Designed this 38" by 22" room myself for music appreciation and family enjoyment. soft pecky cyress walls, maple floors, 10ft peak ceiling. Room overlooks the Smoky Mountains. Doors to the room are exterior and the wall adjoining house is brick, so I can listen at night and not disturb the family. Cabinetry holds CD collection.
I have simplified to the Vinni Rossi L2i-SE Integrated which has a great DAC module. The Rossi is American made and has a 10 year warrentee. I use a separate belt-driven transport because that is where most mechanical problems may arise. The Rossi contains a class A 300B pre-amp and I upgraded to Takatusuki 300B tubes. The Rossi is bi-wired with Master Built Ultra cables to the Von Schweikert VR55 Aktives.Thats it. This saves many power cords and uses no interconnects compared to past separates.
While my old system sounded very good, the sound of this new system configuration is more natural, cleaner, a touch warmer, very dynamic and satisfying. All etch and harshness in highs is gone. I think this is mostly from the simpler signal path and the tubes. WSF is way up with only one remote and push and play design. The reduced visual clutter is relaxing. I would appreciate any comments.
21HZ to 40Khz +-2db, less than 0.5% distortion. Powered and adjustable bass.
Master Built Ultra Speaker Cable
Biwire Rare Earth noise reduction coating
Mad Scientist Power Cords
Excellent Power Cords for the buck, with detail, dynamics and a touch of warmth
CEC Corp. TL3N Transport
Belt Drive CD Transport. Modded inside with 14 lbs lead weight, special fuse. Using two Caprice Audio Mosaic Stabilizers on top.
Inakustik AC-3500P
Line Conditioner with central parallel filter and star grounding
Vinnie Rossi L2i-SE
300BTubed Pre-amp Integrated with DAC module. Class A, ultra wide bandwidth Directly heated Triode (DHT) , dual mono with Belleson super regulators. 100Watt RMS into 8 and 180W into 4.
Adona Eris 1C Cherry Amp Stand
Specialized layer of granite, then other materials to dampen, works well under the Rossi
Rxman Thank you for your support and friendship - since you have blown your cover as my mystery modder I do have to tell people that you did an amazing job! All the work was precise and better than any factory work that I have seen. It has been great fun bringing out the best in these amps and hearing the dramatic difference.
I was privileged to visit Joe earlier this year in March and listen in that beautiful A-frame room, seeing and hearing in person was a game changer.
Joe and his wonderful wife were very gracious folk, we had dinner at a nice restaurant one evening, took a couple of hikes in the wooded hillsides and enjoyed the peaceful, panoramic view this area has to offer.
When we returned, I commenced modifying Joe's NuForce amps, fired them up for a listening session and the rest was musical history.
Charles1dad - Thank you for your kind words. Yup the closer to live rather than high hifi the better for long term enjoyment. Going to a real acoustic concert can really reset what real bass sounds like. Sherod - great to hear from you. VS does have a white paper on the cables with prices if you request from them. I am on the road teaching in Vegas but next weekend when home will post prices here
I'll echo the comments of others, your room is beautiful and your system is wonderfully arranged. Based on the description you provided your sound is very natural and thus is effectively allowing you to emotionally connect with your music. Natural sound will keep you engaged long term and always trump hifi spectacular. Congratulations. Charles,
Joe, I'm glad to see that you've found an improvement by upgrading some cabling. I just checked the Von Schweigert web site and I don't see where they have cables. Could you share the models and pricing on the specific cables you are using?
Brownsfans - Thank you for the kind words. We have 70 degrees today and the leaves are beautiful, If you love hiking you will really enjoy. There rae 250 waterfalls in our county and many hikes of all levels of challenge. when you get down pay a visit!
Agear - Thank you also for your comments. Interesting story about the VS-Nuforce combo. I would add especially with tubes up front.
Your room is simply beautiful. What a great space.
Interestingly, when I still lived in MN, I went to hear a demo of the VR4Jrs with the NuForce monoblocks. It was around 2003, and the dealer there at the time was Chris Moon, who was Prince's original sound engineer. His room was spectacular with enormous Avant Garde speakers and about 300K of equipment upstream. He was impressed with how good the VSs sounded with the Nuforce as was I. I am sure the Ayon sounds glorious as well. Bravo.
Gammajo, Very nice system, really beautiful room, and you are situated in paradise on earth! I expect to retire to an area just north of the park in less than two years. I have two passions--music and hiking. Can't wait to get down there.
System edited: Master Built Signature Cables Review. You may not believe what I am about to tell you, because I barely do and I am listening first-hand. I was willing to accept that wire (above high quality but non-stratospheric) made a small difference in mega systems, but that it was probably not as important in normal systems as a serious upgrade to preamp or source. I heard many power cords, interconnects and speaker cables, in the $500 to $1,500 range and auditioned and purchased many CD transports, preamps (tube and solid state) and amplifiers. Using live acoustic music and a grand piano in the same room with the system as reference, I finally had my system to a very nice place where all commented that it was clean, clear, resolving without harshness, and involving. It should be noted that I am blessed with very clean power. I am the only house on the outside transformer and the system is wired into a panel separate entirely from the main house. When asking Albert Von Schweikert (distributer for these cables) for help in deciding whats next, with me considering new amps, and possible subwoofers, he suggested that I try wiring my system completely with the Master Built Signature series. Having learned to trust him, and the generous return policy I assented and he sent three power cords, one balanced IC and a set of biwire speaker cables, already broken in. I used two CDs compiled with all my reference tracks spanning orchestral, classical solo (particularly piano and violin), jazz, pop, and rock. Immediately I noticed sound that was about 5% cleaner and clearer, with 10% more air, bloom, and a better sound stage. But the HOLY COW! part was that the music was at least 25% more natural and 50% more liquid. As days passed, I used torture tests: harpsichord, harmonica, organ, brass, woodwind, strings, and percussion all were realistic and wonderful. I tried Metallica and Led Zeppelin to make sure that the liquidity was not artificial and when the music was supposed to be driving and edgy it was in spades. Yet lovely and liquid music was more so than I have ever heard on any system. Piano which is both liquid and percussive with wood, string, and felt-hammer timbre was spot on. The overall presentation is shockingly better and more natural. Timbral density and attack/decay at the very high and low frequency extremes is greatly enhanced. Also lowest level detail such as the variations in in-breath for singers from one phrase to another is more naturally apparent adding greatly to the excitement and realness of the performance. As I relax into listening, the feeling of enjoyment is very close to the best vinyl rigs in density, richness, and naturalness but with the strengths of digital. When I open my eyes the sense of of the singers and instrumentalists being in the room with you actually increases, speaking to a big increase in presence without any forwardness. This is more than a significant equipment upgrade it is equivalent to an entire system upgrade! It is substantially better than the changes noticed when I auditioned equipment at four times the current prices of my stuff. I would encourage an audition for people with revealing systems at any price. The investment, while significant is likely to produce more significant satisfaction than any other change you could make.
Papermill, thanks you for your kind words. Yes I am so fortunate to have a beautiful space that feeds the soul. May your daughters give you as much joy as mine have me, and when the nest is empty I am sure there will be great equipment to discover!
At the risk of sounding like a "broken record", your listening room is gorgeous. So much of our listening enjoyment can be connected to a fine visual as well as sonic aesthetic and you have clearly found both. Congratulations. P.S. I've also have three girls who are entering the marriage years which will impact my system modification plans also!
Agear So far have done more mods on the Nuforce and have not heard the Hegel30 want still want to. Just did new roof and a wedding in January with another wedding in May (daughters) so Hegel is on hold for awhile.
I see you made the upgrade. Congratulations! With summer coming to a close, perhaps I could stop by some evening or weekend? I'd love to see and hear your system. You can contact me at [email protected] if you like.
Thanks Albert and Lloydlee for your kind comments. Watching the trees sway to the music, or a snow fall as the tunes play is really a treat. French-fries, you are in for a real treat. The adding of marble and the damping layer inside the cabinets plus the new mid driver do wonders. I saved $500 on ship by picking them up in my pickup truck at the depot about 40 miles from my house but still not cheap. My review is now posted on A'gon under Member reviews-Speakers if you want to take a look
