stuartk's System

by stuartk on
Silverlijne SR 17.7 on Target stand with Herbie's Gliders atop pavers. on pavers
view from listening chair

Description

12 X 18 living room is in line with, and separated from, 12 X 12 dining room by a half wall and is and partially open on one side by a 10 X10 entry. The floor-plan is not at all accommodating regarding the hobby. Music has always been very important to me but unfortunately, I was totally clueless about audio when we built the house. Attempting to achieve better than mid-fi SQ while being constrained by furniture placement to monitors in a relatively large space without subs or room treatment is challenging. Note, when photos were taken, I was still using Wells integrated and Moon transport. Need to update.

4/15/24
System is in an interim phase. Waiting till I can afford next upgrade which will include new speakers, new sofas with lower arms and new external DAC. 

9/14/25

Having auditioned three DACs, I still favor the AKM-based onboard DAC in the Hegel. I didn't expect this would be the case. At this point, I don't foresee continuing the DAC quest. As for speakers, I may never upgrade, simply due to practicality. I wouldn't buy speakers I couldn't demo at home with a return option. Even with standmounts, the shipping would quite expensive and there's no telling how many speakers I'd have to try before finding something I liked better than the Silverlines. The alternative would be driving down to SoCal to pick up speakers, then driving them back, if necessary. I might be tempted to do that. 
Read more...

Room Details

Dimensions: 17’ × 17’  Medium
Ceiling: 10’

Components Toggle details

    • Synergistic Research Atmosphere SX Euphoria
    Digital coax (BNC)
    • Symposium Acoustics Rollerblock Jr. footers
    Under Hegel.
    • Goldensound DH Cones
    Under transport
    • VooDooCables Dynasty Power Cords
    Dynasty Power Power and Dynasty Power Digital.
    • Silverline Audio SR 17.5 monitor
    • Audio Art Cable SC-5SE speaker
    I may upgrade these at some point but the 15' lengths make this an expensive proposition.
    • Target HR Series
    Sand filled, with Herbie's Gliders. I removed the cement pavers shown in photos as they generated sibilance.
    • Jay's Audio CDT2MKIII
    • Symposium Acoustics Svelte Plus Platform
    • Synergistic Research Foundation XL Power Cables
    These have brought a very noticeable improvement in separation and sound staging. The tonality is more balanced, compared to the VooDoos, which tend to emphasize lower mids and upper bass. I still like teh VooDoos though, so I'll keep both and rotate them in and out.
    • Hegel H390
    On Symposium Svelte plus shelf. I've tried various footers, with mixed results.

    These Pics are old -- show previous Wells integrated. The Wells was very "tubey" with luscious mids but bass was poorly defined and rhythmically, the system was slow. Moving to the Hegel noticeably improved bass and rhythmically, the music really moves along, now. The Hegel made the Silverles come alive to a degree previous integrateds did not. Simply a much better pairing, to my ears. 

Comments 17

Showing all comments by tmiddle.

View all comments

Sign in to comment
Beautiful system you have. Your Silverline 17.5’s were on my shortlist back about 25 years ago when I decided on the Merlin TSM.

tmiddle

  • 3 Thousand
  • 17
  •  0
© 2025 Audiogon.com