Hi Jfrech. Good to hear from you again. I am using clock cables from Verastarr. The clock and cables belonged to my close friend and fellow Austin-ite, Babybear.

Zephyr24069, I too enjoy grabbing the discs and sticking them into the P03. I will tell you that the computer based set-up I have is as good as I've heard. It still does not beat an SACD played back by the Esoteric stack. The highs are much better on an SACD played through the Esoteric stack.

rsorren1 May 08, 2012 02:19

Hi Zephyr24069. Thanks for the kind words. I just got the G0s clock a month ago and have not yet updated the picture. The clock has made a noticeable difference in instrument placements (much better defined), upper and lower frequencies extension and smoothness. The little box on top of the D03 is the Weiss INT202 firewire to S/PDIF converter. I use a MacBook Pro as a music server and feed the digital signal from the laptop via firewire to the INT202. I also use Amarra software to control the INT202 device and feed bit-perfect digital to the system. This is the set-up I saw Peter McGrath, Wilson Audio, use and discussed with him. I copied it! The heart and soul of power distribution is the transformer, dedicated sub-panel, and ground rod for the transformer. These were installed by a licensed electrician and have provided protection and clean power for the equipment in the room. I selected a 5KVA because I have audio only. If a home theatre will also be driven, a larger transformer may be needed depending on gear. The key is a low resistance ground. Our soil was conducive to a very low resistance reading and the results have been outstanding. I also ordered the transformer with filtering and harmonic filtering options.

rsorren1 April 24, 2012 16:23

Bigpond, Spinaker01, Gpgr4blu, Rhljazz,

Thanks for all of your kind words. The Audio Research Reference gear is truly special. The addition of the G0s clock to the Esoteric stack has made a noticeable improvement over what was great sounding digital. The Kimber Select 3038 upgrade from KS-3033 has provided additional detail and smoothness in the upper frequencies and solidified the bass response. Very pleased with the results at this point. Thanks again.

rsorren1 April 24, 2012 02:47

System edited: Added Esoteric G0s Master Clock

rsorren1 April 19, 2012 04:11

System edited: Upgrade to Kimber Select KS-3038

rsorren1 December 10, 2011 15:37

System edited: Updated system pictures. Added Audio Research Reference 40th Anniversary, Shunyata King Cobra power cords on REF 210s, back in June 2011. The Ref 40th Anniversary is now broken-in and stunning. I also feed digital music from a 1TB LaCie drive. Here is the chain: Apple MacBook Pro, Amarra, firewire to Weiss Int202 converter, Esoteric D03. Kimber Select 2020 cable. The music is stored AIFF on the 1TB drive and the drive is ethernet connected to an Apple Extreme base station. I connect the MacBook Pro to the Apple Extreme via ethernet as well when using it as a source.

rsorren1 November 16, 2011 19:36

System edited: System changes made June 2010. Added Esoteric P03 / D03 SACD-CD player. Components are so heavy that I had Steve Blinn design a two sheld extra wide for everything. Using Acrolink Mexcel 2500 digital cables.

rsorren1 June 13, 2010 16:16

I had Sophia-2s prior to the WP/8. I find the WP/8 to be more open overall, have better detail at the frequency extremes and have better bass impact. The color of my WP/8 is called Titan Red. The tube traps behind the trees are 16" round and 48" high. They have provided a definite improvement in bass in my room. Thanks for the compliments on the room. We do enjoy it.

rsorren1 February 14, 2010 22:47

Thanks for the kind words. As Grr6001 suggests, the power conditioning is one of the most important improvements one can make. Mjcmt, The Ekornes Stressless couch is awesome. Each seat reclines individually. The other chair is a "Perfect Chair - Zero Gravity" by Human Touch. The best I've ever been in. You can get your spine parallel to the ground by reclining. Reclining that far back is not a great position for listening to music but great relief for the back! We have no plans to add projection of any kind. Music is our passion.

rsorren1 August 12, 2009 23:53

Jfrech, thanks for the post. The power is conditioned by a Controlled Power Company 5KVA K-rated transformer that is in the garage.
http://www.controlledpwr.com/K-Rated_Isolation_Transformers.html

The primary side of the transformer is fed from a breaker in the main panel. The transformer has voltage supresssion, high frequency filtering, and is K-rated to eliminate harmonics on the power line. The secondary side of the transformer feeds a dedicated sub-panel with 12 circuit capacity. I use four 20-amp dedicated lines to the music room so each component is on it's own circuit. Grounding is the most important consideration so a second 8 foot ground rod was placed about 20 feet from the original ground rod for my electrical service. The second rod is connected to the transformer and at point of service entry according to electrical code. The resulting electrical resistance is about 3 ohms to earth ground. Finally, I use Hubell isolated ground receptacles. The affect is a blacker, quieter background with no loss of dynamics and a smoother sounding high frequency range. I had owned Exactpower EP-15 and SP-15 and experimented with Audience and Isoclean. No contest. A'gon member Babybear uses this approach as well. He has a bigger (10KVA) transformer because he has video as well as audio in his room. You have to size the transformer to be 2.5 to 3 times the power needed by system components.

The ASC wall panels were placed based on experimentation and trying to treat first point of reflection. The front wall, and side walls are treated. There are bass traps but they are hidden behind the trees in the corners. I also use corner tunes.

One of these days I would love to get back to vinyl. I might try another table.

rsorren1 August 09, 2009 14:57

Thanks for the kind words. I have not been comparing many other interconnect and speaker cables. I know, what's wrong with me! So far I continue to enjoy the Kimber Select line for interconnects. A friend gave me a set of PranaWire speaker cables to try and they are excellent! The system sounded more open and natural to me. PranaWire are all silver foils. I have also tried a few different power cables but the best combination so far is the current configuration with Kimber Palladian on the power amps and Shunyata Anaconda on front-end. I have never tried the Synergistic cables but may try them if I can get some loaners. Thanks for the recommendation. As far as vinyl, I have not had a TT/arm/cart for several years. If you look at the pictures again, the closet door behind the listening couch leads to a storage room where there are approximately 500 LPs I've collected through the years, all in good to excellent shape. I recently tried a Linn LP12 / ARC combination and the problem is that the listening room is on the second floor above our garage. The "footfalls" in the room jump the needle out of its groove even when sitting on a high quality stand. Not good. I could kick myself for not making the floor stiffer! Maybe someday when we replace the carpet. The only other option is to wall mount and we did not like the look of the TT hanging on the wall. My next purchase will likely be a standalone high quality DAC so that I can feed umcompressed Apple Lossless files to the room. In no rush for that at this point because I am waiting for the technology to support higher bit rate transfer via wireless to be able to stream hi-res audio via the wireless network.

rsorren1 August 06, 2009 21:40