Whats in your second system?


Just curious as to the people who like myself have many thousands "invested" in their main system with all the latest tweaks, cables etc and also have a second or even third system.

Did you assemble that with the same love and care and dedication and costly tweaks?

Or did you throw something together from bargain bins or indeed your old leftovers and then sat back and thought...Wow this sounds really good!

And if so did that get you thinking on the main system...lol.

My second system cost way less than the speaker cables on my main system but I am constantly shocked at just how nice it sounds for such a no frills setup.

Linn Classic all in one
Tannoy 2 ellipse small floorstanders
20 year old (at least) Jensen 50w 8 inch sub.
Monster Cable 12/2 speaker cable bare wire ends.
Home brewed power cord just cos I had it laying around.

The Linn just sits on top of a chest of drawers with the Tannoys flanking the chest either side and the lil sub sitting behind the chest.

And it sounds darn good tbh!
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It’s very enjoyable reading all these descriptions.. It’s interesting to hear of people with more than one dedicated listening room!

I suppose I could say I have secondary and tertiary systems..

The secondary system resides in the kids’ playroom. It consists of a sansui 5900 integrated amp mated to a pair of ads L470/2 speakers. Source is simply a Bluetooth receiver so the kids can play what they want without ripping cords off components. The speaker cabs are in rough shape (can’t expect perfection for $20) but they function perfectly. Both speakers and amp were Craigslist acquisitions that I had to buy because we have almost no decent audio gear show up around here.. I do love the sound of the ads/sansui combo.

My tertiary system is the one I listen to the most and would make overly serious audiophiles cringe. We have an open plan living/dining/kitchen. Being the stay at home dad, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, so I did the following to get good sound:
-installed 4 BIC speakers in the ceiling/wall corners. These are very small bookshelf speakers, maybe twice the size of Bose cubes, but they are heavy and sound great down to 100hz
-ran cabling through the attic to the speakers and then down the inside of a wall, ending up under my kitchen sink.
-installed an in wall sub on the back of my kitchen island, and built a wooden box behind it since the cabinet space behind it was too big and the bass was junk
-bought a 150w Dayton Audio stereo amp to drive the small speakers and a 250w sub plate amp to drive the sub, both cheaply at parts express
-monoprice Bluetooth receiver with optical out into an inexpensive fiio DAC
-tripplite surge protector lets me turn the whole thing off or on with one switch.

All the electronics are under the kitchen sink, the only things visible are the subwoofer installed flush on the back of the island and the small, white speakers in the corners.

It sounds pretty damned great. The room has hardwood floors and many large windows, so there’s no way I’m getting audiophile sound no matter what I install, but the sound is clearer, more evenly dispersed and has better bass than any sonos or Bluetooth speaker system that I’ve heard.

But man, crawling around the attic to run those cables, ugh.

I doubt these count as "second systems" because I'd be using the same amps/source.  But though my main speakers are Thiels (3.7 and 2.7) I have a variety of speakers I also switch into the system:  MBL 121 monitors, Waveform Mach MC monitors, Hales T1 monitors, Spendor 3/5s, Thiel 02s.

Yeah, I got the sickness.

My DREAM second system would use Quad ESL 57s.  And in fact I was actually offered a pair free.  But try as I might, I couldn't come up with a place to set them up that would work. 
Looks like a lot of people have some very nice office systems.
Gotta work to feed my habit ;-)
I similarly have a spare pair of Quad ELS57s, after I upgraded to the modern 2805. The 2805 is not only better, but of course has a far better remaining life expectancy. My ELS57s are still in good condition, but you can be sure you will need to have them refurbished quite soon, and that is neither easy nor cheap. Which is also why I decicided to upgrade to the 2805. I offered them to my son, but he said no: they are bound to need expensive maintenance, and they are too bulky in a student room. So once I get round to it, I will sell them, but since everybody knows that they need an expensive refurbishment second hand price is actually quite low.
My son is now working part time in a supermarket for a pair of Harbeth M30.1s, the largest speaker that he thinks will work in a student room or small apartment. In the meantime he uses my old LS3/5a’s that he is very happy with. Once he is done with those I will sell them as well. There is a crazy market demand for them.