I love this little system. It hasn't been through many changes since I set it up about 3 years ago. A couple of Amps, a couple of CDPs, 3 or 4 speaker changes, and a trailer load of cables. Does that qualify as few? ...or many? Ahhh, who cares, its fun.
I removed the bulk of the room treatments. Especially the corner Bass traps. Now, I am using a Rel sub with great success. Crossover very low to avoid the pile up of room modes at 50hz.
The red wedge foam behind the speakers may be replaced with Skyline diffraction panels. As I understand it the Skylines dont absorb midbass/midrange like the 2" foam does.
It sounds great. The Merlins are awesome. Vocals to die for. Tight and superbly accurate bass. Definitely not bright, as some suggested would be the case with SS amplification.
A few minor tweaks upcoming. A better stand with/for isolation. A better Rel Speakon cable, and a few cable auditions to maximize performance and satisfy the incurable condition of audiophilia nervosa.
Comments welcome, opinions, and suggestions welcome.
Edit: 01-19-08
Red wedge foam - gone. Replaced with pyramid foam. Better looking and a little better sounding. These speakers dont need a ton of room tweaking like my last speakers did.
Update: 07-01-08 Adona 3 level rack with composite and granite shelving. Pretty nice piece. Easy assemble. Good sonics.
Rel B3 Sub - Great sub, room placement was a little tricky, but reward with plenty of superb low octave energy. This one here to stay.
Great amp. Plenty of heat in the winter! Virtual Dynamics Power One straight to Porter Port outlet.
Resolution Audio Opus 21
Fantastic CDP. Running direct to Amp with no regrets. Small two box chassis is neat but requires two shelves and twice the isolation devices. Top notch sound. Virtual Dynamics David Power Cord and Audience Au24 Balanced ICs direct to Amp.
Merlin Music Systems TSM-MXe
Sealed design 6" midwoofer with 3" voicecoil 1.125" Silk Dome tweeter On 24" Sound Anchors Concrete filled stands. Single wired with Audience Au24, Merlin Jumpers, and Zobels.
REL Acoustics B3
Very Nice. Have tried several Subs, I prefer this one hands down. Virtual Dynamics PC
System edited: Some updated pics Thinking of upgrading my Power Cords to Shunyata Pythons? Or maybe upgrading within the Virtual Dynamics lineup? Audience maybe... I am really undecided. I am realy enjoying this current setup. The Merlins are very forgiving even with the SS amp.
System edited: Updated Items and Pics. In short the Merlins are awesome. Over the next few weeks I intend on demoing cables. Both ICs and Speaker. Bobby Recommends finely stranded copper. Any suggestions? Nothing rolled off on top please, in fact, I would like to add a little sparkle!
Tim, No I have not made any significant changes to this systems isolation. I intend to build sandbox's one of these days. Currently I am using BDR cones and pucks on the transport and sorbothane feet on the power/display chassis.
I bet the granite is going to look like a million. Let us know how it performs.
I can not comment on the 50, having never had one in my system but, I can state that the Opus is not smoother than the 55. In fact, in retrospect, the 55 is smoother (ever so slightly) than the Opus. The 55's bass had more warmth and a percieved greater presence. The 55's highs were a little less pronounced and its mids had nice tube like character. As you can tell I liked the 55 a lot and at its used price is an absolute steal.
From what I understand, all of Jeffs CDPs are very similar in design and sonic character.
Thank you both very much. It's an all A'gon system and at the least, somewhat piecemeal, because I am still fairly low on the learning curve.
Philoman, I like the RA CDP very much. I've had a few CDPs and DACs in house and nothing has beat it yet. The RA is strange animal. It's smooth yet detailed. I would characterize it as the best of both tubes and SS. Now of course tubes can be just beautiful with some recordings and musical styles. For instance, I love female vocals.
The Bryston is a great amp. Way overkill in this small system. It has no glaring faults and that may be its ultimate fault too. Its pretty darned faithful to the recording and that gets a little boring. It is going to get a break. I am really itching to try something else.
Small rooms are a bugger. Reflection points must be softened and the bass reinforcing nature of the cube shape needs to be attenuated. I could go on and on with what I have tried but it might be better if I wait a little bit longer and complete a few more changes and experiments (as noted above).
Higend64, I have B & W CDM1SEs and CDM9NTs in my theater room. Both worked well in this system. What surprised me most was that the dual woofer 9s seemed to have smoother bass response than the single woofer Soliloquys. ...and get this, when I took the Soliloquys into the theater room (a much larger room) they seemed to be the Bassy speaker. Room to breathe I guess.
Nevertheless, the soliloquys are great with vocals and the bass is articulate. With corner traps and front and rear 2" foam I have nearly tackled my 50 hertz hump.
I must say I have been eyeing Signature 805s and De Capo's and various other small bookshelfs. Who knows it may happen.
Hello Saki, I have not tried that. As the room is (full of computers too) that configuration would not be possible. But... I am setting up a wireless LAN and the wife and I are going to notebooks. This will open a lot of space in this room.
I havent had a chance to try Bob's idea yet either. When I get the opportunity I will try both of your ideas and report back.
Those are very interesting observations. Especially interesting is the high rack and sonic interference. I will try an experiment... By moving my rack to one side or maybe removing it altogether. I have damped the rear wall a fair amount and I need to update the pics!
Thanks so much Bob, I really appreciate your thoughts. I'll post after I complete the experiment with the rack.
Thank you! It's tough to get the sound right in a small room isn't it!? The Bass can be very position dependent... both speakers and ears. I guess I am at a very good place currently, from an audiophiles stand point that is. The sound is so to my liking that I cannot decide what to upgrade next.
I go back and forth from amp to speakers... I am wondering if sealed enlosures would cure a bit of the bass "one note-itis" that I have. Of course I have been wanting to try tubes or Mono blocks for a few years.
Bob, would you mind sharing what with or how, you have improved your small room system? Of course, any and all opinions are welcomed on this matter.
System edited: I have added some new ICs and Powercord. Also added a fair amount of room treatments. Including floor to ceiling Lenerd type corner treatments (2 corners), 24 square feet of pyramid foam behind the listening position, and 24 square feet of wedge foam in the center of the wall behind the speakers. I am really stuck at were to upgrade next. I really cant budget the funds right now any way. But I am pretty sure when I can, it will be a tube amp!
Thank you so much, Mimberman! Self control isnt my strong suit!
First I took the Sol 6.2s into the HT area and compared them side by side to my B&W CDM9NTs. The Sols work pretty well that room. So, I brought the B&Ws into to the 2 channel room and well they work pretty well in that room too. Though I think I prefer it the other way around!
I have Frank, the room modes have been adressed to some degree and the speakers now have 500+ hours. Utterly astonishing midrange clarity. Nearly fatigue free listening. Smooth and very acceptable dynamics. I am considering tweaking the speakers some. Silver solder on the internal connections? Maybe a high grade crossover replacement?
I must say, putting together a separate two channel has been highly rewarding. Thanks so much A'goners, for all your help, you're a great group.
BTW, a four drawer file cabinet has a profound impact on bass in my size room. Legal documents and bank statements must really soak up those stray 50Hz waves!!
I have about 150 hours on the 6.2s right now. The midrange is superb and very very detailed. Highs are opening up. They were a littled too rolled off for the first 100 hours or so. I have done quite a bit of positioning and a few room treatments. The bass is very articulate and definately less boomy with break in and a few treatments. I plan to let them break in for another week or so, and then maybe add some more bass traps. I have one in the far corner.
Room is 11' x 11'8" x 8'2". Not entirely cubish but still problematic I am sure. Though I am quite pleased with the sound. I would like a bit more extension in the lower octaves, but what can one expect from a single 6.5" midbass?
The Red Squares behind the speakers are home made panels consisting of a wooden frame with compressed acoustic fiberglass covered by red canvas.
BTW, Crazy4Blues, you were right on the money! The spikes immediatly tightened the bass.
Crazy, at about 40 hours break-in the Sols have a superb midrange. So much information and clarity, all the while it is so palpable. These guys are really showing some potential. I have the spikes but for break-in and eventual placement tweeking. Well, they are large spikes and heavy speakers. I like to wear sandals you can imagine the rest. =). Not to mention the carpet damage. Did I mention how heavy these speakers are? Geesch.
Tvad, I intend to try some amps out in the very near future. I will probably post a thread asking for opinions. My line of thought was break-in and initial impressions with familiar gears. I'll keep that NuForce in mind.
On a similarly note, the Bryston is over 300 watts per, and I have done some break-in at fairly loud output levels. It seems to take a lot of signal input and hence a good bit of power in order to achieve these levels. 100dB at a foot from the drivers and sometimes for hours at a time. My question is the Bryston is barely warm. Now with my more demanding but slightly more efficient B & W's, at a similar level and duration, it (Bryston amp) would be fairly hot. I wonder what the effect of the Solilouys being a rather easy load with high impedance (nominal 12 ohms) has on ones power requirements? Or the amplifiers rated output?
I have read many times how easy the 6.2s are to drive. With even very low powered tube arrangements. However, they seem to be soaking up quite a large chunk of my available power from a marginally beefy Amp. I suppose the drivers are a little stiff yet and will loosen up with time.
Thanks Jh2os. Tube monoblocks sound like a fun experiment.
Timrhu, the 6.2's only have about 30 hours on them so far, and yes the potential for trouble is there. A little boominess in the 60-120hz (guesstimate) range was strongly apparent at first but seems to be diminishing. I intend to put a minimum of 500 hours on them before being too critical. Position tweeking will probably help a lot. And the best news of all, this is my room, so I can address this issue with any treatment I want. I suppose its better to have too much bass and control it, than to not have enough.
Vocals and most midrange dominant instruments really sound good on these speakers. Overall, my initial impression is good.
