Listening Room Construction
12” concrete floor
Poured steel reinforced to 9+” to 12+” 3000 lb. PSI concrete floor
Walls-
1” MDF
1/8” thick Acoustiblok vinyl sound barrier
¾” MDF
3 x 12 vertical studs, 14.5” on center
Staggered 13” wide 2 x 12 and 4 x 12 per vertical stud channel
13” X 4” X 48” 72lb. 4 chamber activated charcoal absorption filters staggered vertically up/down/up/down
4” Rockwool insulation over vacant stud channel area adjacent to filters
Flexseal all joints
¾” cherry plywood
Ceiling
4’ Sound Absorption Blankets
4” Rockwool
2 x 8 horizontal beams
5/8” X drywall paneling
1/8” thick Acoustiblok vinyl sound barrier
¾” cherry plywood
2 Doors-same as well construction 17" thick, 1000 lb and 850 lb, no other openings
Recessed 9 BR 40 65 Watt LED floodlights
2 Ton HVAC split system, low speed, high volume
104 oz. plush cut pile carpeting (Fabrica Seduction)
Electric-Audio sources only Subpanel with 8 breakers for 8 duplexes, 10 gauge wire (lighting and A/C on main subpanel) Synergistic Research Blue Duplexes for equipment
Side Walls treated with 2' X 4'
2" thick Acoustic Fields absorption panels
60% coverage
Ceiling treated with 4' X 6' 4" thick Acoustic Fields absorption panels 75% coverage
Synergistic Research HFTsDimensions: 20’ × 15’ Medium
Ceiling: 10’
Von Schweikert VR9 SE MK2, new Class D 1000 watt Foundation amps for 15” Rel Dynamic subs. new MasterBuilt cabling, 4 new ribbon tweeters
Westminster Labs REI Class A solid state sliding bias 100/200/400 watt monoblock amps into 8/4/2 ohms.
Westminster Labs Ultra 1.5 meter XLR interconnect (8/2024)
Pre-amp to Amps XLRs of SOTA quality design and construction. Very expensive. The fastest, highest resolution, neutral interconnect I've heard. 30X the price of my new SPDIF digital cable. Great match. Analog has leaped up again as well. My lower cost Dynavector 20XL on my highly modified SME IV loves the downstream system.
Lampizator Poseidon Pre-amp/DAC
Jay's Audio CDt3 Mk3 CD only transport with CDM 2 LF mechanism. Blue Jeans AES digital cable.
Paradox Pulse Digital SPDIF cable-fast, resolving and full bodied sound
VPI TNT VI heavy platter with SDS on Townsend Sink, SME IV modified with Cardas wiring/RCA box and closed foam insulation. Pharoah power cables on motor and SDS unit,
Dynavector 20X2L (Zesto Andros Allesso-back-up too) All with custom Grover Huffman Pharoah very low capacitance RCAs. EAR 324 phono pre-amp, unbalanced RCA into Poseidon-superior resolution and speed compared to using EAR 324/912 pre-amp/phono sections. Latter two pre-amps are a perfect match into 100 ohm MC but the line out is inferior to the 324.
VPI 19-4, Ultracraft 400, Grado 78 cartridge into Marantz 7C pre-amp
Ultra SS and Mini-SS Stillpoints under some equipment (VPI power box. Marantz 7C Grover custom pre-amp)
Synergistic Research MX-
2 Pair Shakti Hallographs only adds, does not subtract from speakers
Nakamichi cassette deck ZX-7
Technics 1500 R2R and Tandberg 900X R2R
Grover Huffman Pharaoh speaker cable
22 (down from 34) Synergistic Research HFTs various types (removed front center and all rear due to brightness, unnecessary on Signature IIIs or VR9 SE MK2)
Synergistic Research blue duplex outlets changing to hospital grade cryoded duplexes (pending install)
Sand/Shot filled custom built steel stands
Back up equipment/listening room
Back up Amps Class A/B 125 watt push/pull, voltage regulated amplifier (not ultralinear) with 6 6BG6 Russian output tubes, RCA late 1940s or early 1950s 6SN7 cathode follower, Grey plate RCA 6CG7/6FQ7 input and driver tube, 2-6” X 3” electrolytic storage capacitors. Tremendous control over speakers. Acme treated fuses (cheap-$22) Built on Altec 1569A chassis and kept the transformers.
Pre-amp back-up Custom 6 subminiature tube pre-amp and 8 subminiature tube phono stage, voltage regulated design non-fused for big tube monoblocks (non-XLR) and EAR 864 with NOS tubes, Acme fuse with XLR only REI amps. That voltage regulation box in the corner is only for the EAR 864 which is bereft of adequate power regulation. It needs it and two friends do the same.
Back-up DAC Topping D70s
Transport back-up Shanling ET3 transport Best for CDs, not for USB input (a best buy at $720).
Acme fuses and Grover Huffman Pharoah power cable into IEC pig-tail. Grover Huffman Pharoah RCA to pre-amp
Audio Equipment – Living room currently
Dynaco ST 70 Extreme modification Now a Class A/B 35 watt push/pull, voltage regulated amplifier (not ultralinear) with chassis depth electrolytic storage capacitor, superior bias control, feedback change, rectifier tube used for slow start-up only, replaced RCAs and speaker terminals, Acme treated fuse.
Arcam Delta 270 as CD player (highly modified) and Topping D70s with Shanling ET3 transport.
Grover Huffman Pharoah power cable into IEC pig-tail. Grover Huffman Pharoah RCA to pre-amp
Custom 6 subminiature tube pre-amp, voltage regulated design non-fused.
Grover Huffman major upgraded Arcam Delta 270s lying around with upgraded Panasonic power capacitors, a few other new caps, regulators, etc. Grover Huffman Pharoah RCA interconnect.
Kenwood 5000? FM/AM tuner.
Synergistic Research Black duplex power outlet
Grover Huffman Empress speaker cable.
Sold Bryston Bit-20 isolation transformer (Custom power cable as usual). Restricted Dynamics, after 8 years removed. Just plugging it in or having the huge transformer in the room altered sound. Sold EAR 890s, pending 912, Acute
Removed Shakti on-lines (one) placed on top of power amp plug at outlet-no other Shakti stone or on-line works in my system/degrades sound
