# PS8 at Home (active) feat. H.A.T, Bryston, Marantz & Oaudio



## AVIDEDTR (Sep 11, 2008)

22 months ago I sat thru an Arc Audio Team diner where Fred disclosed arc was in the process of creating the most advanced processor to hit the 12v market ever. In addition, a DC barrel jack for at home use was proposed, so I started to plan a setup around the PS8.

_Two Years Ago..._ scroll down to read the 2013 if you wish.
I enlisted a local Canadian speaker cabinet designer and IASCA competitor to build a versatile and future proof set of 3-way speakers. Many days and hours were spent on the phone/email discussing potential raw-drivers, designs, finishes ect. Hybrid Audio Technologies was used exclusively for three main reasons. Their technical capabilities/tonal characteristics matched personal tastes, budget and matches current car audio equipment installed for in home reference.

Cabinets were constructed with concrete, HDF, lots of bracing, various finish veneers and hardwoods. Their overall weight is 91lbs standing on three 1" floor spikes. Cardas binding posts and Cardas Crosslink speaker wire internally and externally throughout.

External passive crossover is a 1st order Butterworth with impedance correction and an L-pad on the tweeter. All caps are by Mundorf as are the inline resistors. The inline caps were custom made for this job are perfectly matched. All other parts are also hand matched.

Bryston Amp, Preamp, CD player to run the show. BP25 & 4BST was chosen simply because they are neutral sounding and bullet proof with a 20 year warranty - Canadian Made to boot - lastly, BCD-1 for CD duties,

Aditional Active amps Marantz MA500(90's)(thx cert) mono blocks.
http://www.hifi-pictures.net/amplifiers-home/Marantz MA-700/Marantz MA700.pdf

Two custom DIY sealed subwoofer cabinets loaded with dual Hybrid Audio Technologies Imagine i10sw's - powered with Oaudio 500w plate amps.

2013:

Two weeks ago I picked up the PS8 from the boys at SyracuseCustoms(Tom & Stephen )The op amps were swapped out to Nathional Semi's - didn't want to do the A/B test with the factory ones - Fred @ Arc already did this to my satisfaction. The unit needs a PC (xp/win7) so my trusty Mac Book Pro got the true RTA dedicated duties.  

Day 1: What a mess, then a drunken mess to ease my mind. Got into a bit of a fight with what I though was the processors inability to play any info on the right channels. And for those of you who know me, and know how meticulous I am with my connections and terminations - that it was a simple basic's mistake and lead to a cold solder on one the Cardas RCA's.
The day ending results was no sound with an upsetting feeling that something major happened.

Day 2: Woke up hung over and thank god I looked at my CD player's connections, and sure as **** - I had the right channel rca's connected to the Digital output(they are not color co-ordinated is my excuse). Re-soldered the (-) on the rca and we got down to tuning - but before I had to isolate this never ending ground loop that has plagued the marantz amps in this setup since acquiring them.

To be safe got the Clarus mids playing off the Bryston's too start. Got the xover types and slopes dialed in to mirror the passive setup. I did this to ensure I could always go back and test the differences in the future.

One minor drawback was floor noise made it's way into the chain. Probably an easy solution but we'll get back to this later in the thread or once its solved.

First impression was very pleasing and mirrored the passive setup really well. Individual amplitude reference guides were not measured, so I had to setup them up by ear - No problem. Did the amplifier changes play a role? Probably but that's not my primary focus and not getting into a snake oil debate.

By this time the superbowl was ramping up, and friends made their way over to watch the game. So critical listening had to be postponed till after the halftime show. 

Before Beyonce got up to shake her ass  My friend who is an amateur audiophile sat in the sweet spot, patiently auditioning two of his favorite tracks. He turns to me afterwards and displayed the goosebumps on his arms - He's usually quite opinionated and upfront after many sessions over the past 23 months. His best comment was that they were much more laid back tonally with a fast/thick bottom end and rich-musical midrange.

So what's did I do to get such a reaction. Well nothing on the PS8's EQ sections. Crossover is at par with the passive and amplitude on the tweeter was reduced by -3db and midrange was reduced by 2db.
TW HP 6db @ 5000hz (180rms)
MR BP 6db @ 250hz to 5000hz (200rms)
MB BP 6db @ 40hz to 300hz (180rms)
SB LP 48db @ 50hz (500rms)

If your reading thus far, and wondering why I chose to go active over the proven passive path, well it's simple, my room sucks balls. Can't do much to diffuse or control anything since I'm sharing the space with my son  - I won't get a lot more out of my setup going active but I'm sure I'll be able to tweak the living piss out of it and make them my own signature sound.

Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing PS8 and True RTA measurements and test on this setup. Hopefully answer questions for those who are a tweak aholic like myself and want to try the PS8 at home too.


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## bkjay (Jul 7, 2009)

That xover is badass!


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## highspeed (May 4, 2012)

Nice work man!


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## AVIDEDTR (Sep 11, 2008)

spent a good hour on the phone with Fred at Arc Audio this afternoon. I gotta say his passion and knowledge is impecable. We pin pointed my floor noise issue to the amps since the PS8 has an eng backdoor with a mute FET option. he was accessing the processor remotely from the comfort of his desk.

PS8 #2 is purchased for the car and prs80 will replace the alpine h800.

thats all for now


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## basshead (Sep 12, 2008)

Why running a sub for critical listening? from what I remember the tower alone were going down to 20.


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## mmiller (Mar 7, 2008)

Sell me your H-800 Jules..lol

Subscribed to this thread!!


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## metanium (Feb 2, 2007)

Wow, this is obsessive and yet a thing of beauty. The cabinets, the crossover, and the whole concept/layout are unbelievable. I love this! Hats off to you sir!


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## AVIDEDTR (Sep 11, 2008)

bkjay said:


> That xover is badass!





highspeed said:


> Nice work man!





mmiller said:


> Sell me your H-800 Jules..lol
> 
> Subscribed to this thread!!





metanium said:


> Wow, this is obsessive and yet a thing of beauty. The cabinets, the crossover, and the whole concept/layout are unbelievable. I love this! Hats off to you sir!


Thanks Gents. It's been a fun week. Picking up #2 PS8 tomorrow.


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## AVIDEDTR (Sep 11, 2008)

basshead said:


> Why running a sub for critical listening? from what I remember the tower alone were going down to 20.


Because a pair of 8's in a normal place setting will not tickle my ass hairs on Planet Krypton at 18 Hz. Maybe at 70db in a proper designed room. Thanks for pointing out what we tried to do Louis


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## AVIDEDTR (Sep 11, 2008)

Today I decided to remove the Bryston BP25 preamp out of the chain since we got hit with 2 ft of snow. After a few conversations with close audiophiles, my Anthem Receiver is the best out there for audio quality and outputs - next to its big brother 'Statement'.

I'll need a few days to decide whether or not this was a wise decision. On the plus side, the anthem has the ARC room correction software - which most rave to be the best on the market.

Anyways off to syracuse for more new car audio goodies.


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