sbank's Austin City Within Limits

by sbank on QuicksilverATS AcousticsVACBricastiBricasti DesignsAyre AcousticsAyreEver EvolvingLammVPIBATAqvoxSchitt AudioSynologySonoremicroRenduSound LabTechnicssp10SP10 mk IIShunyatakrellvintagePurist Audio DesignsnagraDynavectorSotaphoenixGetting thereCerious TechDenafripsPontusopicalRenduTel WireOyaide
Vandersteen 5As & Quicksilver V4s 4.2025
New Room Vandersteen 5As & Krell FBP-300 6.24
ATS 7 Well QRD Diffuser 4.25
Sota Nova VI, Audiomods VI, Dynavector XX2mkII
Jan Allaerts MC-1B Handmade MC Cartridge
Quicksilver V4 Mono, Gaia Footers, Custom Maple/Bubinga Stand
VAC Renaissance Mark V Preamp & Phono Stage
Bricasti Design M3h
VAC Power Supply
Rear View 6.24
Rack It Up 3.24
LP Cleaning Office 6.24
From The Sweet Spot 3.24
Side Wall 3.24
Back Wall 3.24
Rack It Up 2023
Vinyl Hall 3.24
Rack it Up 2021
Side View 2021
LPs on the beloved extinct Ikea Expedit
Handmade Wood BBC Style QRD Diffusors
SpinPlanet Custom Reborn Record Rack
Tiny Handmade Replica VPI TNT6 & Rack by Spinplanet
2021 Inductee "Spencer's Wall of Genius"
This Must Be The Place
Elvis Costello
Wilco at ACL Live Moody Theater
Gabba Gabba Hey!
Wilco
Autumn Defense
Bowie & Gabriel 2019 & 2020 Inductees "Spencer's Wall of Genius"
Audiogoner's ancestors
Bitches Brew - Thanks Tom!
Ultrasonic Tank Filter & Pump
Ultrasonice Cleaning & Rinsing Setup
Ultrasonic Tank & Vinyl Stack System
DIY Record Cleaning Platform
Audioquest Niagara 1200
Old Krell Amp & Maple w/Bubinga Inlay Custom Stand
Old Ayre QB-9 DSD TWENTY
Sadly Missed Cutie Woo-hoo!

Description

This is my music system which has been evolving for over 35 years.

Have had many different components of many styles. Have learned that synergy is everything and you have to trust your ears.

Also I've had had these systems in over a dozen listening rooms. I've spent many hours working on room treatments and setup and believe the room/speaker interaction is the most important aspect of great sound that many hobbyists fail to optimize.

Vinyl is spinning about 80% of the time (Used to be 90% vinyl, but digital changes both sonically and user experience w/Roon & Qobuz have been a big improvement). After relocating to Austin, TX and getting the room optimized, I changed the analog side of the system, having sold tt, arm, carts & phono stage prior to the move. 
Most recent project has been upgrading from Ayre QB-9 DSD Twenty to Bricasti M3h DAC. 

Previous pieces & systems included:

Soundlab A3 electrostatics & Krell FBP-300 amp, Nola Viper Reference III (with Lamm & BAT monoblocks), BAT VK150SEs & Silverline LaFolias, Acarian Alon V mkiii , Merlin VSM-MX, Atma-Sphere MA1mkII.2, Atma-Sphere MP3, Herron VTSP1a-166

Joule Electra LA150 and Berning ZH270, Pentagon PH3, CAT SL1MkIII, Merlin VSM-MX

Cary Rocket88 & Dehaviland 845 monos/Cary SLP2002/QuadsESL63USA

Avalon Radians/SpectralDMA180 & DMC20II/Meridian508

BAT vk5i & vk60/Von Schweikert vr4.5II

Chario Academy1/Air Tight ATM1

VTL ST80/ Acarian Alon II

Thiel 3.6 / Krell KSA 50

Vandersteen 2ci / Sunfire, B&K ST140, VTL ST-80 amps

Technics SP10mkII, EPA250 arm, SH-B3 obsidian base, custom 4kg ss mat, running with Signet 111E and Goldbug Clement II cartridges, Aqvox 2CI balanced phono stage
VPI TNT6HR w/12.7 arm, van den Hul Colibri XGP,   
Nottingham Spacedeck/Spacearm, Shelter 501
Sonore microRendu w/custom linear power supply feeding Schiit Gungnir Multibit DAC
MacMini running Audirvana+ , too many CDs players & DACs to remember.


Read more...

Room Details

Dimensions: 21’ × 15’  Medium
Ceiling: 10’

Components Toggle details

    • Vandersteen 5A
    Loudspeakers in Cherry/Black
    5-driver, 4- way, time- and phase-accurate speaker system that incorporates a unique aperiodic, push-pull, powered sub-bass system, a battery-biased passive high-pass filter and an 11-band equalizer—in a “boxless” minimum-baffle, non-resonant enclosure system.
    • Quicksilver V4 Monoblocks
    Tube monoblock Amps currently with KT-88 output tubes
    • VAC Renaissance Mark V Preamp with Phono
    balanced dual mono linestage and phono stage with external power supply. Running Amperex orange globes on the linestage side and a pair of Amperex NOS 60s medical grade Bugle Boys and one stock Mullard reproduction on the phono side. Planning on experimenting with NOS Mullard, Amperex and perhaps Telefunken for the single tube on the phono side.
    • Sota Nova Vacuum Series VI with Eclipse(Phoenix Engr. designed) Motor Controller
    Awaiting delivery of the new Series VI Nova table spring suspension turntable with vacuum hold down system, mag lev platter/bearing, Eclipse motor controller(designed by Phoenix Engineering) and Reflex clamp!
    • Jan Allaerts MC-1B
    moving coil cartridge
    • Bricasti Design M3h
    DAC / headphone amp
    • Sonore opticalRendu Deluxe & LPS
    Audio Streamer/Renderer (optical > USB) , Running Roon's latest version.
    • Small Green Computer sonicTransporter i5v3
    Roon Core, and partial library on Samsung EVO870 4TB internal SSD. Remaining library on external Samsung T7 Shield 4TB USB SSD
    • UpTone Audio JS-2 Linear Power Supply
    2 rail LPS (powering SGC SonicTransporter & Sonore opticalModule), Uptone DC cables
    • Sonore opticalModule
    ethernet to fiber converter
    • Spin Planet Custom Amp Stands
    Maple amp stands with Eden Sound brass Bear Paw radiused footers
    • DIY Slipknot1 & Sbank Maple Madness Rack
    PerfectPlank Maple 1 7/8, McMaster-Carr Brass hardware, Star Sound Audiopoints footers
    • Custom Room Treatments
    Designed and framed by Sensible Sound Solutions. Assembled and upholstered by me using Guilford of Maine acoustical cloth.
    • SpinPlanet Custom Wood Diffusors
    BBC "Skyline" style QRD diffusors handmade of solid pine on 24" birch plywood base. Hand made in Delaware, USA.
    • ATS Acoustics QRD 7 Well Quadratic Diffuser
    • AudioQuest Oak Bi-wire Speaker Cables
    SOLID PERFECT-SURFACE COPPER+ (PSC+) CONDUCTORS

    MULTI-LAYER CARBON-BASED NOISE- AND CROSSTALK-DISSIPATION SYSTEM: 
    DOUBLE COUNTER-SPIRAL GEOMETRY

    FOAMED-POLYETHYLENE INSULATION (FOR ALL POSITIVE CONDUCTORS)

    DIELECTRIC-BIAS SYSTEM WITH RADIO FREQUENCY TRAP
    • AudioQuest Water XLR
    6.5M balanced interconnects pair used between preamp and power amp
    • Tel Wire Power Cables HC Cord & Cord
    HC Cord - large 9 gauge OCC single crystal, ultra pure copper. Terminated with genuine Oyaide 004 series with Beryllium copper bases and platinum & palladium plating. HC with 20amp connector on Krell amp connected to 20amp dedicated circuit

    Cord - OCC single crystal, ultra pure copper. Terminated with genuine Oyaide 004 series with Beryllium copper bases and platinum & palladium plating
    • Tel Wire Connect XLR
    OCC (Ohno Continuous Cast) single crystal copper of the highest purity available. Terminations are Xhadow Silver RCA’s that are hand-picked by Chris Kline, Jacketed cotton

    (DAC to preamp)
    • Inakustic Reference USB Cable
    German USB cable used between opticalRendu and Denafrips Pontus II DAC
    • Audioquest Niagara 1200 & NRG-Z3 PCs
    Power conditioner & cable for front end of the system. PCs for the mono block amps.
    • Vinyl Stack Ultrasonic Record Cleaner
    Paired with a 10L 40hz Ultrasonic tank and following the formulas and process suggested in @rushton's thread and www.positive-feedback.com  article.
    • Eden Sound Terrastone Footers
    Terrastone Bearing Isolation Footers under preamp and DAC.
    • Furman Power Station-8
    Power strip on steroids. Using with Vandersteen subwoofers built-in to the 5As.
    • PS Audio Juice Bar
    6 outlet power strip for networking accessories
    • Walker Audio Valid Points
    resonance control devices
    • ERS Paper RFI/EMI Control
    ERS paper to fight airborne RFI/EMI
    • Hart Big Willy MK3 Record Cleaning Brush
    Described in detail in M.Fremer's Analog Planet Shootout video and review video. It's a brush that cleans dust off records. Way more effective than the Acoustech grounded large brush that it replaced
    • Sennheiser/Massdrop 6XX
    Open back headphones
    • Furutech ADL Headphone Cable
    Cable with 2-pin connectors for Sennheisers

Comments 279

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Owner
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your suggestion I will check it out. 
Here's the story on why the change...Many friends have fallen in love with my Sound Labs when they hear them. One told me months ago that he will want to get some someday. His CJ MF2500 came over and we quickly decided that it wasn't up to driving the SLs. He replaced it with a Krell KSA250 partially based on my comments about great combos of Krell KSA and Apogee electrostatics that I've heard many times. He is ready to order SLs and brought the KSA-250 over to confirm the match w/the A3s. Well I knew it would be decent but didn't expect it to be as good as it was. Bass and spacial performance were uncanny. Lamms were superior in top end timbre but it was much closer than I expected. Overall the Krell created lots of goosebumps and positive surprises. I did notice that experimenting w/couple of power cables did make a noticeable difference in smoothness and detail in treble and upper mids. (My Transparent Super was a good match). At less than half the cost of the Lamms, I decided to reduce my investment in the system, and make the change. My take is that FPB series betters the KSAs and are a few years younger. I was fortunate to find one recently recapped and being shipped directly from Krell after a checkup with arrival next week. Cheers,
Spencer

sbank

Hi Sbank 
Very nice system. Your SL's are one of the speakers I really wanted to setup in my house to hear but space, time, and wife will just not permit it.   
Regarding your looking for a power cord. I have been dealing with Gene at Take Five Audio in Canada for many years. Not sure if you are familiar with them. Gene just made a 20amp power cord for an audio  friend in New Jersey also with a Krell amp. If you Google Take Five Audio you can get more info them. You would also be getting the 30 per cent dollar exchange difference between our dollars, and I think free shipping but not sure on that one. Just a thought.  
Curious to know why you are going to Krell from the Lamm ? 
Cheers Chris 

ct0517

Owner
Just sold my Lamm M2.1 monoblocks and bought a Krell FPB-300 stereo amp which should be arriving in the next week. Looking for a 20amp power cable to use with the Krell.

sbank

Owner
Added a custom made 4.2kg stainless steel platter mat 8mm tall which besides the benefits of the additional mass allows wider range of VTA adjustment. 
Also awaiting arrival of another cartridge, a vintage Goldbug Clement II mc.

sbank

Spencer, I appreciate the generous offer and will do so should I get over that way.

I heard the big Sound Labs (two pairs set up side by side IIRC) driven by Pass monoblocks in Ray Kimber's room at RMAF a few years ago and it was an experience to remember. Enjoy your fine system.

Dave

dlcockrum

Owner
Dave, thanks. If you ever visit Philly area and want to come by you are always welcome here.

sbank

Super nice system Spencer. Great choices throughout. Those Sound Labs are really something special.

Dave

dlcockrum

Owner
Added a Micro Seiki ST-10 Record Stabilizer

sbank

Owner
@shadorne Yes, JGH had the A3s as his reference for many years. One of my favorite writers of all time. Thanks for your kind words.

@dentdog The Aqvox can provide 75db balanced, how much more gain are you going to find elsewhere? If you ever get near Philly, you are welcome to come for a listen. 

Just added pics of my Ultrasonic cleaning setup following inspiration and guidance from @rushton 's great article in Positive Feedback and here. 

sbank

Like that you went balanced throughout. Looked at the Aqvox myself but needed more boost. Never heard Soundless but would love to. No doubt you're having some fun here. Great system!

dentdog

Fantastic system! Aren't these the same speakers Gordon J Holt had for many years?

shadorne

Owner
Added a few Shunyata Research Venom 3 power cables. 

Sold the Technics cartridge that came in a package with my SP10. Spending time tweaking setup of the Signet and Satin cartridges in various headshells.

sbank

Owner
Added Yamamoto Soundcraft Boxwood headshell and Jelco magnesium headshell to use with the Signet and Satin cartridges.

sbank

Owner
 Test post 11/23 @ 1:33pm EST

sbank

Owner
Going to be comparing a pile of borrowed record weights, clamps and a few platter mats on the new SP10mkII. Any learnings on these topics is appreciated.

sbank

Owner
Adding a trio of cartridges of older vintages: Satin 21B, Signet 111E and Technics EPC-205mkII.

sbank

Owner
Awaiting delivery of completely refurbished and restored Technics SP-10mk2, which includes a fully reconditioned and calibrated SP-10mk2 deck, SH-10E power supply, EPA-250 tonearm with original Technics tonearm cable, EPC-205 II cartridge with a brand new Jico stylus, and the SH-10B3 base. Also adding a couple of cartridges, a rare vintage Satin 21B and a Signet 111E. 

Plenty of experiments coming with footers, platter mats, record weights. Future will bring possible plinth changes & tonearm rewire...Ideas welcomed on all these. Cheers,
Spencer


sbank

Owner
VPI TNT6HR, 12.7 arm are sold. van den Hul Colibri XGP is heading to VDH in Netherlands for service check/confirmation and will be sold on eBayUK shipped from Netherlands.
Time for something new...drumroll...I mean, old. 

sbank

Owner
Nolas are sold. I was fortunate to find a great deal on the Sound Labs and to have amps that are up to the challenge. For those with the room for tall electrostatics and amps to drive them, I haven't heard their equal.

sbank

Owner
Thanks, Jeff. I've heard the Lamm phono stage and agree with your comment. Maybe someday... :-)

sbank

Congratulations on a great system. Sound Labs presentations at CES (THE Show) were consistently one of my favorites. I'm happy to hear that the Lamm M2.1's are up to the daunting task of driving those speakers.

If you have a change, demo a Lamm phono stage, you'll be amazed!

jeff1225

Owner
Added handmade BBC style QRD wood diffusors at the back corners of the room where the walls meet the ceiling.

sbank

Owner
Added Ecco Audio custom linear power supply by Vince DiNenna to power the Sonore microRendu. It is taking performance to an obscenely high level, especially in terms of value for price. Digital sound quality is now staggeringly better than ever. 
Visitors have been uttering phrases like "spooky, lifelike, uncanny, & real".

sbank

Owner
Sound Lab A3 Electrostatic Loudspeakers up and running. They really are amazing in many ways. I feel fortunate to have them. IMO, the key to getting good sound with large panels is plenty of power and plenty of room. These just seem perfectly sized for this room, and the Lamms are up for the job. 
Goosebumps! 

sbank

Owner
Adding Sound Lab A3 Electrostatic Loudspeakers en route to me shortly. Expecting plenty of setup tweaking will be needed to get the most out of them. Excited to to give them a try, as I've always been a fan but until recently didn't have the right amplification to pull it off. Advice welcome!

sbank

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