Here's our home's (updated) music library room. It's about 18 by 24 feet in length with built in bookshelves on each wall.
We designed the room so that it would serve our audio purposes as well as be a place where you would want to go and hang out rather than an audio only man cave. We painted the walls with a lighter tan color from Benjamin Moore and stained the trim & baseboard with a dark Walnut Minwax gel stain. We just had the plantation shutters installed which has really helped break up some of the front reflections from our windows, not to mention blocking an annoying street light in front of our home. Drapes in front are linen drapes from Restoration Hardware. Finally, I constructed a bunch of OC 703 2" thick acoustic panels and covered them with a burgundy fabric from Joanne's and placed them in the front corners and 4 off the tray ceiling. It made worlds of difference, the room was very echo prone, but now its a great blend and not too dead. The panels along with the thick wool carpet tamed the room just fine.
The electrician ran 2 dedicated lines during the build, one to the McIntosh MC 402 and subwoofers and one to the equipment rack. No noise, hum, or ground loop problems thank God. Amplification is provided by a McIntosh C2300 tube preamp and MC 402 power amplifier which provides more than enough juice for the Avalons. The REL 212 SEs now sitting on a pair of Auralex platforms replaced a pair of B2 Britannias. The RELs sounded excellent in our old room as well as in this one. I replaced a VPI Classic 2 with a Classic Signature bundle (with the SDS speed controller) and a Stillpoints record clamp...amazing how much difference the Stillpoints clamp made. The Audio Research Ref 2 phono SE has taken the place of a Manley Chinook which was a fine component in its own right but cannot compete with the ARC piece. Interconnects throughout are Wireworld Gold while speaker cabling is by way of a pair of Wireworld Silver. Power cabling is Shunyata Alphas all connected to a Shunyata Denali power center.
Thanks to all the members on here for advice during the build and to my lovely wife who loves the room, but has told me that if she has to help me build or hang one more acoustic panel, she will serve me papers!
Thanks for the comments.....I’m gonna get some new pictures up as soon as I get a couple more Shunyata power cables that I have on order, gotta clean up some cable mess. Also will add some pics of the new dCS Rossini stack.
Thieliste - Oh it would be just fine. My Avalons aren’t the most efficient speakers and your Thiels need a lot of power as well. The 250 can play loud and smooth with no strain whatsoever. I think you’d be fine. Another thing is the 250 seems to be in the sweet spot of the lineup.....I’ve read some reviews giving it an almost tubelike midrange while still retaining the character of a SS amplifier. It’s expensive, but you’d have to spend a lot more to better it most likely. BTW, I was coming from a McIntosh MC 402 which is a fine amplifier in its own right, but we’re at a completely different price point here. It is significantly better than the 402 as it should be for the price!
cymbop - The REL 212s are just as good as advertised, especially in a stereo configuration, I have to trouble getting smooth clean bass down in the low 20s. The RELs also do a great job of getting that "room pressurization" that you can really feel, they're that good. I came from a pair of Brittania B2 which were excellent as well, the 212s have more power and more headroom, but if you're familiar with the REL subs, you'll enjoy what they have to offer!
Updated pics with the Avalon Isis in burled walnut that replaced the Eidolons. Also new pics of the Dan D’agostino Momentum amplification that replaced the McIntosh gear. I am pretty much done for now!
System edited: Have just made a major upgrade without actually purchasing any new equipment. Last week I had Jim Smith from Get Better Sound (the Jim Smith that you all may be familiar with who does the room play/voicing and gives lectures at the audio shows) perform his room setup on my system. I'm fortunate enough to live near him on the north side of Atlanta, so he came to evaluate first and then made an appointment to set up. First off, the results were outstanding, for anyone skeptical of how big a difference it can make, I can't imagine any type of equipment upgrade (within reason of course) that could have improved the sound as much as setting everything properly.
Here's a quick synopsis: We began by measuring the distance at which we would achieve the best and flattest bass response for the listening position. He then used multiple laser levels to measure distances between walls to find the center points of the room walls etc. He was so precise we actually measured speaker placement in all planes including toe in to less than 1/16 of an inch. The dual REL subs were the last step in which we measured placement and phase in multiple postions and in 360 degrees for both subs. Sub volume was the final step. He was over for at least 8 hours, I know that sounds simple, but believe me, the precision made it anything but simple.
Anyway, my wife who doesn't care at all about this stuff couldn't believe the difference, she said it was no comparison (and just for the record, Jim told me that my setup was pretty good to begin with compared to a lot of rooms he's done). Anyway, if anyone has any questions in more detail, post here and I'll answer as best as I can, but suffice to say that room setup is just as important as other components in the chain. Also, just for the record, he doesn't know or didn't ask me to post a review about this.
Hey Sean.....honestly don't know 100% what they are....I have 2 taller fake trees in the corners I got from Garden Ridge....they look pretty realistic. The shorter one's are various house plants that take lower light from Home Depot. I've already managed to kill 2 of them!! Anyway, I thought adding some greenery would look nice instead of the sparse look that I've seen in some of the photos here. I like more of the cozy relaxed (pottery barn/restoration hardward) look I guess.
I've got both of them set really low, I believe the next to highest "A" setting which is around the high 20s. It took me awhile to get them integrated nicely with the Avalons, I had them crossed over way too high at first and would get quite of bit of boominess. Once I lowered the crossover and turned the volume up, they really give clean deep bass. Its most noticeable on orchestral recordings and those with not a lot of "obvious" bass....and then something kicks in way down and you can almost feel the pressure in the room. It's pretty awesome. It's the first time I've been able to understand RELs philosophy of room pressurization. I will say the subs are great, but the Avalons are ridiculous good.
System edited: Added a couple of new pictures of the listening room.....only equipment upgrade recently is the pair of REL B2 subs. Added some plants to the front of the room, makes it look much more finished and comfortable.
Have traded the Velodyne subs for a pair of REL Britannia B2s. Should be quite an upgrade and should take care of the bottom end!! Now to get them dialed in!
Well....I have been looking for new speakers in the used 10 - 20 K price range for awhile now and have spent an absolute TON of time reading all about what people think about models such as the Sonus Faber Elipsa, Thiel CS3.7s, Wilson Sophias, Verity Parsifals, Aerials, and finally the Avalon Eidolons or Indras. To make a long story short, I could not demo ANY of these anywhere and with my schedule, I wouldn't be able to fly anywhere to compare. The only one I had a chance on was the CS3.7, but our local dealer sold them off, so no go there either. So I figured as long as I was committed on buying a dealer demo or used, I could at least resell for roughly the same amount if I found a deal good enough, so I have been really patient and the Eidolon Visions turned up from an excellent dealer. Based on feedback that they were cut from the same cloth as the Thiels (which I still feel are excellent), just much more refined, I went ahead and pulled the trigger. I have never heard the Diamonds or any other Avalon for that matter. The other thing that helped make my decision is that in all my research, it truly seemed like Avalons have the fewest number of detractors out of all the brands I've listed (Verity being a close second). You can find millions of negative opinions on Thiel, Wilson, even Magico and Sonus Faber, but its very hard to find anything negative on any of the Eidolon models. Couple that with hardly any being on the used market, I figured it was as safe as I could be without listening. Finally once I sell my Thiels for "average" market value, I'll come up spending less that 10K for the upgrade. That seemed like a winner to me. The only caveat I had was that I don't think I've ever seen an Avalon thread/pic/system coupled with McIntosh components, but trust me, it's a fine combo!
Have updated the pictures........the new Avalon Acoustics Eidolon Visions have arrived and been set up. To say they sound great would be an understatement.
System edited: Some updates to the system......traded the NAD and Rega Apollo CD players for an Ayre C-5xe mp CD/SACD/DVD A player. Also traded in the Classe preamp for a McIntosh C220 tube preamp. Both changes sound fantastic. One more big change on the way.......new loudspeakers. Cannot wait.......Avalon Eidolon Visions. Will update with new pics once they're here!!
Thanks for the responses.....need to update some pics soon, I've recently traded in the Rega Apollo & NAD M5 for an Ayre C-5xeMp SACD player and my Classe preamp for a new McIntosh C220 tube preamp. Sounds excellent, especially with some DVD Audio discs I've collected. Next step, new speakers? The Thiels are hard to beat for the price, but I would absolutely love to see what some Avalon Indras or Eidolons would do!!
Cmalak - no, haven't tried any tube based products yet. Upgrading will be a long time in the future barring something breaking down, but I would think a nice tube preamp would complement the system nicely. I've read that Audio Research tube preamps have a good synergy with McIntosh amps, but I wouldn't know firsthand. I originally thought about tube amps with the speakers (BAT VK75/McIntosh MC 275s), but most feeback I got said to try to stick to solid state with the CS 2.4s.
