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
Interesting info on the CD-55. I paid $470 w/shipping for the cd-50 so finding a 55 close to that price may be difficult. I'll keep my eyes open though. Have you found a more comfortable chair yet?
Have you replaced your system rack or added any isolation yet? I am planning on building a new rack with granite slabs. We are having our kitchen counter tops replaced and I made a deal with the counter top guy. He is going to throw in three pieces of granite with holes drilled for the all-thread. He says its no big deal as he has plenty of extra pieces left over from sink cut-outs. The first time I checked your system you were running the CD-55. I wonder if the difference between the 50 and 55 is similar to your experience with the Opus. The 50 is the smoothest cdp I've owned.
Those Soliloquys are gorgeous to look at. I'm curious as to how well they work in the small room. I've tried large speakers in a similar sized room and had trouble with them.
