Trickledown, Audiophile-Style

I have a big enough house to make full use of two quite good sound systems. My 'main' system is downstairs in my family-room-turned-office. That's the one with the biggest speakers (B&W 803Ds) and the best overall electronics.

But there's a second system, upstairs in a front bedroom that I have turned into a 'media room' with flat screen TV and surround-sound system. The overall electronics are less elevated than downstairs, but they're nonetheless quite good. Some of them have been the results of trickledown, after something originally used in the 'big' system has now been recycled for the 'small' one.

That's true of the front speakers, which are B&W 805s models, those really fine stand-mounts that have always had legions of fans. (And with good reason.) Originally my 'main' speakers for the downstairs system, they're complemented by center, surrounds, and subwoofer from the B&W 600 series, maybe not as fantastic as the 800s, but still quite fine jobbers in their own right.

An important trickledown happened recently when I retired the Bryston BDA-3 digital-to-analog converter from the downstairs stereo (in favor of a Schiit Yggdrasil+), and so I brought it upstairs where it handles the audio stream, which it then outputs to the Marantz home theater receiver, which in some ways is the weak link in the system now. However, the main purpose of that upstairs room is as a theater, with its big flat-screen TV and surround-sound system, so a 5.1 home theater job is necessary. The Marantz handles that quite well, although I don't think much of its internal DAC. That's why the Bryston really helps; it handles the digital conversion of the audio stream and hands the Marantz a finished analog signal.

The Bryston is fed from a WiiM Pro streamer, which can take data from either Roon or JRiver Media Center, both of which reside on a dedicated server downstairs. When I'm listening to audio, I have the Marantz set to 'Pure' audio – i.e., it makes no use of its various surround-sound processors. I don't like two-channel audio in anything but two channels, with only the subwoofer helping with the limited bass response of the B&W 805s.

All this tweaking of late – particularly adding the Bryston and the WiiM Pro streamer – has brought me an upstairs system that is remarkably satisfying. The B&W 805s models have always been light-footed, airy speakers that throw a terrific soundstage and can give lots of depth, given half a chance. In this current incarnation they're absolutely purring along. The system sounds absolutely wonderful, transparent, lithe, and appealing. Maybe it doesn't have the impact of the downstairs system, but it doesn't have those 803D speakers with their triple woofers, nor is it powered by twin Schiit Lyr monoblocks, or fed from a Bryston BDA-19 preamplifier. It's a more modest system, but seriously nice all in and of itself.

So cheers to trickledown! It's not an economic theory I embrace, but for some hand-me-down action here at home, it's pretty cool.