I have Lynx AES16e in my HTPC and will be bringing a 2-channel and 8-channel DACs with AES input. A Steinberg UR824 will be used for measuring.

We will use Wyred4Sound SX-1000 monoblocks for powering the mains. I will also be bringing three Digital Amp Company Cherry monoblocks and one Cherry stereo amp. We will be using all balanced interconnects from the DACs to the amps.

For subwoofers we will have two JTR Speakers Captivator S2 subs. The subs also have balanced inputs. The Seaton, JTR, and Salk speakers will all use dual subs. The other speakers will be full range with no subs.

I will setup a zone for each speaker system in JRiver. We will be using either JRiver's parametric EQ or Audiolense and convolution for EQ up to around 150 Hz. All setup, measurements, and EQ and JRiver will be done on Friday. On Saturday, during the event, we should just have to switch speakers and switch zones, and we will be ready to go.

We will have a set playlist of about 25 minutes for each speaker. After the playlist, attendees will be able to request music for about another 20-25 minutes. The playlist will use the Particles and Playback Range features of JRiver.

At the end of the day we will setup a 5.1 system and listen to movie clips and multi-channel DSD.

[altahometheatre]

Mojave

I heard about the this GTG too late and it was filled up.  I would have made the trip even though I live in Western Canada.  There were many things going on that I would have loved to seen and heard; including the J River setup, Seaton, and JTR speakers.  I would love to get me some Seatons.  Living in Canada it is almost impossible to demo those. 

I know the north-east groups have a number of amazing gtg.  I will watch for the next one.

Will follow up on the forums (already some posts and pictures as it occurred yesterday).

You must go by a different name on AVS?

[nwboater]

Mojave

I heard about the this GTG too late and it was filled up.  I would have made the trip even though I live in Western Canada.  There were many things going on that I would have loved to seen and heard; including the J River setup, Seaton, and JTR speakers.  I would love to get me some Seatons.  Living in Canada it is almost impossible to demo those. 

I know the north-east groups have a number of amazing gtg.  I will watch for the next one.

Will follow up on the forums (already some posts and pictures as it occurred yesterday).

You must go by a different name on AVS?

He's desertdome at AVS.

Rod

[Frobozz]

Congrats on the meet-up and the JRiver wizardry.  I looked through the AVS Forum thread.  Look like it all went very well.  Some neat speakers there.  I'd really like to hear the Salk speakers.  Do you have the LS6?   Were those yours at the meet?  I got to hear the LS6 at an AV123 meetup.  Very nice but tricky for some rooms.  The home theater room I heard them in very likely didn't show them off to their best (big room but too small for the speakers and too treated and too home theater oriented).  The LS6 made you want to sit at the far back of the room near the rear wall.  Maybe the speakers were too far apart to accommodate the projection screen between them?  I'd love to hear them in a proper two channel setup in a suitable room.  I'd think they could do some magic.

[mojave]

I had a very busy, but fun time at the Iowa Audio GTG. I left directly from work at 4 pm on Thursday and didn't return home until 3 pm on Sunday afternoon. Thursday evening, all day Friday, and a little of Saturday morning were all spent on setup. Saturday night we played stuff until about 1:30 am and then I help cleanup until 3 am.

I do own the LS6's and its the last time I'll probably take them anywhere. They are too heavy and cumbersome to pack, load, unload, unpack, etc. I still don't even have them hooked back up at home. 

I had a few glitches with Audiolense not wanting to take proper measurements. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't. I'm not sure what the issue was. It did make things very easy for EQ and and the filters worked fine in JRiver including automatic switching.

I had a chance to use 6 different DACs so that was fun. I used a Lynx Hilo, Lynx Aurora 8, Steinberg UR824, Mytek Stereo 192-DSD, Ross Martin Super Beast, and Ross Martin Eight. The Lynx Hilo was used in a 2.1 system located upstairs. It was very easy to setup and having 4 outputs was nice. The mains used the line outputs and the subwoofer used one of the monitor outputs. I was told by Lynx you could even use the headphone outputs and use the Hilo for a 5.1 system.

The host, David, had a CAPS Carbon computer like the one at Computer Audiophile. He was connected to a pair of Mytek DACs. We had a hardware glitch that we didn't figure out until Sunday so we ended up using all of my gear for playback. His computer was a library server so I just used my HTPC to connect and playback the playlist he had created. It worked fine most of the time, but while we were listening to one of the speakers during the 25 minute playlist, JRiver crashed about 4 times on my HTPC. It was a complete crash requiring a restart of JRiver. Several pointed out that this is why they don't use a computer. I didn't have time to make a log and I'm not sure what may have caused the issue. The upstairs computer was also accessing his CAPS at the same time and maybe there was a problem with the NAS not responding well to multiple requests. It was a last minute decision to use only my gear. If I had more time I would have just copied the entire playlist to my SSD drive.

It was nice how easy it was to access libraries on the other computers. David has JRemote on his iPad so he was easily able to control the sound on any computer or zone.

Having zones made it very easy to switch between computer setups. We had measured, EQ'd, and setup levels on Friday so on Saturday we just had to switch to the correct zone for that speaker. Being able to copy a zone would have made it quicker and easier.

Late Saturday (think midnight) we setup a 5.1 system with dual subwoofers. I used JRiver's bass management and its new audio calibration tool to calibrate everything. I had 3 monoblock amps, 1 stereo amp, plus the two subs all connected to the Ross Martin Eight DAC. It has 8 channels of balanced output with AES input. To completely setup the whole system, input distances and bass management, and set levels only took about 10 minutes. Because of the high efficiency of the speakers and subs, reference level was set at 63%. We had a total of 12,000 watts of power available. At one point I nudged the volume up to +15 just for a little fun. 

We had presentations by Phil Bamberg on proper speaker placement; by Roger Schermerhorn on Lynx Studios products, DSD, and DACs; by Steve Crabb on iRule, and I talked about JRiver and Audiolense. The iRule software is really neat and David uses it with both JRemote and Gizmo to control JRiver. I think fitbrit uses iRule.

There were several give aways at the GTG. Lynx Studios provided some T-Shirts, iRule provided a license and iTach hardware ($200 value), JRiver provided 3 licenses, and there were several gift cards totaling $150 given away.

We had 25-27 people for most of the GTG. It was a lot of fun meeting new enthusiasts and reconnecting with some I had met before, hearing some great equipment and speakers, and enjoying some wonderful food.

[InflatableMouse]

What no pictures  ? 

Sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing.