One saving grace for the low inventory of houses in 2022 was the pool and this room. Gave up on finding 3 garage stalls, but 10 foot ceilings in this room looked promising. 23.4 feet deep, 16.5 wide, with a 10 foot peak 54 inches wide.
I replaced some very large rectangular (32x24x53) bass traps that were not built correctly. I saved most of the Rockwool and front panels to make 10 inch thick, 32 wide, 59 tall traps completely of Rockwool. Then I added triangular traps behind them at 53 inches tall of Rockwool. I found through extensive REW runs that the additional trapping in the corners help smooth out the frequency response.
I have plenty of room modes but they are not killing the sound and with Stack Audio Auva 100's just added to the Wilsons, the sound is much better than the Gaia's provided.
I've been busy auditioning both IC's, SC's, and power cables in 2023. Here is a list of power cables I have tried out in 2023:
Acoustic
Zen Silver Ref IC
Stealth M5000 power cable
Purist Audio Proteus Rev B PC
Silversmith short Fideliums
Verastarr silver foil grand
illusion PC from wig
Purist Proteus PC two cables
Transparent Ultra IC Gen 5
Verastarr 4 foot PC
Verastarr 5 foot PC
LessLoss C-MARC 20 amp
JPS ACX 2M power cable
superdan138
Stealth Metacarbon RCA
Stealth Indra IC
Analysis Plus Oval 9 Spkr
cables
Transparent Ultra 20 ft IC
Tara Labs The One PC second
Anticables long PC
Tara Labs The One PC first
Elrod EPS3 Sig 20 amp 1M woway
Kaplan PC
JPS 38 in IC
JPS 78 inch PC
Jade Moontails
JPS 51 inch PC
Elrod EPS-3 8 feet, 20 amp
Silversmith long Fidelium SC
Transparent 5M Gen 5 PC
Masterbuilt Audio Std PC
Aric Audio Motherlode 2
JPS Aluminata 8 meter
Nagomi PC 1.5M 15a
Hijiri Million IC
Nagomi 20A 1M PC
Organic RCA ebay
Harmonix XDC10SM Studio Master
1M
Zavfino 2 mtr XLR's Keast
Harmonix X-DC Studio Master
330 1.5M
Purist Museaus Praesto Rev 5M
XLR
Wywires Platinum 13ft PC
Russ Andrews grounding
Kubala Elation half meter
splitter
Kubala 1.5M Elation PC to Ken
F&F
Purist XLR Corvus 1M first
Purist XLR Corvus 1M
Kubala Elations to Tom 1.5 x 2
and 2.5 20 amp from TMR
Clarus Aqua 8 ft SC
Clarus Crimson 24 foot XLR
Purist Venustas 4 Mtr XLR
Empirical Design 316 PC
Elrod EPS2
Elrod EPS-2 70 inches
Purist Venustas Tri wire SC
Harmonix XDC2 1.5M PC
Kubala Emotion from Australia
Kubala 3M Expression from
Larry Cox
Aurender X100L
Core Power 1800
Kubala 3M Emotion from Larry
Cox
Cardas 1.5 M Clear XLR from
USAM technut
Cardas 1.5 M Cygnus PC TMR
Cardas 2M Clear Beyond PC TMR
Cardas 1M Clear XLR Jan
Andersen
BMI Whale Elite PC'sx2 brian
fong
Cardas 3M Clear Beyond XL PC
from Tony
Cardas One meter Clear Beyond
XLR from Ron
Cardas 1pt5 mtr Clear PC from
Gary
Cardas Clear 1 mtr PC from TMR
Clarus Crimson 1 mtr XLR
Cerious Technologies Matrix
XLR
Clarus Aqua 8 ft SC
Cerious Technologies Matrix #2
xlr
Cerious Technologies Matrix 5
ft power cable
Cerious Technologies Matrix 6
foot speaker cables
BMI Whale Elite PC'sx2
NRG 4 meter PC USAM
Clarus Crimson 2 mtr XLR
Oyaide
Black Mamba V2
SR Atmosphere Euphoria X speaker cables. Wonderful resolution.
OLD: Fed by Cerious Matrix SC's
Audio Research Ref 5SE
Replaced an Aric Audio Motherlode 2
Hijiri Nagomi PC 20 amp
OLD: Fed by a BMI Whale Elite PC.
Bricasti Design M1 DAC
Fed by Harmonix XDC Studio Master 350 power cable
OLD: Fed by Shunyata Sigma USB and BMI Whale Elite PC
Coda Technologies Continuum No. 8 amp
Version 1: 150 Watts x 2 into 8 Ohms
Class A ~18 Watts
300 Watts x 2 into 4 Ohms
Class A ~18 Watts
SR Tungsten PC now fronted by 2 BMI Whale Elites
OLD: Fed by 2 NRG the Five PC's onto a BMI Whale Elite, all daisy chained from the Puritan to the amp.
WyWires, LLC Diamond
Wywires Diamond and Platinum XLR's
Old: 2 meters of Snake River Mamushi to 4 meters of PAD Venustas
OLD: Clarus Crimson 4 meters to 3 meters of Siltech for amp
Old: Siltech Cables Princess G7 between Bricasti and ARC (wow, so silent=more smooth music)
Old: 2 meter Clarus Crimson to amp being fed by 4 meter purist Venustas. Planning to move to Siltech cables over the next few weeks.
Old: XLR's to the amp start as Purist Venustas Diamond Rev 4 meter then to two pairs of Cerious Technologies Matrix all daisy chained between ARC and Coda.
Old: Cardas Clear Beyond XLR to the preamp, Cardas Clear daisy chained to Purist Venustas XLR to Coda amp.
OLD: Presently have a KS Emotion on the Bricasti to preamp.
For the amp run:
I have 3 meter pair of KS Expressions connected to a 3 meter set of Emotions that then connect to a 0.5 meter pair of Elations for the run from ARC to amp. SO, yes, daisy chaining KS cables together as interconnect chain giving me the KS sound but ultimately the signature of the Elation as it is right before the amplifier. Give this a try. It was tested with PAD cables first and then I switched to KS cables. The PAD train was Venustas (4M) to Corvus. Prior to that I was using Museuas to Venustas to the amp. I kept moving up the chain and then jumped over to KS cables.
Synergistic Research Atmosphere X Euphoria Speaker Cable
Old"; Siltech Cables Classic Anniversary 550L
Old: Cerious Matrix SC's
OLD: Tri-wired set of Luminist version 81 inches long. I only needed single wiring but couldn't pass up the deal. I made a manifold to accept the 3 runs per side with a solid piece of copper which hangs on the Wilson binding posts. Incredible speaker cables.
Synergistic Research Excite SX, Tungsten, UEF Level 2 power cables
Now using SR power cables at the wall to Core Power, then to power conditioner, and on COda amp. Massive improvement in clarity and detail.
OLD: Whale Elites on Puritan and first 18 feet to Coda (last 1 meter to Coda is a Hijiri Nagomi)
OLD: Two of these on the daisy chain to the amp with the Kubala Sosna Elation PC.
Shunyata Research Sigma USB
All the other cables I tried smeared the music.
ADD-POWR Wizard
I have 2 of these stacked on top of CODA amp.
ADD-POWR Symphony I/O
Connects the ethernet to the music server and the server USB to the DAC
Aurender X100L
Replaced my Rich Hollis designed dedicated MS-2 computer.
Synergistic Research Atmosphere
New: SR power cables predominate
Old: Matrix PC at wall to Core Power unit
Old: Almost all Cardas power cables now
Old: Moved to almost all KS power cables; Elations and one Emotion. Good stuff. Still putzing with the PC to the Aurender.
.
Puritan Audio Labs PSM156 Studio Master Power Purifier
Love this unit. The amount of noise it reduces is impressive. Tested the circuit with a noise detector before it and then plugged into it to see how it removes 75% of line noise. Now I have barely a tweeter hiss at 6 inches instead of at 12 inches.
Dec 2024: Adding SR cables has lowered the noise floor even more.
Core Power Technologies Core Power Technologies Deep 1800 AC Power Line Conditioner
Added this to the very front of all power feeding the Puritan.
whiz bang device for sound
pad
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Tweaks various
A thread here got me thinking about how many I have in my system
Yes. I have way behind in updating my components. LOTs of changes.
The ARC is the best sounding preamp I have ever owned. I have had several very nice pre's like the TRL Dude, which was very clean and musical. The Sachs and Aric are both superb preamps over the last few years.
I chose this model as a value-priced unit after reading every comment and review I could find. The 5SE was highly rated and if you were going for a 6, then why not the 6SE, but now the price is getting up there versus the performance the 5SE was praised for.
Sensational air and presentation by the ARC. The overall smoothness, soundstage width, depth, and delineation of instruments, is absolutely addicting.
One night this week I put a 20 foot Transparent pc to the amp and placed the Nagomi and a Studio Master on the preamp and dac. The sound was nice but there was no bass to speak of. And the tone was not quite right w/o a Harmonix in the amp line.
Then last night I daisy chained 2 Aluminatas and a NRG The .1 into the amp. The bass was incredible, but too wooly. It was deep, but loose. The NRG was not up to the task. I digested that for about an hour.
It was getting late but I had to know if I could get some Harmonix goodness into the mix so I swapped out the NRG and Nagomi. Now with the Nagomi on the beginning of the Aluminata chain the sound was crystal clear and bass was tighter and more controlled.
For this weekend I am going to try the Nagomi on the last part of the chain connecting to the amp to see what effect there is being the last piece to touch the amp. Stay tuned.
I added a third Elrod to the other two in the string arrangement and it was not good. Tubby bass and hazy top end. I'll post a pic of that if I can.
I swapped the Nagomi into the middle Elrod position and it was fantastic. I don't understand how the string of 2 Elrods and one Hijiri could take on the influence of the single Nagomi cable. We would expect the Elrods to overpower the one meter Hijiri Nagomi, but the combination was enough of a positive turn, even over the Tara labs pc, that I now know I should be moving toward Hijiri cabling where I can.
More changes coming. Have another Elrod to make my daisy chain power cable 3 Elrods long.
Have the ARC Ref 5SE coming next week.
Also have an Aurender X100L coming so I can see if it is an improvement (which I expect) and at this price it is minimal risk to dip my toe into a true music server like this over my PC set-up from HAL.
I need to further evaluate the Nagomi power cable to decide if I should keep it.
I also ordered a Sablon Robusto power cable that I want to try.
On Sunday I let the system run for several hours while I did some landscaping. I did not notice any changes. At that point I decided to try my experiment of daisy chaining 3 power cables together to bypass the AntiCable 28 foot power cable to see if the higher end cables would make a difference in that crazy configuration.
And it was magic! I put an 8 foot Elrod EPS 3 on the Puritan, then connected an Elrod EPS-2 at 6 feet, and then a 6 foot Tara Labs The One to the Coda amp in a 20 foot run. Wow.
Immediately I was delivered more bass and after about 20 minutes the treble straightened out. I cannot believe the AntiCable was holding me back so much. And, of course, I was surprised that the daisy chaining would not be a total bust by inserting very inexpensive 2.5 inch adapters between cables. My theory was to use the best first and the next best cable of the Elrod brand and finish off with the Tara which I felt was the most neutral of the 3.
Anyways, it was enough of an improvement that I felt the Nagomi could now continue to do its thing and the next 2 hours were a new high at the Aural Enlightenment venue.
I'm not really sure how to sensibly make an update of what transpired this weekend. I visited Gestalt Audio and was highly impressed with Colin's gear and taste of music. I walked away with a brand new loaner Hijiri Nogami C-19 power cable to try.
I also wanted to try the Elrod power cables on the dac and preamp, but that never happened due to other positive tests I ran today.
Yesterday I inserted the Nogami in place of my NRG The Five cable feeding my Puritan and it didn't suck. At first I did not hear a delta in the music I could put my finger on, but as time went on I felt the music had more body to it. One thing, for sure, was it decreased the tweeter noise even further which was quite a surprise given the NRG's heavy noise filtering employed.
So I waited for Sunday to spend more time with the Nogami.
I have not gotten to them yet Jeff. I am a weekend warrior and by the time I get a break from yard work or other projects, I'm pretty beat and just fire up the system and listen for a few hours.
Saturday, I am going to have some "me" time and go visit Gestalt Audio in Nashville to check out Hijiri cables and other goodies. Hopefully Saturday night or Sunday I can insert the Elrods and give them a run.
I am on the verge of buying an ARC Ref 5SE preamp to try out as well. We'll see how it stacks up to the Motherlode II. Fun times!
Thanks Jeff. You brought me another important piece to the puzzle. Now I have Aluminata's on the DAC and preamp. I'll do some further evaluation of the Tara Labs cables before deciding if I jettison them.
I'm also looking into an Audio Research preamp even though I like my Aric Audio preamp. From the wayback machine, I had a 2 week experience with a 6H30 preamp, a Rogue Hera. I really liked the soundstage and presence it created, but the tubes made a slight ting, ting through the tweeters that I disliked. So, I wrote it off and moved on as I was in my TRL Dude days then.
Having that in my memory bank, I now have an itch to get another 6H30-based preamp.
The Aluminata out front of the Puritan 156 was not a great experience. It accentuated the treble and the soundstage collapsed.
I then moved it to the dac in place of a Tara Labs The One and put the NRG back on the Puritan. That was very fulfilling.
I have 2 Elrods coming tomorrow and will try them on the Puritan and the sources. I have an idea of daisy-chaining some of these "spare" cables together to see how that might influence the sound versus the 28 foot AntiCable Level 3 on the amp. If I run wire as the crow flies from rack to amp, I could get away with a shorter cable on an experimental basis.
Good point on bass trapping. I have an idea to get the room to look like I wanted it to look and still have bass trapping. Those 5 foot walls are really "pony" walls with storage behind them (about 2 feet deep the full length of the room both sides). I'm thinking about venting the walls into those spaces and simply moving the fiberglass into 2 chambers that are sealed from the cold air. I have experimented with moving the traps to the center of the room and verified the corners are key to the trap effectiveness (generally known to be the case). Since the bass would still build up in the corners, I am banking on those chambers to grab it and free up those corners for a more pleasing aesthetic. Not sure when I will get to this, but it is fairly easy to execute.
Interesting (and instructive) how the addition of bass traps actually INCREASED the bass response in your room. One thing people don't understand about bass-trapping is that the traps are able to absorb sound waves which are in polarity opposite that of the output of the loudspeakers, waves which can cause a "suckout" at various low frequencies.
I had my system set up using standard formulas and my experience. Once I had my room responses, I was sure I was good. My assumption was that my Alexia's were dialed in at the midrange and tweeter per their manual appropriately.
But! I kept enjoying the sound even though the center imaging was low. Like no more than 2 feet off the floor. And when I play it back in my weak mind, when I upgraded to JPS interconnects, I felt the sound in the upper registers was rolled off. Then I convinced myself that this must be what it is supposed to sound like with these higher end cables.
I lived with that for weeks, still enjoying the overall experience. Then Saturday I decided to get out my laser pointer and verified that according to Wilson's manual, the tweeters were angled toward my belly and not my ears. Easy enough, I moved the top module down 2 steps so the laser pointer was more at ear level, and whalla, the top end came back in a huge way. And the imaging went way up vertically to the window level. So, I am admitting I trusted my set-up but if I hadn't paid attention to that little voice in my head to check it out, I would have kept on as it were. Feels a little silly, but I am so glad I made the adjustment. Day and night improvement.
Now will you believe me it sounds fantastic? Cuz, obviously I was lying last month!! ha
Douglas, fantastic to hear from you! Haven't shaken your hand in a decade! Love your reviews.
My source is a dedicated small computer made by Rich Hollis (Hollis Audio Labs) out of Maryland. He has a thread on AudioCircle. I've met Rich and he is a guru of all things electronic. Anyways, the small computer I have is a little dated still on Windows 8. It has a ~80 gb solid state hard drive in it as a buffer. It is small footprint and stripped of non-audio apps.
I rip CD's or download HDTracks and drive the tunes with JRiver. I feed the server with an external hard drive. I purchased an ADD PWR Symphony IO to clean up the ethernet feed that travels 75 feet from my living room and to interface with the USB out of the server before going to the Bricasti. I use an Avanti USB before the Symphony and a Shunyata Sigma to the Bricasti. I found the Sigma to be very clean and it mates well with the Bricasti.
milpai, I got lucky! I was looking for technologies that made a difference and I felt that reducing EMI/RFI was key to getting that background noise as low as possible. I was looking at all the usual players who have a reputation for lowering noise and before spending a thousand dollars on a used cable I kept looking for bargains. When I saw the NRG I looked at their website and liked what I saw, so I spent a whopping $200 on a used The Five cable and liked it. Literally a week later another one came up for sale and I grabbed it for $180. All I know is they work and I'm thrilled. I like the flat wire tech in the Tara's and I was able to grab 2 of those used and the combo is making me happy. Lesson learned is high dollars aren't always needed to achieve performance.
Congratulations on an impressive system, which I'm sure enthralls you! Your relentless push for perfection is showing! :)
It appears you are streaming and file playback. Perhaps I missed it, but what is your source? Currently I am using the Small Green Computer sonicTransporter in conjunction with the SONORE Signature Rendu SE and optical input (reviewed for Dagogo.com). I vary the DACs used.
Just curious - how did you land on the NRG? I am asking this because the other components in your system are far more expensive. So not judging at all, but just curious.
I received another Tara Labs The One cable this week. This gave me an opportunity to place it on my preamp instead of the Kaplan HE and put a second NRG The Five cable on the DIY box I made years ago that powers all the "digital" (music server, hard drive, ADD-POWR Symphony I/O). I had a JPS Analog AC on there. The box is built with copper buss bar, various aftermarket duplexes, and filled with Tourmaline and Quartz.
So now I have an NRG The Five feeding my Puritan, Tara Labs feeding the preamp and Bricasti, and another NRG in-between the Puritan and the digital outlet box.
I fire up the system after the swap and head over to the Wilsons and take my usual position at 6 inches from the tweeter and nothing. Check the amp and it's on. Move in closer so the hair on my head is now touching the tweeter baffle and there is a slight hiss. And the hiss is considerably smoother than the oscillating waveform I did have at 6 inches. Big grins and imaginary high five to myself. THIS, is what I have wanted to achieve!
Played music for 2 hours while in heaven (more so after the first hour of warm-up). I purchased the NRG's on a bet after reading their website about their construction when I saw a few up for sale. So for me, they have definitely filtered out noise without diminishing the overall output of music. I'm thrilled I can stop looking for power cables for the time being.
