Description

Converted a bedroom to be my music room. All 100yr old horsehair plaster walls with good insulation behind them. About R30 insulation above the ceiling. New carpeting. Audio rack and record racks built by me and my woodworker son.
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Room Details

Dimensions: 14’ × 14’  Medium
Ceiling: 7’


Components Toggle details

    • Luxman PD-171
    A 2011-build belt drive turntable of exceptional quality, with upgraded Jelco TS-550S tonearm. Using primarily an Audio Technica ART9XA cartridge.
    • KEF Reference 1 Meta
    2022 build, with the new single-piece front baffle (no trim ring on the woofer), color-matched woofer and front baffle. Bespoke KEF Performance stands. Stands are filled with 31lbs of stainless steel tumbling media.
    • Bluesound Vault 2
    Streamer/music storage device. I have about 660 CD's ripped as FLAC (a few WAV) files. Digital Co-ax out to the DAC.
    • Luxman L-509X
    Integrated amplifier
    • Luxman PD-121U
    A 1975-1978 era Micro Seiki-built (to Luxman specs) direct drive TT with SME 3009-R tonearm. I use primarily a Hana ML cartridge.
    • Luxman EQ-500
    Standard Luxman EQ-500 phono stage, fitted with up-level Gold Lion tubes though I got the stock JJ tubes with the purchase. It's heavenly, and both my turntables feed into it.
    • JL Audio e112-Gloss
    Killer subwoofer
    • Luxman DA-06 DAC
    Added this DAC also as used. It is SO much better than the Gustard DAC X16 that it replaced. Very happy with the analog sound and the soundstage it presents.

Comments 21

Owner
Lotta little changes have happened since I posted this, but I can't seem to edit it. The integrated amp is now a Luxman L-509X, and the speakers are now KEF Reference 1 Meta. The Luxman PD-171A now has a Jelco TS-550S tonearm, and soon there will be a Luxman EQ-500 phono amp and an Audio Technica ART9XI cartridge.

kenm10759

I have similar speaker positioning with my KEF LS50 Metas. Huge sound stage that is wide and deep with very precise instrument and voice placement. Took quite a bit of moving them around before I landed on the current location.

tomsch

Gorgeous room and system and some great cabinet work as well love the record racks!

jond

Owner
@smithtj05 good eye. It's a cabinet from a Miller & Kreisel V-90. I had my son who made the record racks) open the front baffle a little to accept an SB Acoustics SB34-SWPL-76-4 driver with 30mm of xmax, and added a Dayton Audio SPA 250DSP plate amp. The amp has an app that allows a 6-band PEQ, plus setting slopes and many other parameters. The speakers are flat response to 30hz, so the sub just picks up the bottom octave.

kenm10759

Lovely room, I really like your equipment selection.

recklesskelly

Nice.  I particularly like the visual balance.

musicpod

Did I see a sub down in the corner of the room?

smithtj05

Ken, very nice listening room.  Such neat and convenient record storage.  I appreciate guys that are handy enough to do stuff like that.  👏

bob540

Awesome set. 
Agree also that what important is what you heard, my room also square and smaller then yours so I’m in near field triangle set  up .
Enjoy 

honeyooi

Nice set up! I am with you on soundstage and speaker placement. I am always surprised by how many audiophiles put their speakers too close together. No soundstage! I have never once experienced the dreaded "hole in the middle" that many audiophiles go on about. Congrats!

paulrandall

Congratulations lovely system!

townshend-audio

Great record storage units with lights, and so close to your turntables. Very creative.

ho249

Spacious lots of room to breathe for speakers. Super.

vino_david

Owner
Thank you sincerely to @milpai , @bluorion and any others who are appreciative of the weeks of work I did to strip wallpaper off crumbly horsehair plaster walls, repair them and paint them and the woodwork trim, paint ceilings. level and secure flooring before having new carpeting laid down, and so much more. Your appreciation makes it all worthwhile.

The sound quality in that room is better than any of the 7 rooms at my dealer's place, and can only get a little bit better with the acoustic panels and shag rug that are coming. I welcome people near me to ping me about visting to hear it.

Kind regards,
Ken M.

kenm10759

What a gorgeous, yet simple and eye catching setup. Kudos on creating a dedicated room and enjoying the hobby!
@kenm10759 , that is indeed a beautiful audio rack.Enjoy your music.

milpai

I appreciate the offer, but, I live in Ft Lauderdale`

tweak1

That's a great looking room with quality gear!

pdreher

Owner
Quote @tweak1 "IMHO your speakers are way too far apart, especially considering how close you sit. Have you tried dollys under them to play around with positioning?  Basically start with an equilateral triangle to seating position
HTH"

I appreciate the thought. I had the speakers closer together in that equilateral triangle. Soundstage too small. I have tried at least a 1/2 dozen different positions of the speakers and listening position. It is now as good as it gets, and with the characteristics of KEF's Uni-Q driver it is simply stunning. I am adding some acoustic panels and a plush rug on top of the carpeting to "fine tune" it but trust me when I say positioning is ideal the way it is now.

If you're near south-central Massachusetts, ping me and I'll demo it for you to convince you. :D

kenm10759

IMHO your speakers are way too far apart, especially considering how close you sit. Have you tried dollys under them to play around with positioning?  Basically start with an equilateral triangle to seating position
HTH

tweak1

Owner
The audio rack is one built by me, with the help of my woodworker son. He made the three 18" x 48" shelves from 3/4" birch plywood, edge banded. The core structure is six 3/4-10 threaded rods (a.k.a. "all thread") with top caps from Salamander Design. I made the twelve 12" long aluminum tubes that cover the threaded rods from 1-1/2" x 0.049" wall tubing. I machined the six carpet spikes from 1-1/4" aluminum, and cover shrouds from 1-3/4" aluminum.

kenm10759

Nice system! I have the same Luxman integrated amp. Question: what brand is the audio rack? I'm looking for a rack very similar to this one. Thanks!

bluorion

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