My listening room is a difficult one. The listening room is open to a large hallway, the breakfast area and the kitchen. I sit about 12 feet from the speakers in equilateral. I have gone through many trials with room treatments and I have arrived at a configuration that works well finally. The treatments are DIY and GIK Acoustics. GIK is very good, and a great value in treatments.
I listen to my system on average 4 hours a day. Most of the time it is background while I cook or work, but I try to sit and listen and relax (and escape reality) for a while every chance I get. Work keeps me away far too often now, it is unfortunate.
At this point, I am satisfied with my system and would be happy with it this way forever. This in mind, I am always looking for ways to improve the system. I just like trying new things! What better way to learn more? I have been saying this for years, but I still change things occasionally.
I use TIDAL streaming service for quite a bit of listening and it has revolutionized my listening habits. I love being able to listen to music that is new to me quicker than I could find it on Amazon.
Feel free to comment or make suggestions. I am always looking for input, just ask Aball, he has to endure my inquisitions quite frequently! Many thanks to Arthur, without him this would be impossible!
I absolutely love having all of my music at my fingertips without having to get up out of the listening position. I have a linear power supply to replace the switching supply. I have also modded the board for better sound. It sounds great!
Oppo BDP-103D
I play DVDs, Blu-rays, and use as a transport for redbook cds. I can't really tell a difference between transports though. No difference between the squeezebox and the Oppo, at least.
McIntosh MDA-1000 DAC and Preamp
Much, much better than the previous preamps. I have had it for a while now and have no desire to change. It trounces the BAT equipment I had before it.
Van den Hul Mainsserver
A/C for the DAC/Preamp.
Kora Electronics Aries
The best amps I have heard thus far. Tube FET hybrid. Super low self noise. A few improvements that I made as well :-)
Harmonic Tech AC-11 Power Cords
For the Kora Aries.
Atlas Navigator 1.5m All-Cu XLR
From the DAC/Pre to the monoblocks.
Avantgarde Duo Omega
Incredible speakers. They are borderline too hot on top, but Im ok with that because their resolution and dynamics are unbelievable.
Balanced Power Technologies Balanced Transformer
Used for power filtering and distribution. Every time I have tried removing it from the system I put it back very quickly. Works very well.
System edited: Added a bluray player and a regenerator. The regenerator allows me to listen in a more relaxed state because I was getting power sags and blowing fuses (and sometimes output devices!) in my amplifiers, sometimes more than once an evening. It definitely cleaned up the fine details in the image as well, as an added bonus.
Arthur, Why mess with something that works so well? McIntosh and Kora seems to be a good combo! I am surely the only person in the world with an MDA-1000 feeding directly Kora monoblocks. But it works so well, maybe other folks should try it to? I am still of the belief that the Koras much prefer a well designed, balanced feed to operate optimally. They are so quiet in this configuration; I can't believe how much noise I was attributing to the Koras that was really up the chain from them.
The rack sits on some small myrtlewood blocks. It looks precarious in the picture, but I think that is just the perspective. In fact, they are stable enough for me to pull equipment off the rack and smash it on the ground! The granite on the shelves keeps it quite stable.
I am looking forward to getting a frequency response analyzer to shortcut positioning of the speakers and room treatments to optimize bass response. It is going to be lots of work though!
System edited: I changed to done for now, but that really just means I am mostly done. I will be adding a subwoofer sometime soon, so I guess it is still evolving some!
System edited: I went to Focal Diva Utopia Be speakers from the Triangle Antal ESw. Quite a jump in performace. I also added the BAT VK-31se. I love it with the 6N6P tubes rather than the 6H30's. I will add pictures when I am done applying to grad school.
System edited: I received my Tube Dampers today. I put them on the Cary, one of his new Ultrasonic dampers on each of the 6922s and 12AU7s. I then took some older nylon dampers off the Kora's 12BH7s and stacked one PEEK damper over a Blackbery damper on each tube. They look much better in the window than the white nylon dampers did. I then finally put the screws back into the Cary case lid, but not too tight. I don't have the screws in the Kora lids, but I should put some back in sometime soon. In addition, I have vibration dampers (very soft erasers) under the Sony with cork board under the erasers on the shelf. There are cork board pieces under the Cary's soft feet. And finally, there are erasers and cork under the marble pieces the Koras are sitting on. If you feel the Koras with loud music on, they are totally vibration free. The tops of the Sony and the Cary resonate with the music a little, I am working on putting three erasers with a weight on top of them on each component to see if it damps the vibes. The Sony is outputting PCM to the Bel Canto dac via a bettercables cable and then into the Cary with the Guerrilla Audio copper interconnects with Eichmann Bulletplugs. The SR balanced cables are in between the Cary and the Kora's. The Koras have chrome top RCA 12BH7s and the Cary has the EH 6922s and RCA cleartop 12AU7s in place. Finally, I toed the speakers in to pointing almost directly at each ear when sitting all the way back in the best sitting position for bass response. I am sitting listening to it right now and there is a great amount of detail, perhaps too much. I think I might have too much energy in the presence region. I might toe my speakers back out a little to see what happens but I think ultimately the Triangles are designed to point right at you. However, I feel as if the system is pretty close to what I am looking for. Maybe a bit more body and less hifi would be better, but it sure does the audiophile tricks well and it is great to listen at lower volumes, which is good because I have roomates.
System edited: Added the components I am using now, look for pictures of the updated setup and and full review of some cords and such. Thanks Audiogon!
System edited: Sold the Cary. It was great, but this is much better. I got a Thule PR150B preamp. It may not be well known, but it is fully balanced and has tone controls (that I LOVE). The Kora monoblocks are amazing. I bought some MIT shotgun S3 biwire speaker cables as well as some Atlas Navigator All CU interconnects for the CDP and some Cardas Crosslinks for the balanced connection to the monos. Now, with the tone controls, almost all recordings are listenable rather than just the good sounding ones. I love it! R
System edited: I had to send the Sony in for a new optical assembly. The Sony repair got my unit back within one week! I put the Svetlana 6550Cs in for the EH KT88s and with the current setup they are way better. I think next I would like to try some SED 'winged C' KT-88s now. I have plans to order some cables to try soon as well.
System edited: I put in the EH KT88s today and the sound is vastly improved. It has the clarity, detail and control it needed over the SED 6550Cs. I am amazed at how much better they are than the 6550C for what I am trying to do. The bass control is vastly different. Anyone looking to get a more "hifi" sound out of the Cary should definitely get some KT88s.
Chris, Thanks for the compliments. The guitar is a G&L S-500. My other guitar is my Taylor, which is what I play most of the time now. It hangs on the side wall near the G&L. I am just now getting settled in with the SLI-80 and I have decided it is quite nice. I have some new tubes coming that should be fun to play with as well.
I will let everyone know what I think of the new tubes in the Cary when they get here as well as compare the Myryad and the SLI-80. Rush
System edited: Edited: Finally added system pictures. I just changed a great deal of stuff all at the same time, so I cannot give you my impression of the individual changes. I can, however, tell you that I like very much what I have now.
