happy room

by cptaz on Opinions Please
Modified VPI HRX
Side view
Back of room
Front view
Equipment 1
Equipment 2

Description

The room is in the basement, size about 13 x 21 x 8, dedicated.

Love the sound of the Mastersound/Triangle combo, wife says it has "soul". Huge soundstage and lots of dynamics too, thanks to bi-amping, and insertion of Zero Autoformers improved a lot bass control and definition.

Found out most of my fun comes from vinyl, so I recently added a 2nd tonearm to the HRX with a custom armboard, I know a turntable with provision for multiple arm mounting would be better, but for the time being this will do.

The high compliance VdH Colibri is on the low mass JMW 12.6, and is amplified by the Lehmann Silver Cube into a line input of the HP100, the low compliance Phase Tech P3-G is on the high mass Ikeda, and, through the Yamamoto SUT goes into the phono input of the HP100, that's been modified by Hovland to accept external plugs for cart loading, so I can play with 2 different approaches to vinyl reproduction, the european and the japanese.

Thanks for looking, Marco
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Components Toggle details

    • Sim Audio Moon Eclipse
    Top loading cd player
    • VPI Industries TNT HRX
    Added custom armboard for 2nd tonearm
    • Benz Micro SLR Gullwing
    Replaces VdH Colibri, now parked in the drawer awaiting better times
    • Reed P3Q
    10.5" wooden armtube tonearm
    • Phase Tech P-3G
    Low impedance, low compliance MC japanese cartridge
    • Ikeda IT407
    High mass, dynamic balanced japanese tonearm with detachable headshell
    • Choir Audio SUT Hp
    Hashimoto HM3 based mc step up
    • Lector Phono Amp System
    Tube phono stage
    • Ortofon SPU Meister Silver
    Couldn't resist the looks on Ortofon tonearm, sounds good too!!!
    • Ortofon RS309D
    12" dynamic balanced tonearm
    • Yamamoto SUT 01
    Japanese SUT with choice 1:10 or 1:30 step-up ratio
    • Hovland Company HP-100
    wonderful preamp, had the phono section modified by Hovland to change cart loading via ext plugs
    • Mastersound 845 monoblock
    Made in Italy
    • Triangle Magellan Concerto
    passive bi-amped
    • Acustica Applicata DAAD
    Acoustic absorber/diffuser, similar to Tube Traps
    • Symposium Ultra Platform
    Placed under turntable and monoblocks. The one under the turntable has custom cutout for motor assembly
    • Hovland Musicgroove 2
    2 pairs, one RCA-RCA from VPI to Lehmann, one DIN-RCA from Ikeda to Yamamoto
    • Audience Au24e
    1 pair between Lehmann and Hovland
    • Arcaydis Interface
    Improves preamp-poweramp impedance match and neutralizes negative effect of 7m (23') interconnects with no audible signal degradation

Comments 31

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Owner
Hi Kevin, thanks for your comments, yes I am a believer in room acoustic correction, had a look at your system page and I think I have nothing to teach you about that, and it looks gorgeous too!!!
About DAADs, yes they offer an absortive side while the other is diffusive, regarding placement and strategy, nothing I could do was as effective as having the man from Acustica Applicata ( http://www.acusticaapplicata.com/polifemo.php?lang=eng ) come over and do it for me, they also provided a plan with the amount and size of DAADs to be used.
The tranparent columns are Polifemos, sort of a tunable Helmotz resonator that, to my experience, greatly improve room acoustics, much more than any change in components could do, you can get all the related info on that website.
Love those Fab Audios.

cptaz

Owner
Hello Dan, no you don't, thanks for you nice comment. I see you have an impressive system, and I think Mastersounds would be a good match too. Too bad we're so far away, I have a spare couple of 845 Monoblocks that I would have gladly let you try in your system. A few years ago I followed the advice from another A'goner and had Mastersound upgrade my amps with Mundorf caps and Jena Labs wiring, that was a significant upgrade. I say that because I see you love tweaks too, I love what you did to your VPI table.

cptaz

Owner
Hi Alfredo, thanks for your kind words, yes I'm also a believer in room acoustics, being lucky to have a dedicated listening room I've invested heavily in it with no regrets.

cptaz

Owner
System edited: Hi everybody, system updated, got rid of biamp and put a couple of monos for sale, applied some more aggrssive room acoustics control with Polifemos by Acustica Applicata with extremely good results, still playing with carts, now VdH is out replaced by Benz SLR Gullwing, the Yamamoto is replaced by Ortofon SPU Meister Silver. Pictures updated, thanks for looking, Marco.

cptaz

Owner
System edited: System update: Digital: I have decided to rip all my CDs into a hard disk, and connected an hp laptop, through an M2Tech digital interface, to the digital input of my CD player, taking advantage of its DAC; I use dbpoweramp to rip and foobar to play, and am very pleased with the results. Analog: I've replaced the JMW 12.6 tonearm, I couldn't take it any longer, with a Reed P3Q, fantastic. I've also modified the HRX suspension system, replacing the rubber balls with Symposium Rollerblocks and custom feet, so I could add another tonearm, an Ortofon RS309D, and also added a Yamamoto YC03S cartridge and a Lector Phono Amp tubed phono stage. I know it may sound crazy, but I had fun. Other minor updates, I replaced speaker cables and interconnects with Audience au24e, and removed the loudspeakers bases, putting Finite Elemente Cerapucs instead. Thanks for looking, Marco

cptaz

Owner
Sorry Afc, that link doesn't work, try this:
http://www.tube-fullmusic.com/
go to product page, you can also try this:
http://www.grantfidelity.com/site/TJ_Full_Music_845_MKII
Cheers, Marco

cptaz

Owner
Hi Afc, thanks for the link, I think you're talking about TJ Fullmusic's 845, that's the only other 845 manufacturer I know, http://www.tube-fullmusic.com/products/en-product0-845.htm, these appear to be on the price range you were talking about, 400 to 500 USD/pair.
I met Lorenzo Sanavio of Mastersound at the last Top Audio Fair in Milano, he told me that a customer tried those TJ Fullmusic 845s on the monoblocks and was happy, but since I'd need 4 pairs I think for the time being I'll stick with 845B's. About 845M's, I'm also inclined to think these are not drop-in replacements, but haven't asked Mastersound yet.

cptaz

Owner
Hi guys, thanks for looking.
Vernneal, thank you, at least I can do some exercise walking around the couch to change records :)
Dhmbc1500, about 6SN7, I tried some tube rolling and settled on Brimar NOS on the mid-treble units and Electro-Harmonix Gold Pins om the bass units, as you can see I have a passive bi-amp setup. About 845s, I also use Shuguangs 845B's, got them from SuperTNT, haven't tried 845M's that are now unavailable.
Afc, I also keep watching Sophia Electric website for the new 845, I understand they make a selection on Shuguang production, is it correct as far as you know?

cptaz

Owner
Thanks Afc, I like them very much. Had a look at your system, I see you're also a Mastersound fan, I'm kinda surprised to see somebody in the US know this italian design, how do you like your compact 845?

cptaz

Owner
Yes I do, it doesn't see much use though. You can see a SIM2 DLP projector on the shelf behind the sofa, and I used to have B&W speakers and a Yamaha subwoofer between the Triangles for home theater, but then I removed everything, hooked the Triangle to the HT system and moved the subwoofer beside the sofa. The rest of the system is a Sony DVD player and a Yamaha 5.1 receiver, almost 10 years old stuff that can't absolutely compare to your amazing HT system, but for what I do is more than enough.

cptaz

Owner
Thanks Mitch, I appreciate it. BTW, those Infinity rock....

cptaz

Owner
System edit: haven't checked on this for a long time, so I updated the description above and moved the system in Opinions Please, sort of a start over.
Got rid of the home theater speakers since most of my time and fun goes into 2 channel, spent some time playing with speakers placement and that really paid off.
As time goes by I get more and more hooked on vinyl, looking forward to being able to afford a 'table with multiple tonearm capability, at this time I'm dreaming of a TW Raven AC or a Kuzma XL, but maybe I should upgrade the preamp first, or the phono stage......mmmm, maybe I should spin more records while I think.....Life is hard.
Thanks for looking,
Marco

cptaz

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