Wilsons, darTZeel, Vinyl and Tubes | Virtual Listening Room

View from the side

New shelves with gear

DarTZeel and Wyetech amp

Yamaha, Astethix IO and Audience

Verdier, Kuzma and Dynavector

Description

My room was purpose build using the ratio described by Floyd Toole from the Canadian Research council.

Have 20 dedicated 15 amp circuits, 4x20 amp circuits and 2 220 volt 60 amp circuits. The wall construction is 12" thick ,made up of a double wall of 2x4 studs at 16 oc with the studs staggered ,insulation (rock wool), t&g 3/4 plywood glued and screwed, then the drywall is glued with a v notch trowel. This room is so quiet the music can flow with absolutely no distractions. This is a great way to enjoy the music at the end of long day of work.

Many many changes have taken place since posting my system here.

Decided to repaint the room a much lighter colour to lighten things up for reading in the room.

Using the darTZeel pre amp with two different amps. The first amp in this system is the Wyetech Topaz 211 and second one is the darTZeel amp.

Both bring forth tremendous musical enjoyment albeit different presentations.

Mike L turned my focus back to vinyl after being at his home many years ago. Had my Lp and gear packed up until Mike opened up my eyes/ears.

Now LP playback is 90% vinyl and 10% digital.

Steve Dobbins came by last weekend to deliver and set up the KODO the Beat.

Tonearm on the BEAT is the Reed P3 along with the Kuzma Airline. Room for one more.......

Second table is my Verdier which I bought after visiting Mike L's place.

Using a FR 64s and purchased an ET-2 which will be upgraded to a 2.5 in the next month pending Bruce's schedule.

Studer Tape deck plays a role too but is limited due to lack of tapes. Having spent funds on vinyl rigs and arm/cartridges leaves the deck out side of the music room.

Thanks for reading and take care.

Components Toggle details

- KODO THE BEAT
Custom build direct drive turntable by Steve Dobbins. Has a separate power supply and speed controller.
Can accommodate three tonearms.
- JC Verdier La Platine
Great turntable
- Technics SP-10 MKII
Direct drive from the late 70s. This one is in mint condition. Will start building different types of plinths for the turntables that I have recently purchased. They will be made out of combinations of slate, alloys and homebrew plywood using veneers and an 80 ton press.
- Kuzma Airline
Airline
- Fidelity Research FR 64S
With VTA adjuster
- Fidelity Research FR 24 MK II
One Ikeda's early arms. Looking for an copy of the original manual of this arm.
- Reed 3P
12
- Eminent Technology ET-2
ET 2 will be shipped to Bruce Thigpen to get updated to a 2.5 version and get a full check over.
- Dynavector XV-1S
Great sounding cartridge
- Ortofon A90
Their latest top flight cartridge.
- Lyra Kleos SL1
Low output moving coil Kleos.
SL stands for single layer
- Empire 4000 DIII GOLD
MM Cartridge from the golden era
- Grace F9-E
Had this one on my first Rega 3
- Denon 103 R
Denon MC
- Denon 103
Second moving coil that I purchased after buying the Kuzma Airline.
- Allnic H-3000V
Phono stage which allows the use of two MM and two MC
- Loricraft PRC-3
Lp cleaner
- Audio Research CD7.5
Reference CD player
- Aural Symphonics Magic Gem v2t
Very good power best that I have heard in my system. Powering the Audio Research CD-7.
- McIntosh MR-78
Great sounding FM
- Wilson Audio Maxx II
Great sounding full range speaker
- Wilson Audio Puppy 5.1
Wilson Watt Puppies
- Wilson Audio Watch Center
Center
- Wilson Audio Watch Dog
Wilson Watch Dog
- Nordost Valhalla
Nordost Valhalla
Have this as my interconnect through out the system excapt for the zeel connect between darTZeel preamp and darTZeel amp.
- Nordost Valhalla Speaker cable
High resolution speaker cable
- Stillpoints Dampers and Risers
Isolation device
- Theta Digital Casablanca max
Casablanca III with Extreme Dacs
- Sony VPL-VW100 Ruby
Great looking projector and stunning picture
- Stewart Screen 110
Luxus Delux Gey Hawk
- Slim Devices Transporter
Computer based server with with its own DA
- Balanced Audio Technologies VK-6200
200 watt five channel Home Theater amp
- Toshiba HD-XA2
High definition HD DVD player with great upscaling on SD DVD
- Dartzeel 18 NHB-18S
Solid state preamp purchased and hoping for a Xmas delivery.
Ordered with two phono stages.
- darTZeel NHB-108 model one Version B
Solid state amp made in Switzerland.
- AUDIENCE ar12
Top notch ac filtering 20 amp unit made for Wally of Wally Tractor fame.
- Audience aR6-T
Used for the amps at the front of the room.
- Wyetech TOPAZ 211 A
18 watt SET with the gold plated Audio Note Transformers.
- Studer A810
Vintage 1/4 inch 1/2 track.
You have to hear it to believe it.
Makes great vinyl sound like MP3.
- Studer A810
My second Studer. This will be used in another system.
- Nordost Brahma
Power cord for the Aestehtix IO
- HOMEBUILD Amp Stand
4 inch thick Jatoba ( Brazilian Cherry) wood
- Sutherland TIMELINE
Strobe light to check turntable speed. Two speeds only 33 1/3 and 45 RPM. Very accurate and easy to use.
- Allnic Speednic
Strobe for Turntable to check speed accuracy.
- HARMONIC RESOLUTION SYSTEM ANALOG DISC CLAMP
Record clamp/weight
- Unknown Ebony LP weight
Ebony disc weight
- Custom LP racks Apple plywood
Never enough room for LP storage, so I took over the front entrance with my wife's permission of course.
- Modified IKEA shelving Walnut gables
Wanted a storage area with sliding doors to hide various tapes, LPs Blue rays and misc.
- Modified IKEA shelving Walnut gables part II
Picture of sliding doors open
- Canadian Tire Tool Chest
Hold all of tubes,cartridges, footers, set up tools.
- TEL WIRE HC Power cord 8 feet
TEL WIRE HC Great synergy in my system. Beautifully finished and the Oyaide connectors are of the best quality. Extremely happy with them.
- Acoustical-systems P2S
Direct measuring and marking system made by Dertonarm. Quality is very high and very easy to use.
- JBL Hartsfield
Rosewood matched pair.

Comments 296

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Fantastic system!
I'm also a 'Vancouverite', and new to the whole tape thing.
My friend John Chapman is the only other local I know who is soon the tape thing.
Great decks, those Studers. I've yet to hear one but I know the build quality is legendary.
I've been hooked on vinyl for the last several years (Lenco /Slate)
But the buzz around the tape project got me thinking... I got myself a KOB and a Beatles Revolver on fleabay, threaded the Revolver on a cheapo deck (Akai 4000ds) and that was the end , or rather beginning for me!
To have a $40 thrift store deck completely destroy my (admittedly rather humble) vinyl setup was a real game changer!
Now I have several decks in various states of function, still tryin to put together a decent 2 track 15ips deck, I've got a revox pr99 and an Ampex ag350 to 'work on' fooling around with a little nagra III as well (I'm having the preamp section for 15ips iec and 7.5ips nab cloned, because it sounds so darned good compared to everything else)!
Look forward to hearing more about the evolution of your system, for now I'm stuck listening to all of my 2 track stuff thru the little nagra in mono, bit I'll get there soon!
Cheers

hxt1 February 13, 2012 23:42