This system has been taking shape over a number of years. The Venture speakers, Antelope Zodiac Gold DAC and Rogue amplification have been a constant for some time, while experiments with cabling, room treatments and vibration management have brought interesting - and sometimes wonderful - changes.
The most profound recent change: adding four Stillpoints Aperture panels. My living room is a typical Hong Kong concrete box (9'x21'), and previously required a lot of treatments (bass traps, absorbers, wooden diffusors). It was ugly and never quite right. The Apertures have given the space a quietness and ease that is clear with the system and with conversation in the room, helping make the imaging more precise and the soundstage significantly larger. Major tip: placing the side wall panels on speaker stands about 4" out from the wall has a profound impact on the panels' bass-controlling ability. If you have Apertures mounted on your side walls, give this a try!
Today, staging is almost life-sized, the sound has plenty of inner detail, is slightly warm (thank you Venture Reference XLRs), and can be startlingly realistic at times.
Twenty years old, but still a treat to hear: refined, neutral, transparent. I struggled with lumpy sound for a while, then remembered to tighten the speaker enclosures. Doh! Venture speaker cables didn't do it (red, silver balance and Performance 14), but Stealth MLT Hybrids did the trick. Stilpoint Ultra SS and Foundation 2 stands were a big step up.
SOtM USB PCI card, 2 Teradak linear PSUs for the mobo and usb, Win Server 2012 and Audiophile Optimizer.
Crystal Cable BV Ultra speaker cables
I had experimented with Stealth MLT Hybrids, Venture speaker cable (Red, Silver Balance, Performance 14), Lectralines and Madison Audio Lab.
Crystal Cable BV Ultra interconnects
Crystal Cable Ultra PCs
Going to a full set of Ultra PCs (Rogue Monoblocks, Zodiac Gold DAC, PS Audio P5, computer LPSUs) netted huge gains. They sort of 'click' when you are using a full set.
System edited: Recent updates include Stillpoints Aperture panels, going to a full set of Crystal Cable Ultra PCs, and adventures with bamboo. Thanks Ikea!
System edited: Over the past few months, the addition of new Crystal Cables, Stillpoints, a PS Audio P5 and a Quadraspire SVT Bamboo stand have brought new realism and naturalism to the system.
Tboooe, I'm now enjoying significantly improved sound via the Windows Server 2012 + Audiophile Optimizer route (core mode, JRiver 19). Clarity, realism, presence, imaging, all noticeably improved. This has worked equally well with my jazz, classical and pop recordings - even the Beatles 24bit reissues are sounding great, and they have sounded dreadful in my system for years.
Tboooe, thanks for your suggestion. I've gone down the rabbit hole and am now making a few changes to my system in preparation for trying the WS2012/Optimizer combo. Like you, I'll use duel boot to compare the sound with Win7/JRiver/Fidelizer.
Thanks tboooe, what an elegant set-up you have. It looks like it sounds great.
My system is on the short wall of a 9' by 21' room. It was a challenge finding information on room treatments for a long, narrow space with highly reflective concrete walls, but I've improved the room quite a bit with diffusors, RoomTunes cushions, and Ikea CD cases at the 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4 points of the long wall. I've probably put more time (and pulled out more hair) tweaking the room than the system.
Glad to hear about your P3. Are you running your Luxman through it? Any chance you have compared it with passive conditioners? I had my eye on the Weizhi PRS-6 at one point, but was never able to try it in my system.
Thanks for the Server 2012/Optimizer advice, I would love to try this if I can but may not meet the minimum specs to run Server 2012 on my home-built CAPS 2.0. I'll have a look.
The PS Audio PPP is a helpful piece of kit, cleaning up bass and sharpening images when used with the amps. Does not seem to restrict dynamics, as far as I can tell when contrasted with plugging the amps into an Isoclean distributer.
Photos added. Thanks Mribob, I have admired your system for a while. The Excellence III Signatures are incredible - there is a pair on display at a used shop near me that I've heard a few times now. But the Charmes are about the max size for a 9' concrete room like mine. Other speaker cables I've tried are Madison Audio Lab (worked a treat with my earlier Audio Physic Step monitors, less so with the Ventures) and Black Cat Lectraline (Steve Hoffman seems to like this with his Ventures, I found it hyper-realistic and a tad etched-sounding with my gear, but it created almost hallucinogenic imaging and such outstanding bass that I almost stuck with it). The Stealth MLT is hard to describe, it's so much more transparent than other cables I've tried. Changes in my others now have a much more noticeable impact on the final sound than before, so I'll stick with the Stealth and start tearing the rest of my cables apart...
