That will do it for me....Kinda | Virtual Listening Room

Description

have almost made it to the promised land. been upgrading for about a year now. was thinking about upgrading my speakers to something that would allow me to ditch the sub. loving the sound now so why spend all the extra cash and effort??. staying put with what i have regarding audio gear. room treatments did wonders and was the best $700 i've spent to date. power lines and cords also helped. am now focusing on the music end of things. decided to move to a network/server system. lots of new stuff and lots to learn before i buy so it's going slowly. no hurry though as the bridge for my PS Audio pair isn't due out until summer 2010.

Components Toggle details

- Levinson #432
Levinson 432 puts out plenty of power (400/800 into 8 ohms/4 ohms) for the Aerials (which like lots of it). have always loved the Levinson sound regardless the company's recent fall from grace in the audio world. the 432 has a delicious sound imo and works great with the rest of my gear.
- Pass Labs X1
tried out several different pramps (5). almost landed on a bel canto until i tried this X1. does a wonderful job of doing near nothing to the sound. helped define my soundstage a little more was the only thing i really noticed (which is a good thing). this one has the newer full sized power supply.
- PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC
Great dac but even better when hooked up to a PWT via PS Audio's silver line I2S12 hdmi cable.
- PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport
this transport can play high res dvd audio like i've never heard before. outstanding in every respect including standard redbook playback.
- Aerial Acoustics and Velodyne Model 7b and DD12 Sub
aerial 7b's in rosewood. love these speakers except for way down low. that's where the velodyne dd12 sub lends a very light helping hand.
- Boston Acoustics Rear Surround speakers
have had these for many years. not a big movie guy so they're plenty for my needs. decent rear speakers that serve their purpose.
- MIT CVT-2 Prolines
spent months trying different IC's. Acoustic Zen(silver ref 2 and matrix 2), Tara Labs, Cardas (cross and gold refs), Signal, Acoustic Art and Audioquest. liked the Cardas Gold Ref's best until these MIT's came along (2 sets). similar smooth sound as the GR's but with added detail and better/cleaner midrange and highs. these CVT-2 Proline's are great IC's IMHO. they have many of the features of the higher line MIT's but at a fraction of the cost.
- Acoustic Zen Satori Shotgun's
tried 5 different cables and these were the last ones standing.
- 20 & 15 Amp Dedicated Lines Porter Port
got a 20 & 15 Amp dedicated lines with Porter Ports. use a PS Audio Perfect Wave AC-10 pc to feed the quintet. have my HT on the 15A while the 2 channel feeds from the 20A.
- PS Audio Quintet and Power Cords. Quintet
use a cryo'd quintet to sort out the power. another PSA AC-10 feeds the ml 432. 2 AC-5's power the PWT/PWD. single AC-3 for the sub. the PSA stuff works great together.
- Steve Blinn Extra Wide Rack
replaced my cheapo stand with this beauty from Steve Blinn. rock solid even with lots of weight on it. Awesome piece of hardware imho.
- ATS Room Treatment and curtains 36x36
added this 36x36 panel to the rear wall along with some heavy curtains. really helped calm things down.
- ATS Room Treatment Panels 12x48 and 24x48 panels
added these panels behind my speakers as well.
- ATS Acoustic Ceiling Panels
hardwood ceiling need some help too
- Foam Forms Corner traps
built in bookcase was causing alot of grief for my sub. stuffed it full of foam and it knocked out the problem immediately.
- Foam Forms Corner Traps
another pic of top part of bookcase.
- Sony Play Station 3 and Racing Set-Up
i'm a racing fanatic. F1 racing in particular. my Sony PS3 provides a racing fix as well as blueray source. the racing seat/wheel/pedal combo together with this sytem makes for a really enjoyable simulation. no "grand theft auto" for me. i'm talking real simulation games.
- Yamaha RX-V665 AVR
inexpensive AVR that gets the job done.
- Sony Bravia
Decent 46 that once again...gets the job done.
- Herbie's Tender feet
have tenderfeet under the X1 as well as both PS Audio piece's. with the blinn rack, there is now almost no vibration at all.
- Heavy Carpet Pad Overstock.com
nice heavy pad under my thin area rug also helped smoothen things out

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Sounds like you've really been working hard to improve your system. I've really been enjoying the PWT/PWD combo myself. Are you using PS Audio's silver HDMI yet? I've heard its really good.
I've used the following tweeks to my Perfect Wave combo. I have found that placing 3 Mpingo disks on both the transport and DAC really made the combo sing. Other tweeks have been Herbies Tenderfeet under the transport placed as close as possible to the factory footers and to the right of each. The DAC didn't seem to like this arrangement so I'm now using 3 Vibracones two in front and 1 in back (middle). I'm going to have another group of tenderfeet sent out to try with the DAC.
As for the HDMI cable, I started with a Nordost (don't remember the model) and am now using a Signal Cable HDMI.
I'm hoping to try the PS Audio silver HDMI in the near future.
For powercords, I've tried the stock, Synergistic Research, Signal Cable Digital, and VH Audio Flavor 4.
Of these the VH Audios seems to be the one to use in my system. The bass gained more impact and was more transparent.
What tweeks have you tried?
I've also upgraded my system since we orginally started discussing the PWT/PWD.
Enjoy your system.
Steve

sgr December 02, 2009 23:53