Located in an open 40' x 40' space with concrete floors, rug in front of system, big soft couch that seats 6 . Sheetrock walls with one 40' long glass wall to one side, with thin curtains. Ceiling is 18" deep open wood trusses, 2' on center. Deck is at 10' and covered in 1.5" lined acoustic fiberglass. Listening area is nom. 16' by 40' and loosely defined by a 5 -4" high open shelf storage wall opposite the glass wall. The wall behind the system is covered in paintings and acoustic diffusion panels.
The room also supports a HT system with a Pioneer Elite 50 monitor on a rolling track to allow multiple options on placement. The Receiver is also a Pioneer Elite, the 7.1 speaker system is Totem Dreamcatcher with an SVS powered sub, Sony Blue Ray and a knocked out Dell media server.
The 2 channel system is the result of many years of fooling around with this stuff. I have become a committed Tom Evans junkie, his plain black boxes are amazing, taking the signal from the cartridge and stepping it up carefully, producing a holographic sound set in a background that is as quiet as the vacuum of space. Evans obsession with power filtering pushed me to pursue more careful work on my front end power. I have installed an Isoclean breaker panel with beautiful Seimens breakers, two PT3030G transformers and a lot of high end wire work. The elimination of noise in the power, via Isoclean and Tom Evans allows the most subtle of sounds to emerge. The music coming from the Meadowlark time coherent speakers offer a breathtaking playback of the instruments and voices. The nuances of note decay places you in a beautiful and accurate soundstage that is addictive.
My analog source is from my good friend Mehran who has helped me find everything I want and need for vinyl playback. The Amazon Refrenz turntable is deep and rock steady. The Triplanar arm is beautifully adjustable and hold its settings forever! This is one responsive and agile arm. The ZYX is well know for a reason, it is so effortless and responsive. Overall and rather trouble and fuss free front end.
My rack is custom made by yours truly, as is the rolling TV rail system. I like to fool around in the wood shop and weld steel and aluminum. The rack is made from solid 1.5 square carbon steel, The shelves are 1.5 Baltic birch with the turntable shelf resting on an Aurios bearings. The Tom Evans gear sits on soapstone slabs on top of more Aurios bearings. The rack is clad in perforated aluminum panels that attach magnetically to the steel barstock with magnetic tape. The turntable is under a sliding wood cover that protects the turntable. Since the turntable is on an isolated shelf, the sliding of the cover has no vibrational impact on the turntable. The result is a quiet looking rack with only the glow of the lights coming through the perforated metal. It also protects this stuff from my drinking friends and my 3 yr old daughter.
The room is a trial and error and intuitively tuned space that makes a serious difference to the experience. I am also interested in art and can pour more cash into that than even my audio hobby. It is a wonderful place to entertain, listen to music, watch tv movies, and work.
I have not bought any new equipment or tweaks in many many months, I am not even inclined to, Amazing!!! I will keep my Evans boxes up to date and dont feel the urge to replace them. The one ongoing investment has been vinyl from Tom Port at Better Records. I have sunk a fortune into Tom and he has been my best investment. The sound from his offerings are shattering and mind blowing. I have no problem putting a record on and within minutes drifting away to a small night club or studio somewhere in the time space continuum.
Yes, Meadowlarks! good good move. May I suggest the Shearwater Hot Rods? I got rid of my pair 6 months ago were amazing and I'm still missing them. I think they are unreal for the money, very close to the megabuck stuff for short money. In fact, I would say their midrange compares very very favorably to Wilson, Dynaudio, etc.
