Music Room

by dean_man on Budget Minded
system

Description

A modest system in a "public" room on the main floor of our house. WAF was important when setting it up. The system shares the 19 X 14 X 9 room with a reading area and a piano our family uses. I experimented quite a bit with speaker placement in this room, and after using these little JMR speakers in two different spaces I have come to the conclusion that they can benefit from being relatively close to the wall behind them. In this case, 24" from the wall to the front of the baffles.

Our ca. 1500 LPs and ca. similar number of CDs are also in the room. One can listen for hours with no listening fatigue when one has the time :)
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Room Details

Dimensions: 19’ × 14’  Medium
Ceiling: 9’

Components Toggle details

    • Audiomat Prelude Reference
    30 WPC push-pull tube integrated. EL-34 output tubes; passive preamp section using vintage Sylvania 12AX7 as drivers.  Grover Huffman power cord.  After enjoying three sets of SED "flying C" power tubes in the amp, about a year ago I tried a set of Shuguang with the dual square halos and have been enjoying them very much.
    • Wright Sound WPP-100c
    Tube phono stage with tube rectification. Vintage Amperex, RCA and Tung-Sol tubes.
    Grover Huffman IC.
    • Thorens TD-150 mkII
    Restored and slightly modified. The 'table sits on an Ikea Lack table top, atop A&M Hardware wall brackets that hang above the rack.  Grover Huffman phono IC. Chris VH power cord.
    • Phono Cartridges
    Empire 1000 ZE/X.  Vintage MM cartridge that excels at reproducing acoustic music and unamplified voices. Full bodied and colorful, it also has superb rhythmic qualities that excel at portraying musical flow. It can swing hard or rock just fine when called upon.  

    Astatic MF 100.  Stellar vintage MM, delivers the music in spades. An excellent partner or foil to the Empire 1000 ZE/X. 

    A surprising Goldring 800 with aftermarket Quad stylus.   

    Empire 600LAC, 750 LTD, 888TE.  Additional vintage Empires that I enjoy from time to time in this system and a secondary system in the basement recreation room.

    Stanton 681SL.  My favorite Stanton, actually preferring it to the 881S.   I also enjoy SE and EL styli with it.

    Denon / Soundsmith DL 103.  I've owned this body for years and have had the cantilever/stylus assembly replaced twice.  It currently resides in a diy mahogany body with a ruby cantilever and line contact stylus.

    Other cartridges that i've enjoyed over the past several years include a number discussed in the giant MM thread here--Acutex LPM 315 III STR and LPM 320 III STR, Andante P-76, Astatic MF-200, Pickering TL2s, Stanton 881s...
    • MHZS CD 66F
    Tubed CD player w/ vintage Mullard 12AX7 tubes.  Audience PowerChord. Mogami 2549 IC with Valab plugs.
    • J.M. Reynaud Bliss
    Compact two-way quasi transmission line monitor. 89 dB/W/M, stable 4 ohm load, 45 - 25000 Hz. Fast, punchy and slightly warm. I also tried Harbeth 7ES-2 and GMA Callisto; the Reynaud Bliss stayed. A great match with the Audiomat amp. Discovery 1-2-3 cables.
    • J.M. Reynaud Magic Stands
    Designed specifically to improve the performance of JMR monitors. Making use of the principle of the Helmholtz Resonator, the Magic Stands improve low end performance and have the effect of evening up response in the midrange.
    • Mirage MS-12 Subwoofer
    Stereo pair with 12" ribbed paper cones.
    • Other Bits
    The system is fed by a pair of Hubbell HBL5362 industrial grade wall outlets wired directly to the house's electrical panel.   I may experiment with some more outlets down the road.
    • Self made prototype
    The walnut and mahogany rack is self made.

Comments 19

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Well done Dean.

Like the new digs and the component selection. What had to be restored and modified on the Thorens?

Spin the Yellowjackets.

lapierre

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