System edited: I picked up an additional set of VMPS RM40 speakers in Piano Black. I'm keeping my other set of RM40's for a second system. For the time being, I am using them for surround speakers. That's complete and total overkill, but it makes for a heck of a visual statement.

dltf90 June 15, 2009 23:18

System edited: Switched pre-pro from Krell to Onkyo. Yes, there is a slight step back in 2 channel performance, but the Krell was becoming obsolete for HT applications and far too costly to upgrade. What I gain is lossless surround audio for my movies and concert videos. I borrowed the recent blu-ray "Within Temptation" release and was very impressed by the 5.1 24/96khz uncompress soundtrack. While that is the highest resolution blu-ray I've heard yet, most of the others are 5.1 and 24/48khz uncompressed. That is still DVD-Audio quality with full HD video. Not bad, especially for Rush's "Snakes and Arrows Tour" video.

dltf90 December 29, 2008 18:23

Oh, one other thing. The system picture is a little Photoshop trickery. I took two pictures, one with room lights on and one with room lights off. I cropped out the screen from the dark room picture and pasted it over the screen from the light room picture. Obviously with the lights on I would never get a picture that wasn't washed out. Can ya tell I like the show Mythbusters?

dltf90 February 15, 2008 13:43

System edited: I recently upgraded my front projection system to an Epson Home Cinema 1080UB (ultra black) projector. To say it is a night and day improvement over my Sony HS51 is an understatement. I can finally achieve credible black levels. Is it perfect, no. No point source lighting system ever will be. However, this is as close as I've ever been and finally I have that 120" plasma look as the Sony HS-51 was considerably dimmer than the Epson in best picture mode. Over the holidays I also added a Toshiba HD-A20 HD-DVD player for $100. Yeah, I know Blu-Ray will eventually win, but it was only $100! Strange that the best Blu-Ray player (the Playstation 3) is also $100 less than any standalone Blu-Ray player. It will be sad to see HD-DVD fail, even though it is the inferior format, because we lose competition. Nothing worse than Sony controlling prices and technology (SACD is a great example).

dltf90 February 15, 2008 13:40

System edited: Just when I think the upgrade bug has been squashed, a demo changes my mind. I heard a demo of a $15,000 DAC connected to a computer based music server and was blown away. Being a computer techy, it wasn't hard for me to build a music server. Finding a DAC that could match the Consonance Reference Linear MKII was the challenge.

Initially I settled on the Lite Audio DAC-60 and will begin modding that to the sound I want. Eventually I will create a separate tube analog section based on a pair of 300B triode tubes. After spending 5 weeks to rip all 1,600 of my cd based recordings to the music server, I'm in seventh heaven again with the ability to play anything in my collection at any time.

dltf90 April 10, 2007 16:54

System edited: My mistake, I operate the Rogue Audio Stereo 88 in triode mode, not ultra-linear mode.

dltf90 October 10, 2006 19:24

System edited: I've since consolidated amplifiers. There were just too many of them and I was running out of space in my amp racks. I replaced the Classe / Acurus / 2x B&K setup with a single multichannel B&K and a Rogue Audio tube amp. I was uncertain about tubes, but the Stereo 88 puts out 27 watts in ultra-linear mode which is more than sufficient to drive the midrange and tweeter ribbon panels of the RM40's. However, one of the tubes I bought was a dud (under warranty thankfully) and thus I was left with a half amplified channel. I discovered that 13 watts is insufficient for biamping. I would estimate you'd need 20 watts to be comfortable as I had to drive the speakers hard to get the amp to crack up with only 13 watts. I may eventually upgrade to tube mono blocks for greater flexibility. But that's a later update that I'm not compelled to make anytime soon.

dltf90 October 10, 2006 19:19

System edited: Updated pictures to show off the current configuration of my home thater / audio system.

dltf90 April 08, 2006 17:16

Yeah, I've got a lot of amps, no doubt. A lot of that has to do with the fact that I've been building my stereo for 15 years now. I'm also upgrading and improving various aspects. I started when I was 18 with just some simple equipment and an after factory modified Magnavox CD player (which in 1990 was "state of the art").

As for amp recommendations, that's up to the ears of the listener. Because I have a digital pre/pro (Krell), I prefer an amp with a warm sound. That is why I got the Classe CA-100. It helps to tame some of the high end and midrange harshness in most digital recordings. Compared to the B&K or the Acurus, it is just a much more musical amp. The Acurus is also a great amp, especially for the money. Since the bass section of the RM40's operates from 20-165hz, it needs muscle, not necessarily warmth. In that frequency range the Acurus is perfect with its bottomless 250watts.

Carver amps are not really that impressive for sound, in fact it is the worst sounding amp I have (mid / high). However, it is only driving the subwoofer from 40hz down, so musicality is unimportant to me. However, muscle is essential and the Carver provides it in spades. I picked it up for $200 and it bench marked flawlessly.

The ST-140 is for biamping the center channel and it is great in that role. To this day, it is one of the better sounding amps I've ever owned and is tough to beat for the price. The ST-1400 is used for the rear channels and is just fine for that roll since there isn't that much critical musical information going to the rear channels.

Since the system was built over time and not all at once, getting a single amp for all channels would never have been an affordable option. Besides, the piecemeal approach has allowed me to take advantage of biamping (in the case of the RM40's, that is essential) and take advantage of matching amplifiers to specific roles in my system. Yeah, I'd be happy to have an all Classe, Bryston, or Krell system. But for the amount of money I saved with my approach I got a high end projector and a 120" screen and a whole lot of music and movies!

dltf90 December 26, 2005 19:10

System edited: Just re-arranged my equipment so that it all fits below the screen. Makes for a cleaner looking room. I'm still waiting on my VMPS LRC to arrive and replace my PSB Image 2b's as my center channel speaker.

dltf90 December 15, 2005 11:50