milpai's system

by milpai on Clear DayTvcQuadParasoundCullen CablesGikBrickwallHerbie's AudioOppoPuresonicAurisbluMeProAcUDP-205D48RBackert LabsRhumba 1.3Cardas ParsecInakustikFurutechIsoAcousticsGaiaReferenzLS-2404 AIRAsusUSBStreamingNF-2404 AIRISO-puck miniAudioQuest Fog Lifters
From listening position
Back of room, listening position
ProAc Profile
MTM Configuration
Ribbon Tweeter
Parasound A21
Rhumba 1.3
T+A DAC 200
Audio Server
Control Center
Inakustik AC-3500P ON (blue)
Inakustik AC-3500P OFF (white)
Inakustik AC-3500P back
Power cable management
Bi-wire config
AIR Referenz
Matches the loudspeakers
Inakustik NF-2404 Air
USB cable
Cable Management
Inakustik 2502F power cord
Furutech connectors
Ceiling treatment
Puron filter
Gaia II
Gaia II closeup
AQ FogLifters

Description

December 2024
Replaced the Oppo UDP-205 with the T+A DAC 200

April 2024
Moved the GIK Monster Bass traps from back wall to front of the room to control bass. This tightened the bass as well as opened up the mid-range and treble notes. Did not realize that the change would be so profound. Should have done this years ago.

Feb-2024
Added another Puron filter

Jan-2024
Added a Puron filter

Oct-2022
Added the Mazda 1960s grey plates 12AU7 to the Rhumba. They opened my eyes (and ears) as to why people are ready to pay so much for NOS tubes.

Aug-2022
Added Isoacoustic mini-pucks beneath the Inakustik and audio server.
Added a custom built audio server to replace the aging Asus laptop. I did not realize how much profound effect a dedicated server has on the quality of the sound.

Oct-2021
Added the ISO-puck mini under the Backert Labs Rhumba 1.3 and Oppo UDP-205.
Added Isoacoustic Carpet spikes for Gaia II.

Aug-2021
Added the AudioQuest Foglifters. Initially added for "looks" and cable dressing. But found that it adds finesse and delicacy to instruments in the music. My guess is the contact area of the cable from the original wooden raisers has reduced more than 90% and that might be the reason. I am happy.

July-2021
Added the GIK 242 ceiling panel that balanced the sound from the left speaker, that was getting missed due to the unavoidable soffit in the room. So much to learn from your own experience.

Dec-2020
Purchased the Fidelizer PRO. This has immensely changed the listening experience. Folks using a Windows machine should certainly give a shot to the free version. You have nothing to loose except 5 minutes. The best part of free version is it is an exe files that you run and not install. So if you don't like it, just delete the .exe.

Oct-2020
Upgraded Asus K52 with a Asus S400CA, 8GB RAM and 1TB SSD. Again, this is an older laptop repurposed for audio. Also added a NAS server and all audio files are on that server. Connection to this server is via ethernet and not wifi. Evaluating the free version of Fidelizer which makes very audible, positive change in my system.

Jul-2020
Repurposed an old laptop for streaming Spotify/Qobuz and also digital files. The laptop was upgraded from 3GB to 8GB RAM and from 250GB HDD to 1TB SSD for DSD and FLAC files. Installed Foobar2000 with Eole skin on the laptop to play the digital files. Using an old iPad mini 2 tablet with MonkeyMote to control this laptop remotely. Love this app!
Installed the Inakustik Reference High Speed USB between the laptop and Oppo 205, which is now used as a DAC.

Jun-2020
Added Inakustik NF-2404 XLRs between Oppo-Backert and Backert-Parasound.
Will try to find some time to do a mini review of these cables, if I find time. These cables pull you into the music way too much.

Mar-2020
Added Inakustik LS-2404 AIR biwire loudspeaker cables

Nov-2019
Added the IsoAcoustics Gaia II footers to the ProAcs

Jun-2019
Added the Inakustik AC-3500p power conditioner in the system.

Nov-2018
Replaced the Promitheus Reference C-core TVC with Backert Labs Rhumba 1.3 preamplifier

Jan-2018
Replaced the Quad 21L with the ProAc D48R in Ebony.

October-2017
Replaced the Teac CD-1000 SACD player with Oppo UDP-205 universal disc player.

September-2015
Replaced the Marantz SACD player with Teac CD-1000.

May-2015
New room finished in April. Room is 19 X 15 X 8. Three walls were already in place (concrete). Had the 4th wall built with double drywalls inside/outside and using GreenGlue. 2 dedicated 10gauge 20 amp lines for amps and electronics. Speakers are 4 feet from back wall and 3 feet from side wall. Placement of speakers, chair, panels etc are within 1/8th inch tolerance. Replaced Signal Cable power cables with Cullen Cables Crossover Series power cords, because I needed longer and flexible cables.

Feb-2015
Replaced Signal Cable Silver Resolution RCAs between Marantz and TVC with Clear Day's RCA cables.

Sep-2014
Replaced Signal Cable Silver Resolution XLR between TVC and amp with Clear Day's XLR cables.

Aug-2014
Replaced the Signal Cable Silver Resolution bi-wires with Clear Day Double Shotguns and jumpers between HF and LF speaker terminals.

04-Dec-2013:
Replaced original wooden footers under TVCs with Ebony footers. Simply unbelievable - what they did.

February 2012 - September 2012:
Been exited to have a dedicated room for this "passion". This word was emphasized by a female family friend. She was amazed by how passionately I could go on and on about this hobby. She likes classical music. Soon after we moved into our first home, I did post some questions on this forum about french doors. Those are in place now and I am happy with their looks. Per my wife (touch wood), I need to place something on the door panels for preventing reflections and maintaining privacy. Her support for me in this hobby has been outstanding and I would not have reached this far, if not for her. So, that treatment on the door will come sometimes later this year. This is a small room with 13.5'X12.5'X9' dimensions. I painted this room myself (first time, never did this before). The speakers are placed along the shorter wall. They are 40" from front wall and about 30" from side walls. They are about 7' apart with some toe-in. I sit slightly more than 7' away. All measurements are within 1/10" error. Finding the optimum position for speaker took me about 24 to 30 man hours. Though this is painful, the outcome of this exercise is mind-boggling. Got some granite to go between the floor and speakers. These are 18"X18"X1.5". This has tightened the bass and has provided necessary isolation from the wooden floor below. At the same time, added Herbie Audio Lab's Extra Thick Hush Puckies under the speaker spikes and the granite. This causes the speaker to not "ring" and provides stability to the speakers, because of the dBNeutralizer base. Since this is my own space, I added some treatments from GIK. Bryan Pape at GIK was very helpful and actually told me to go easy on the treatments. We started with 2 Tri-traps on the corners and 2 Monster Panels on the back wall directly behind the listening position. I liked the way the bass tightened up. Bryan suggested the 244 instead of 242s on the first reflection panels to take care of any phase issues as well. And that has turned pretty nice. Also got the terminations on the speaker wires changed from spades to BFA bananas. I am totally sold on the BFAs. Superb contact and fit. Some of you advised me to move the equipments from between the speakers. Though I could not do it 100%, what I did was, to disassemble the rack and use the shelfs on the floor directly. But the resulting change in the sound staging is simply fantastic. I never imagined that a rack placed between 2 speakers can mess the soundstage. With all this in place I did miss some "meat" in my system. But I thought it was the size of the room that was causing the nulls and there was probably nothing I could do. What finally brought "life" in my system was the new XLRs between the preamp (TVC) and the amp. The move from RCA to XLR in my system was nothing short of drastic. I have mentioned this on this site as well as a forum dedicated to Parasound Halo products. Apparently, there was not enough gain in my system and so the "meat" was missing on the bones, if you will. This was not so obvious in the previous apartment room, since it was small and the speakers used to be closer to the walls. In the near future, I would like to add 3 242 GIK panels on the front wall, behind the speakers. Will first experiment with the existing Monster Panels on the front wall.


March 2010:
The Parasound amp has changed my system profoundly. I cannot believe the transparency and expansiveness it has brought into my system. And it seems a very good match for my TVC as I set the TVC volume to lower levels than my previous amp.

April 2009: Added the Promitheus TVC, which took my system to an altogether different level. I did not imagine of such a performance from my system. Looking for a good power amp now. Want a power amp with high sensitivity and power - to match the TVC and also in case I upgrade my speakers at a later time.

August-2005
It took many listening sessions, forums, mags, etc to build this starter system. Was worth every minute spent for building it. Started with recommended components list - but ended with what my ears liked.
Read more...

Room Details

Dimensions: 19’ × 15’  Medium
Ceiling: 8’

Components Toggle details

    • ProAc Response D48R Loudspeakers
    Ebony with Ribbon tweeter.
    • Parasound A21
    250 watts RMS x 2, 20 Hz - 20 kHz,8Ω, Class AB Sensitivity: 1 V for 28.28 V
    • Backert Labs Rhumba 1.3
    Tube preamplifier with 2 X 12AU7 tubes
    • T+A DAC 200
    True 1-bit converter - processes DSD files in their native form
    Uses 4 32-bit Burr-Brown converters per channel for PCM processing
    • Custom build Audio Server Audio Server
    Custom built audio server for streaming FLAC/DSD files and also other streaming services. Based on Streacom FC10 Alpha chassis. Running HQ Player for converting files to DSD 512
    • Signalyst HQ Player
    High quality file processor/player for converting FLAC files to 512 DSD
    • Inakustik Reference Power Station AC-3500P
    Power Conditioner
    • Inakustik LS-2404 Air
    Bi-wire speaker cables
    • Inakustik NF-2404 Air
    XLR Cables
    • Inakustik Reference High Speed USB
    USB cable
    • Inakustik 2502F
    Power Cord
    • Furutech FI-28(R)/FI-32(R)
    • Cullen Cables Crossover Series 10 AWG
    Amplifier Power Cord
    • Cullen Cables Crossover Series 12 AWG
    SACD player power cord
    • IsoAcoustics Gaia II
    Isolation footers for loudspeakers
    • IsoAcoustics Gaia II Carpet Spikes
    Carpet Spikes for the Gaia II
    • IsoAcoustics ISO-puck mini
    Footers under the preamp and DAC
    • AudioQuest Fog Lifters
    Cable dressers and system enhancers.
    • World Market Kendall Chair
    Very comfortable chair. Suede. No support directly behind the head which means sound is not distorted. I was searching for something like this for quite some time. I looked at some LC2 and LC3 knock-offs. But they were all leather that could reflect sound. Chocolate color which also matches the GIK panels.
    • GIK Acoustics Tri-Trap
    For front corners behind the speakers, in coffee color.
    • GIK Acoustics Monster Bass Trap
    Mounted on the wall behind listening seat.
    • GIK Acoustics 244 Bass Trap
    Absorption panel in Coffee color, mounted at first reflection points, that also takes care of phase related issues. Plan to get 2 more to go in the center of the room behind the speakers.
    • GIK Acoustics 242 broadband panel
    2' X 2' absorption panel
    • Porterhouse Audio Porter Ports
    • Puron
    Power filter
    • Apple iPad Gen 9
    iPad 9th generation for controlling Foobar2000 using MonkeyMote, Spotify and Oppo UDP-205 remote.

Comments 308

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Thanks Milpai! Good advice on the lenghts; I never thought about going a bit longer in order to snake them around. I went with short 2 foot xlr's so hopefully I don't regret it later. I should be getting them monday or tuesday. Slight delay in shipping due to the storm. I think I'm going to get the brickwall next so I can stuff my Equipment in the closet, out of sight, and I also like the idea of unplugging one plug vs. seven in thunderstorms, which we get alot of in Colorado. All of my brothers electrical stuff got fried last summrr. Stove, micro, tv, stereo, everything.

b_limo

Owner
B_limo,
Thank You.
I plug all my components into the brickwall. I cannot really give a shotreview of this. But one thing I must say that when I connected the amp "direct to the wall" Vs "to the always-on outlet" on the Brickwall, there is no difference in the sound. This is a solid surge protector that provides me peace of mind. I did not purchase the Brickwall for cleaning up the power - not sure if it does that. For power cords, I think you should have at least 4 feet. That way you can "snake" the cables around so that they do not touch/cross other cables and you have component placement flexibility.
I am eager to know your experience with the Signal cable XLRs. I can see your excitement to make some nice equipment purchases. This is a crazy hobby. But love it. Make sure that you enjoy your music everyday :-)

milpai

Milpai, talk to me about the brickwall! Is everything plugged into it? Give me a short review of it, and is there something you've found that you like better? I really like the idea of cleaning up my powera bit, and I also like the idea of cleaning up cabling a bit in the process. something else I like this would also allow me to run reallg short powercords into one box (do you think that is a good idea, short power cords?) Thanks bro! I'm liking your set-up more everyday and am following in your footsteps in a few ways, so thanks again! Ordered the xlr's yesterday, and will probably pull the trigger on thd p.c.'s next, but maybe I'll get the brickwall first and run short p.c.'s :-)

b_limo

Owner
B_limo,
Good to know that you experimented with the speaker positions. It is a painful task, but very rewarding. I am not a DIY person like you. Zman has done some nice work on acoustic treatment:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vbudg&1267991000
Signal Cable's products are "value for money". You would have to pay significantly higher to surpass their performance.
As for the 2 CDPs - the Marantz is the primary one. I do not play any "unknown" or "CDRs" on the Marantz. All those go into the cheap Sony DVD-player. None of the CDs that I put in the Sony are "dirty". Unknown CDs include the CDs that I have not purchased or belong to someone else. The issue with such CDs is that they "may" have multiple scratches on them which may miss-align the SACD laser. Library CDs are full of such. If a unknown CD is dirty, I simply wipe them clean with a clean soft moist cloth. No special cleaners, since they are not mine. And (touch wood) none of my CDs get touched on the flat surfaces. I handle my personal CDs as carefully as possible, only on the edges.

milpai

Owner
Sam,
Hope you setup your equipment soon and post some pics. I would be eager to see your new room. I would guess for this move that would be one of your consideration and hence the new room would be a step-up over the previous one.
I have posted a comment on your system page with couple of questions for you.
BTW, I am looking at Herbie's Audio products for component isolation.

milpai

Samhar, damn buddy, nice set-up!
Milpai, hey there bro! So I've been playing around with speaker placement again only to end up moving it rightback to where it was based on your dimensions, but only this time they ended up there soley based on my listening impressions. It seems like we are in similiar places on this audio journey, as I am now going to be building and applying acoustic panels and looking for a chair. Alot of people said I should look into the ikea poaing (sp.?). Is that the one you are currently using? I'll be buying those Xlr's you recommended this weekend and will probably eventually switch all my cables to signal cables too. They are priced really reasonably.
So, whats up with the two cd players? I've been wondering lately if dirty cd's muck up the laser on my player...
Do you use any cleaning product on your cd's?

b_limo

Milpai
Thanks for the comments !! I have only used the Herbie's UltraSonic tube dampeners and thought they worked very well. I mentioned the dots and pucks because they are inexpensive to try and are a good starting point to discover how much hash can be eliminated. You can then tune with other devices and/or combinations of devices under the shelves and the equipment to your liking. I have Simms pucks under the Black Diamond Racing Shelves and BDR cones under the CDP, it's just a matter of trying many combinations over time. After listening to my system for a period of time, weeks or months, I hear some area of the sound I'm not happy with, similar to your not hearing clearly deep into the background or a certain instrument not sounding "right" to my ears. This is when I start working on that area until I'm satisfied, this can take days or weeks and possibly $$$ !!!! This keeps repeating itself through the system/room until you reach "good enough" and stop worrying about it!!!
I have moved but my system isn't up and running, as for the dedicated room I don't think that can happen here!!!
I chose the EDS isolators because I prefer foam over ceramic and the foam is stackable in tight areas plus it's cheaper if you buy the special price seconds !!!!

Look at the middle picture of my room in each corner on top and sitting slightly diagonal on the record cases is a 244 trap. I tried these in the corners behind the speakers then replaced them with 16" ASC super tube traps which I preferred by a large margin. I tried many materials in front of the stone fireplace and preferred the 242's. The 242's were replaced on the side walls by Real Traps Mondo Traps, three went to the front wall one to the back wall behind the listening position.

samhar

Owner
Samhar,
Thank You for the kind words and the suggestions on the sorbothane isolation pods provided. Do you know if Herbie's Audio Lab has any comparable product? I am pretty impressed by their Hush Puckies.
Have you moved into your new home? I am curious - have you built a dedicated room for your system? You have a awesome system, which totally justifies a custom built dedicated room. Can you throw some light on why you chose Cable Isolators ESD over the ceramic ones for cable isolation? This is one more thing I need to look at. I went though your system and saw that you are using GIK 242 on the wall behind your system. Why did you decide on these and not 2 panels on 244? I am undecided on this part.

milpai

Hello Milpai
I would try putting Simms pucks, if you can find them, or sorbothane isolation pods under you equipment shelving and/or equipment. You can find the sorbogel at "dang good stuff" on ebay, get the 2" 50 D, $26.95 for 4. You could do everything at a reasonable cost. I think you will find these help reduce the "hash" that is bothering you. I currently use Simms pucks but have used sorbogel in the past. Grand Prix Audio uses sorbothane between the rack and shelving!!!!! I think this will clean up the mids and highs and for a very reasonable price you can find out.
You are doing a good job with your system/room, very nice!!

Sam

samhar

I think your description fits more with the recording mix. Some of my older CDs sound awesome while others sound very average.

Diffusion can help to eliminate echo and produce a nice large sound without killing too much of the liveliness. My listening room- a perfect 12x12 required a bit more extension so Brian recommended parallel diffusors. However, the bass must be managed appropriately.

lapierre

Owner
One thing I noticed from my listening last night was, the system clearly separates each instruments and vocals when there are not too may things in the mix - for example Sara K. or Norah Jones or Patricia Barber songs. But when I go to the oldies like "Casablanca" (Bertie Higgins), there are a hell lot of instruments in the background and the system does not delineate each instrument clearly. Can this be resolved by additional diffusion/absorption panels?

milpai

Owner
Lapierre,
You are welcome.
Actually Brian suggested me the 244s at the first reflection points, based on my dimensions. You are right, I do not want to kill the room sound; but want to tame the bass. I am surprised how a "gain" can change from "ok bass" to "awesome bass" and body. I am absolutely delighted with the overall sound of my system. I had never achieved such quality levels before. Every CD seems to be new.

The next thing on the hifi map would be a new SACD player with USB/Optical/Co-axial INs. But this is not scheduled at least for another year. The Marantz SA11-S3 is high on my radar. But would lookout for any other brand that also decodes HDCD. The ultimate player would be a audio only player that has all the features mentioned above and that can also do Blu-Ray audio.

milpai

Owner
Jaxwired,
Thanks for the kind words. Yes, I am a very big believer in placement now. I think it is a learning that all audiophiles have to go through. Till you experiment and find out for yourself, you will not be able to appreciate it, if someone suggests you about it. Sad but true. But sometimes space constraints limit your ability. I really envy you for that fantastic room and a very good system. The right words are "tastefully done".

milpai

Milpai thanks for posting. Elegent setup with a great room.

Did Brian recommend diffusors during your discussion?

My previous room measured 12x12 and discussions with Brian indicated adding diffusors at first and second reflections. Keeping the room live but controlling the bass without killing the sound of the room.

What's next on the HiFi roadmap?

lapierre

Milpai,

Thanks for posting on my wall and I like your system as well. I've admired it before. You have clearly spent a lot of time working on placement and room acoustics, very smart. Placement changes cost nothing and make a huge difference. I have also experimented with many of the budget cable brands. I am currently using all blue jean cable interconnects and they are fantastic. Congrats on a excellent system!

jaxwired

Owner
B_limo,
Hold on. Your bass/body issue sounds similar to mine. I looked up your amp and preamp on the net and see that you can use XLRs to connect them. Why not try that? For me it was a night and day difference. The bass that was missing in my system, suddenly came thru with the XLRs. I had to move my speakers from 40" to the current 48" from the front wall. And yet the bass is powerful. One of my friends came to listen last week and could not belive his ears, with the change he heard in my system. Basically it was a gain issue. Did you contact Signal cable yet?
Your setup is respectable and I am sure that with proper connections and speaker placement you will be amazed at what your system can do. As for toe in, use a female vocal CD and make sure that you can hear the "throat" voice (for lack of better words) and not the diffused vocals. When you look straight ahead, you will notice that one spot where the vocalization is absolutely prominent. Same goes for the other various instruments. In my setup the speakers simply disappear. It is a mesmerising experience. Goodluck for acheiving the sound you desire. I am sure, with a little patience and effort you will be there.

milpai

Owner
Kevinzoe,
Thank You. I do not have a measurement device, unfortunately. I have seen the discussions between you and Kiwi on his system page and know what you mean. Hopefully I will have a tool like that in the future sometime. You know how this hobby goes.
I am not sure if I should even treat the wall behind the speakers. I have looked at other system pages and assume that that would benefit. With the current setup, I got the imaging and depth I was looking for. I don't want to loose that by putting something on that wall. I am not a diy guy, so have to rely on ready-made stuff. I like your Toole advise. I don't think I have enough space in my room for the poly.
Again, thank you for the suggestions. Very much appreciated.

milpai

Milpai,
My system: classe ssp 25 pre, classe ca-150 amp, musical fidelity v dac II with Pangea p 100 power supply, denon DVD 2900 for c.d.'s, ps audio power punch cords on the amp and pre amp, audio quest diamond backs between dac and pre amp, audio quest g snake between pre amp and amp, blue jeans 10 gauge speaker wire, paradigm studio 20's.

I'm really liking the speaker placement. Lost quite a bit of bass but it was too boomy sounding anyway. I can't believe the amount of depth it added to the soundstage. I just got the speakers, had studio 10's before these, and was having a difficult time getting them to sound right. I liked the sound of the 10's so I thought I could just place the 20's in the same spot but that didn't work. Your placement is alot better. I usually like my speakers toed way in, but right now only have them slightly toed in, and am liking this set-up for the moment :-)
Thanks again!

b_limo

Hi Milpai,
Congrats on the dedicated room and the GIK investment. I too started down the acoustical treatment path using GIK goodies.

Have you a measurement device to know the before and after effects of adding treatments or moving them to a different place within the room? I find that this is a critical tool and just as important as the acoustical treatment itself. Especially for getting the low end right.

Regarding your front wall behind the speakers and your comment of trying to decide on absorption or diffusion - why not use both? You already have lots of absorption with the GIK stuff and carpeting attenuated lots of high freq energy, so I might be inclined to suggest diffusion and reflection. For your sized room I would suggest a hemi-cylindrical,or poly fused or some other geometrical shape. While a 180 degree poly will scatter sound in about a 120 degrees it won't offer any temporal (phase) effects which in a small room where sitting distance away from the diffuser is a major constraint, is acceptable. Said another way, you can sit closer to a diffuser than doesn't offer temporal effects or a 2D diffuser that sends back about 50% of the scattered energy to the listener.

RIVES appears to be keen on using these polys in the middle of the front wall. I have taken this same approach but have added a GIK Monster trap on either side of the poly with DIY bass traps in each corner but covered with a wooden surface to avoid mid and high freq absorption.

Alternatively, Toole's suggests absorption in the centre of the wall to kill a typical bass node coming from there. You could then put diffusion on either side of the centered bass trap.

Take freq and bass decay measurements and subjective listening notes for all options to help in getting it just right.

kevinzoe

Owner
B_limo,
You are welcome. I am glad that the changed speaker position worked for you. Yes, all of us go through this routine and it is indeed cumbersome. One more pointer - try to play with the toe-in - this could be different for your speakers. One simple way to do this without moving the speaker is, remove the chair from listening position. Sit on the floor. Then move your head side-to-side, w.r.t. one speaker and see if you are hearing more focus/dynamics/clarity. If yes, then change the toe-in accordingly. I have used female vocals to do this setup. For me, the human voice is the most important aspect that my system should bring out. And it is also difficult to get this aspect correct in the system. But once you get this aspect right, the rest of the sound will follow the same and everything will be set up correctly.

For the cables, I am sticking to the Silvers, cause I like the way they bring out the details in my system. One would imagine that Silvers in an all solid state setup would sound harsh. But this is absolutely not the case in my system. I don't think you can go wrong even if you went with Analog Two Balanced XLRs in your system. You can call up Frank at Signal cable. Discuss with him about your requirements and your equipment. Like Srg mentioned above, Frank can guide you accordingly. I believe he can send you demo pair of the XLRs, so that you can try and decide for yourself.
I am just curious - what components do you have in your system?

milpai

Milpai,
So I set up my speakers at the same distance as yours since my room is 11'7"x13'3", almost identical to yours. I had my listening chair in pretty much the same place as yours already, so I didn't have to move it. So far, I'm really liking what I am hearing, so I extend a big thank you for saving me 29 hours! Not that I haven't spent double or triple that in the past 8 months with various speakers and rooms, but speaker set up is such a pain and my least favorite part of setting up a system, but I di know that it pays off, it can just be daunting at times.

I also visited signal audio's website and am exited to eventually buy some, based on your recommendation, so thanks for that too. Would you recommend the silver ones with silver plugs as well? My system is pretty basic. One pair of rca's and one pair of xlr's. Silver for both?

b_limo

Owner
Sgr,
I am completely with you on the Signal Cable choice. I have compared their cables to some Nordost sub-$1000 ones and preferred the Signal Cables. It may not have been a fair comparison, because I compared the Silver Resolutions to Nordost copper ones. But the price points for Nordost were much higher. From a feedback long ago, a user had replied that the Silver Resolutions back then was comparable to Nordost SPMs.
Out of curiosity - what other cables have you tried in your system? You have some formidable gear and I am sure they would definitely have resolved the differences, between the cables. What is your feedback on Auralex diffusers between the speakers on the front wall? BTW, I use Herbie's products too :-)

milpai

Owner
B_limo,
Thank You for the kind words. You should certainly experiment with the speaker and chair position. I have spent more than 30 man hours experimenting this. Some of these hours are all alone. But trust me, the juice is more than worth the squeeze. I have read on these forums that speakers should not be spaced equally from side and back wall. Use that front port to your advantage. You can place your speakers close to a feet from back and experiment with "diffusion" on the back wall to give you more depth. I highly recommend GIK for their products and customer support. They provided me genuine advise and their recommendation worked perfectly in my room. I am still debating whether I should go the "diffusion" or "absorption" route on the front wall. Removing the equipment rack from between the speakers made a very big difference in imaging. But if your equipment rack is very low, then it would not matter. Mine, is on the floor, on wooden platforms (from the rack), now.
You are heading in the right direction about the Signal XLRs. check SGR's system. He could have easily afforded megabuck cables - but did not go for them. I don't think I will want to try anything less than Nordost Vallhala or the likes, if I am replacing my Signals :-) I would recommend the Silver Resolutions from Signal cables.
And yes, would love to see your system pics. Do let me know when you post your system on this forum. Good luck in finding the perfect spot for speakers and seating position in your room. Enjoy your music!!

milpai

Hmmm, maybe I should check out signal xlr's instead of audioquest...

b_limo

Very nice system. We have the same taste in cables. It is hard to beat the Signal Cable family sound. Their cables sound fine mixed with others, but when you listen to all Signal Cable it is a musical experience that rivals many more expensive choices for a fraction of the price.

sgr

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