1. A IBM T60p laptop with a Sennheiser HD 650 headphone. The result is surprisingly good for understanding the text of songs. There is also some coloration which is not too disturning. However, I can listen to headphones only for short periods.
2. On my ceiling I have my soldering equipment and a lot of other rubish, including a CD recorder and a good, old Roland D70 synthesizer. I never understood why this one has never become popular, its samples are quite OK and it has enormous possibilties for creating sounds. From four leftover car speakers, once used for a short time in a surround system, I made a close listening box. The amplifier is a Amp-6 Basic which was my first try with a Tripath IC. When sitting behind the synthesizer the bass goes deeper than expected, at larger distances its sound level drops considerably. So ideal for this purpose, no complaints from the neighbours.
3. In our living room we have a HD-TV that has a very good screen but a very poor sound. So I decided to make a dedicated sound system for it. I still had two Tripath amps lying around, a second Amp-6 Basic and an Audiodigit TA2020. The only thing I needed to buy for this system were the speaker units and some paint, giving a total cost of just below 200 Euro. The top speakers are Fostex FE103n units, and the lower ones are Monacor SPH-170C. Below the harddisk recorder you can partly see three knobs. Two volume controls to set high and low frequency level and a third one to set the upper frequency of the bass. The overall volume is set by the remote control of the TV. It is very unusual to hear deep bass coming from a television so the bass volume must be used carefully. The sound from concerts is now much closer to life and speech sounds less distorted.
