I just finished building a dedicated listening room in my new apartment. It took me one year and a half to complete, but it was well worth the wait. I simply love it.
The room size is 14 x 19 x 8 feet.
The room was designed by a company that specialises in acoustic design. Not the popular Rives Audio, since I live in Europe and that would increase the costs of the Level 3 project well past $10k mark, but a reputable local company.
The room acoustics was was first designed in a digital domain and then improved upon with the real world measurements taken during all stages of construction work.
The room is soundproof and - among other things - features soundproof windows, double doors and 11" thick double walls. The measured noise level inside the room is 26dB during the day (measured during rush hours, at 16:00), so it is almost dead quiet.
The room has two dedicated lines, each rated 20A @ 230V, one for analog and one for digital gear. All cables, circuit breakers and mains outlets are of audiophile quality.
MSB DAC IV Signature with Diamond Power Base - replaced the dCS Scarlatti, which served me as my reference for the past 3 yaers.
MSB S200
Fully balanced 200 Watt stereo amplifier. Class A, Zero Negative Feedback design. Fluid, palpable, a bit on the warm side of things. An amazing piece.
Magico S5
New addition to the system. Replaced Wilson Sasha speakers.
MUSA S21T USB
Computer based transport with SOtM PCIe USB card, SOtM sata filter, fanless PSU, fanless i5 CPU, SSD, 8GB RAM and Synology 2x2TB NAS. Running Win 7/64 with Jriver and Jplay.
AudioQuest WEL Signature
Replaced Tara Labs The RS-1 interconnects.
AudioQuest Diamond USB
USB cable.
Shunyata Anaconda Z-Tron
A new model from Shunyata. Replaced van den Tara Labs RS-1 cable.
Shunyata Anaconda CX
I have two of those, powering Dart and dCS.
Pure Power 2000
Battery powered AC Regenerator.
Finite Elemente Pagode Master Reference HD09
Top of the range component stand from Finite Elemente, with their resonator technology (3 used). I favour those over a 4-tier Pagode rack, since they do not interfere with soundstage when placed between the speakers.
Finite Elemente Ceraballs
I have two sets placed under my speaker cables. Very unussual location, I agree, but works a treat.
Finite Elemente Cerapuc
I have two sets placed under my speakers. A simply stunning improvement in low-level detail retrival and microdynamics. Worth every penny !
HMS Energia SSDB mains outlets
Two of those finish off my two, 230V/20A, dedicated power lines.
AHP Klangmodul 3+
Audiophile circuit breakers. Gold plated, solid copper contacts. Each of the two dedicated power lines has his own breaker.
ACS Diffusors
Diffusors made by german company Acoustic Control Systems. I have 3 sets of those, one on the rear wall and two on the side walls. As you can see on the pic, the whole part of the rear wall, to which the diffusor is attached, pertrudes 12" into the room.
Custom absorbers
The whole room is fitted with custom absorbers, tuned to specific frequencies. The pic shows one of the six absorbers fitted to the front wall. If you look carefully, you wil notice, that there is an MDF plate with lots of small holes fitted inside, which divides the internal volume of the absorber into two smaller chambers. The sound enters the traps by the front gaps, goes to the first empty chamber and then through the holes to the next chamber, where it can dissipate in a mineral fiber (not fitted on this pic).
Custom diffusors
Set of 5 custom diffusors fitted over the listener's head.
RT-60 curve
This is the RT-60 curve of my room. Black trace is our target curve, blue one is base curve (empty room, no acoustic treatment, no floor), red curve shows how the room responded after ACS diffusors, wooden floor and sand stone were added. Green curve is the most recent one. It is still not perfect, but we are working on it.
Room Frequency Response curve
Room Frequency response. Quite nice if you ask me :-)
Daikin ultra quiet A/C unit
Daikin A/C split system replaced McQuay unit. The difference in noise levels generated by those two units is staggering. Daikin is so quiet (22dB) that you can barely hear it from the listening chair. There are CD-players that generate more noise than this ! The other outstanding feature of this unit is that it can work when outside temp drops to 10'F - so it can be used during winter too.
Douglas_schroeder - I actually tried several panel speakers. For almost 8 months I have had Audiostatic DMC-5 full range electrostatic speakers on loan, I have also tried Quad 2905 and Magnepan 3.6 in my room.
Although they were special in some ways, ultimately I feel that the Wilson Sasha is a better overall 'package'.
Elberoth2, in admiring your room and system I have one thought that keeps coming back to me; get yourself some serious panel speakers!
You have an obvious passion for the hobby, and it shows clearly. You can put together a great rig. Now, take full advantage of it in terms of garnishing the different technology available. It appears you have the means to do so easily at your fingertips. It would not take much in terms of dollars relative to what you have spent to get a significant panel speaker, and Oh, the glorious addition of new experiences! I think it would add enormously to your enjoyment of the room and system. I hope you give some serious consideration to this, because you seem to be among those who could take full advantage of it. :)
I never had anywhere close to as much satisfaction in the hobby as when I have owned both dynamic and panel speakers. Now I have added an Omnidirectional, and the enjoyment grows almost exponentially. You do not need to break the bank to have a vast experience; you simply need to avail yourself of the power of the different technologies that are out there. If you have the room to house an extra set of speakers I urge you to consider it. It would not get much easier than you have it now, if you are still hearing the Wilsons on wheels. You would simply roll them off to the side and put the panels in. Surely you have a closet or a corner of another room where the unused speakers could sit while idle.
That is, I think, the nicest looking dedicated music room I have seen. I take it you did it yourself, so give yourself a big pat on the back for me, would you please? Just stunning. The equipment is pretty nice, too. (understatement!)
Congratulations on an excellent job, and a beautiful system. May you enjoy it long and well.
Jfrech - congrats on your new front end ! I'm jealous !
I'm still using the Halide USB/SPDIF converter, although I in a process of looking for a superior one. U-Clock is one of the options so is the upcoming Scarlatti clock/Upsampler with 24/192/DSD capability, but I would also like to try the BADA Alpha USB and the new Off-Ramp Turbo 5.
Hi, thanks for your comments on the dCS Scarlatti. I had my dealer bring a transport, dac and clock by...needless to say...5 seconds into it...my wife wasn't happy :)
The Puccini is really great...but I see your point now! Are you using USB via ?? or just one of the other inputs?
Thalis - than you for your most excellent post. My experiences seem to mirror yours. I also had Lamm 1.2R in my system, and I think that both Dart and 911 are just better.
For any other speaker than the Sasha, I would choose the Dart at a heartbeat. For the Sasha, you may need a more powerful amp - depending on the size of your room and music taste.
Daisiu - I have learned that Cerabases/Ceraballs/Cerapucs are very system dependent. It may work in one system, but not another. They seem to work different depending on what floor you have, what rack you are using etc. There is no other way to tell than to try them yourself.
Haven't tried the Cerabases undem my Wilsons, but a friend of mine tried them under his speakers, and prefered the standard spikes.
Hessec - I just read you post in my thread (I was not able to access my recent activity page for weeks due to that audiogon system change ...).
Anyway, the RS-1 is like 0.8 on steroids. It is similar in tonality, meaning that it is sounding very full and natural, with excellent texture, maybe even a bit to the warm side of neutral. Yet, at the same time, RS-1 has greater resolution and openess on top, and gives you more of that 'you are there feeling'.
If you already have the 0.8 and like it, the RS-1 is a no brainer.
Beautiful Room and system!! Would you care to comment on the Tara Air RS-1 in comparison to the .8 series? I'd PM you but that's not available at this time. hessechristopher at hotmail dot com. Thanks!!!
I have a pair of Sashas as well, and have just started using Cerabase under my F-E HD09 rack. Used the Cerabase Slimline under my Wadia CDP, and Ceraballs under my ARC Ref 5 preamp.
I'm finding the sound to have suddenly lost some 'life' or maybe rhythm?! for lack of a better word. Also the warmth in the system(I run Lamm 1.2s seem to have gone)
However some instruments like double bass seem to be more apparent. Was this your experience as well? Or should I be attributing this to the refitting of cables after I installed the Cerabases?
Also, my dealer is saying I should consider Cerabases for the Sasha..I can't use spikes because of the softer type of hardwood floor. What do you think?
Elberoth, I am currently trying to decide between Lamm M1.2Ref that is resident in my main system and Dartzeel or Burmester 911Mk3. I only have the Burmester 909 on loan though. My impressions are similar to yours. The Dart is the most transparent however does not have the full drive of a bigger power amp. Burmester 909 driven by Burmester 088 is an excellent combination delivering detail and power while the Lamm M1.2 while easy to hear does not posses the detail of the Dart or the power & slam of the 909. What was the best pre amp for the Dart that you have used? Anybody has any experience with Audio Research Ref 5 and the Dart? My current pairing sounds very good (burmester 088) even though we have two different manufacturers with different philosophies.
Honestly _ I do not remember how Nagra PMA monos sounded. At the time I had Nagra VPA amps at home, I borrowed the PMAs to check how do they compare to the VPAs, but after first minutes of listening, I concluded that the (more expensive) tube VPA monos are better, and after a day or two I returned them to the dealer.
Lapierre - not really. As much as I love ARC gear, when I last have heard the Ref 110 vs 210, I though that 210 was more of a sideways move than a clear upgrade to 110. Ref 210 had more bass slam and macro dynamics, but at the same time they, lost some fineese to their cheaper brother IMO.
Ref 150 is just a refinement of the Ref 110 design - more capacitance in the power supply, KT120 tubes and new coupling capacitors. Unless I missed something, same upgrades have been applied to Ref 250, so I doubt they will sound much different than Ref 150.
Make no mistake - at $12k Ref 150 is a great little amp, with excellent texture, PRAT and 'jump factor', but is simply not as transparent as the Dart. The Dart just shows you much more of everything ... as it should at $30k.
Thats a hell of a list of amps!. How did the Nagra PMAs fair against your favorites?. I have the stereo PSA in a much simpler system which works well for me.
Fantastic system - congratulations. I would dearly love to have a dedicated and acoustically treated listening room one day as only then will be able to truly hear what my system is capable of. I am however doing a level one with Rives and hope that this brings improvements.
I have the same view as you regarding the Purepower 2000 - a really worthwhile tweak.
I am intrigued by the Dartzeel. What other amplifiers did you audition before settling on the Dart?
