this room and system is the result of 10 years in High End audio. my
system has been stable for a couple of years (except for transport and
amplifier upgrades within the same brand). the room has been in the
planning stage for about 18 months and i actually moved in a little over
a month ago.
my audio philosphy is to have the system get out
of the way of the event. i like as pure and simple a signal path as
possible and, at this point, prefer passive to active gain stages. i
love all the formats and enjoy having lot's of music.....vinyl is my
favorite but i listen to at least 60% digital. the new room really
reveals the benefits of SACD over redbook.
the system and room
truely allow the event to be recreated before me. i love the way the
speakers disappear and i am transported to another place/time.
i have choosen my cables, sources, amps, speakers to have as little of their own sound as possible.
recently, i upgraded my digtial transport from the modified Philips
SACD 1000 to the new emmlabs CDSD.....this was a significant step upward
in performance.
i have written an article in Positive Feedback regarding my room building experience.....here is a link;
new version of these cables, a big step over the amazing TRSC model i have used for 10 years. fantastic performance.
WADAX SA Reference DAC
Wadax Reference Dac----state of the art dac with 2 separate power supplies. the best dac i have heard by a good margin. below is a link to a thread about my Wadax experience.
Arya RevOpod isolation footer (32 used under the 5 Wadax Chassis).
height and tension adjustable. the Wadax dac, server, and server power supply chassis all use 8 footers, so it's critical to be able to adjust height and tension to have an even support for optimal performance. RevOpod's are unique in those attributes making them ideal for this use.
https://www.arya-audio.com/revopod
CS Port LFT1 turntable w/arm
air bearing platter and air bearing linear tracking arm; string drive with zero feedback dc motor, low pressure, low flow air system with zero noise air box.
world class musical flow, nuance and delicacy, combined with authority and ease. serves the music completely.
Esoteric T1 Turntable
magnetic drive/rim drive idler turntable with torque adjustment.
with the deletion of my NVS turntable, i was able to move the Taiko Tana active isolation shelf to under the Esoteric T1. this has upgraded the performance of the T1 significantly. objectively small changes, but musically quite profound up tics in realism and immersion. more nuance, greater music focus, better bass articulation.
https://www.esoteric.jp/en/product/t1/top
Esoteric G1X Master Clock
Master Clock Generator for speed improvement for the T1 turntable. significant improvement in music realism.
https://www.esoteric.jp/en/product/g1x/top
Durand --Tosca tonearm.
gimbal bearing design. Tosca is on the Esoteric T1 turntable
Primary Control 12" FCL tone arm
Field Coil Loaded uni-pivot tone arm. with power supply. mounted on the Esoteric T1 turntable. amazing natural and very high resolution tone arm. link below.
12 inch tonearm, stainless steel. used for the Sumile mono cartridge.
https://glanz.tech/e/collection/mh1200s1000s900s/
Experience Music/Intact Audio phono corrector + silver wound MC Trio SUT combo for three different tonearms.
bespoke tubed phono preamplifier. silver wound, with custom dual power supplies.
https://myemia.com/LR.html
LFD -3- Phono Cables DIN to RCA
3 sets of very high performance phono cables. amazing performance. built by Dr. Richard Bews in the UK.
one cable uses a DIN to RCA short Dongle + an RCA to RCA interconnect. the Dongle improves the performance of the DIN connection. details at the link below.
two Etsuro Golds, ---a pair of Reference MC Phono Cartridges.
duraluminim (A7075) body, 24 carat 'Kinpaku' Gold Leaf finish, diamond cantiliver. .3mv output, 4 ohms. these are both special versions of the Etsuro Gold.
one is mounted on the CS Port linear tracker.
one is mounted on the Primary Control FCL arm.
finest cartridge i have heard by a significant margin. WOW!
Audio Technica MC-2022 60th Anniversary cartridge
uses the unified stylus cantilever design. which results in extreme lack of distortion and linearity. remarkable neutrality and ability to dig out detail and keep it natural and musical.
https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/at-mc2022
Murasakino Sumile Mono phono cartridge
MC cartridge for mono records, .04mv output. tracking force 3gms. finest monaural cartridge i have heard. competes on musical refinement with the top stereo cartridges.
Ampex twin ATR-102----one 1/4" and one 1/2" reel to reel master recorder
hot rodded by ATR Service Inc----Andrew Kosobutsky. significant upgrades over stock. each interfacing with hot rodded Ampex MR-70 preamps. the new tape deck performance standard in my opinion.
active isolation under 5 separate components: (1) the NVS turntable, (2) the MSB dac, (3) the darTZeel preamp, (4 + 5) both darTZeel mono block amplifiers. custom modifications by Taiko Audio add a linear power supply plus panzerholtz top layer + Daiza platform to provide full frequency resonance attenuation to each platform.
Taiko Audio Daiza isolation platform--22 used in the system
Panzerholtz Platform with spiral cutouts reducing mid and high frequency resonance while retaining life and energy and not changing tonality.
22 Daiza platforms in the system of various sizes under every piece of the signal path.
Evolution Acoustics 'system' power cables
a new version of the TRPC model i used on my darTZeel 468 mono blocks for the last 10 years. a big step up.
Sablon Audio King power cord
used on the Wadax Reference Server power supply.
https://www.sablonaudio.com/power
Absolute Fidelity power interfaces
power cords specifically designed for either motors (tt and tape decks), amplifiers, and components. 11 in the system.
Tripoint Audio Troy Signature
Grounding box for chassis grounding the darTZeel 458 mono block amplifiers + grounding the passive main towers of the Evolution Acoustics MM7 speaker system.
Tripoint Audio Elite
Tripoint Elite grounding box. this does chassis grounding for my sources. it uses a a pair of Tripoint Thor SE Master Reference ground cables for my dart preamp and the MSB Select II dac. there are also 4 Signature Silver ground cables to the two arm boards of the NVS tt, the power supply of the NVS tt, and the SGM server.
Equi=tech 10WQ
10kva balanced Isoltion transformer and distribution panel.
Furutech GTX-D NCF Rhodium duplex outlets
10 in the system. used with 10 Furutech covers and frames. uses NCF (nano crystal formula) material to reduce noise by emitting negative ions.
Wave Kinetics A10 U8 decoupling footers
8 sets-of-4 in the system for individual tuning of each piece of gear.
Auralex T-Fusor diffusers
i use 20 of these. 6 each on the front side walls, and 4 each front ceiling and rear ceiling.
Klaudio Record Cleaning System
automatic record cleaner
Acoustic Revive RL-30 mKIII CD-LP demagnatizer
for demaging any disc.
Furutech DF-2 LP disc flattner
will remove warps from Lps
Audiodharma Cable Cooker, Anniversary Ed.
will cook any cables
Winds ALM-01 Stylus Force Gauge
easy accurate, repeatable, measurments.
i-Tower by Koncept LED floor lamp
(3) are used. best audio light ever. 2 'warm', 1 'cool'.
Quietrock THX 545 drywall
specialized drywall with a 1/4" metal layer. used in my front sidewalls to establish proper room boundaries.
Hi Mike, amusing to read that someone thinks that "the room seems ok...". Well, I believe I can also agree on this: your room should sound quite good.
Joking apart, I would be glad to know your opinion about wood surfaces and other materials used to build your dedicated room. I noticed that Rives used wood panels almost everywhere. But what type of paint or material was used for the white surfaces all around the speaker zone ? How important is the wood in the overall sound results of your room ? Which type of wood has the best characteristics to preserve harmonics and sound richness ? I apologize in advance if you already responded on that argument (as you probably did) but, sincerely, I have not read all from the beginning...
Well, Mike, *I* think your latest pictures are excellent - with just the right mixture of photos with a lot of style and photos that show 'Just the facts, Jack'.
It was great seeing you at CES! I think Neli will someday get around to emailing you about some of those test tracks you were playing... :-)
Tang, of course you are correct; i spend my time working or listening and my long latent touch with a camera from the days with my old metal bodied Nikormat has not resurfaced. 30 years ago i took at least 5000 pictures of my then very young children and over time i got fairly good at it. but that was long ago.
i just felt that getting my pictures up to date was more important than perfect pictures. sorry to have disappointed you. when i find the time to learn enough (or someone to help me) i will redo them.
Seriously, the cameras the thing. And if you cant figure out how to use your D70s, could you get someone to show you how? The exposures do not match the lighting conditions and by the looks of your shots, you havent figured out how to override the auto settings. Add to that the moiré so prevalent with that particular Nikon and what youre left with is hardly worth viewing. The room seems ok its just the pictures that arent working.
i made the mistake of borrowing a friends pair of Opus speaker cable to try with my set in bi-amp configuration. then i tried to find a lower cost alternative.
once i heard it i had to have it.
BTW, it doesn't say what i paid.....just what the list price is. Opus 8' speaker cable is $32,500 and Opus 12' is $34,500. when you add them together you get......$67k.
i've had the 8 footer for 5 years but just bought the 12 foot pair in December.
Frank, i have not tried the L-Com cables in my system. but a couple of months ago jtinn and i did do a very brief comparison at his house between Herve's cable, the L-Com and Radio Shack BNC cables.
the L-Com and Radio Shack sounded virtually identical.....which is to say very good and lacking nothing. OTOH in direct comparison Herve's cables were more refined, smoother and had more 'ease'......just more listenable. you do need to factor in the fact that Herve's cables had been used at a couple of shows and i had been using them in my system for three months; so they were fully broken in.
my opinion is that since Herve's cables are quite reasonably priced it is the way to go.
Mike, congratulation for that room. Not only it is beatiful but it is scientically well done. How I wish I could listen to music in that kind of a room.
This is the 1st time I read your thread and again kudos to you for sharing your expercience to all of us.
Just read your entire thread for the first time. Kudos to your taste, care and commitment, but mostly to your appreciation of the beauty of music, humilty, and willingness to share. I have a 38X28 room with 11 foot peak ceiling and just ordered a pair the Von VR4Sr's. Which are at my current level of sanity. I only hope that within my league, I can have a good amount of the pleasure and delight of discovery that you have experienced. You have inspired me to do so.
again; i apologize for my absense and delay in response to all the posts/questions. as sit here typing and listening i can say it is hard to not just lean my head back and listen.....the system now demands my attention like a jealous lover.
whoooa!.....did 'I' type that?
Dmurfet, thanks. in any normal size room the darTZeel is more than enough. i have a local friend with Wilson Maxx II's that has gone thru many amps (including Lamm M1.2's) and loves the darTZeel; particularly the bass slam and articulation, in his 25' x 20' x 9' room. the Kharma's were only 90db efficient (the Midi was 4 ohm) and sounded great on one dart other than the size of my room.
'Lakefront T O A D'......i like that.....and will use it next time i speak to Bill. ;^)
yes, with F1 starting back up this weekend (go Honda!) the MacClaren F1 is top-mind looking at the seating. i have a CD called 'Open-Pipe Symphony' which is 16 tracks of varoius race cars which i will put on in honor of your comment.
Gregadd; someday i will pursue Master Tapes......but the OWMBO is not currently in the mood for another investment.
OTOH it is very tempting........
Gallant Diva and Slipknot1; thanks.
Aaron; come on over. last fall a couple of friends from HK traveled over for a few days of listening and it was a great time. you would be welcome any time.
Henryhk; the Z-Sleeves (one large 'Heavy' and one large 'Ultra 1') come from www.Zcable.com. they do reduce EMI and RFI on cables; particularly long runs.
actually i've not a/b'd them yet with the 'zeel' cables so i can't comment directly. but they did help lower the noise floor with my 7 meter run of Nordost Valhalla. i intended to have them on the 'zeel' cables for a week and then remove them to see the effect. i can only say that everything sounds quite amazing so they are not likely hurting anything. i will post my result when i do remove them.
i do know that in some systems they can slightly 'dry' out the sound a bit. as always; tweaks might have an effect but it's not always good.
Hi Mike - long time admirer of your application to the task! I'm hoping to learn from some of your trials and tribulations if possible.
I was wondering about your DartZeel's - I'm considering one amongst a few others (Lamm 1.2, VTL S400) - but only one (budget, you know!) yet I see both yourself and LakeFrontToad have used two amps. Is this a function of VS speakers that perform better with more power, or that the amps are a bit short on power? I'm looking to drive a pair of 89dB efficient Wilson Sophias in a room 14' by 16'. Do you listen normally where you can hold a conversation, or need to turn it down to see if that was the doorbelll ringing? :o)
On a lighter note - did your one in front, two behind, seating arrangement stem from the million dollar Maclaren F1 car? Any crossover here? Just jokin' !
Thanks for posting the updates and new pictures Mike. Not only does it look special, I am sure, as you said, it is sounding very special. Here's hoping your work demands slacken off enough to allow you some time to enjoy the fruits of your labors.
Simply breathtaking! I bet it sounds even better than it looks. I would consider travelling from Australia to the US just to hear your system. Congratulations and enjoy.
Great update Mike! Did you ever try the L-com 50 Ohm cables between the pre and amps? If so, are the Zeel cables a big improvement? Right now I'm using the L-com cables with great results. The preamp is very, very special indeed. Frank
System edited: I finally found the time to take some pictures and update my list of gear and pictues. It has taken some time to make all the changes. there have been lots of changes......most of which have been discussed on this thread previously. I have had some break throughs in system setup recently which i will get to as soon as i can. my apologizes for my recent absence; work has been very demanding. OTOH the system is sounding very special and everything i was dreaming it could be. the last month i have really got back into new music in a big way......which has been very satisfying. stay tuned.
Mike: I don't even know where to begin, so I will keep it brief. It can't get any better than this. I will continue to dream of hearing this system, but since I'm in Texas, I know that most likely will never happen.
The room...the VS speakers...the listening chair.
Congratulations and my best wishes. (It's your world....I'm just glad to be living in it.)
Mr. Lavine, I'm reading your threads for a long time, but this is the first time for me on the audiogone. I have answer for you. I would like to change my Benz Micro Ebony with Koetsu. I am listening about 80 procent classical music analog, which Koetsu or maybe another one would you suggest for my system. Thank you very much for the answer. Lobnik, Europe Slovenia.
