Floor standing speakers with crossover upgrades. Soundocity steel outriggers.
Hsu Research ULS-15 mkII
Subwoofer pair
SolidSteel Component Rack
Supra Cables Rondo 4x4.0
Star Quad Speaker Cables, terminated with ViaBlue connectors. ProGold treated with WBT gold collars, crimp/screw terminations. ViaBlue fabric jacket.
Supra Cables EFF-I int
Interconnect, terminated to Puresonic low mass rca with Cardas Solder. ViaBlue fabric jacket.
Supra Lorad 3x2.5 Power Cable
Heavily shielded cable terminated with WBT gold collar, ProGold treatment, Wattgate Evo connectors. ViaBlue fabric jacket.
Blue Jeans Cable Custom Subwooder Cable
Belden 1694A cable. Excellent low cost subwoofer cable with 18g solid center conductor, heavy shielding. This sounded significantly better than using the high level speaker inputs on the Hsu subs. BJC is a great operation. Super quick delivery, they are open to custom requests and have great customer service.
DIY ACOUSTIC WALL TREATMENTS BassTrap
16"x16'x14' Packed full of cotton/cellulose acoutic panels ordered from ATS. Great customer service.
Audimute 2'x4' acoutic panels
Total 13 panels, double layer configuration. Audimute stands behind their products and offers great customer service.
Thanks for the nice comment. You hit the nail on the head with visual distraction. Not long ago I backlit the white columns with night light bulbs and it creates a warm sunset look. That is the only illumination I use when listening. Our brains do work better when not multi-tasking!
Bravo, beautifully simplistic. Amazing how keeping things visually uncluttered seems to help focus on the sound. Seems like you have just the right amount of all items, especially acoustic treatment, must sound wonderful with the Double Impacts.
@pisces17 Eric, sorry for the delayed response as I have not visited this page in some time. The outriggers are from Soundocity. I attached a firm rubber foot that works well on the vinyl over concrete floor. Leveled with rubber washers of the same diameter as the rubber feet. (Bought these items on Amazon). Soundocity offers multiple footer options and will sell you Just the bars of you want. Some of their adjustable spike/feet were not rigid enough per my liking. Highly recommend the outriggers!
You will love your DI's. Have thought about moving to the Moabs, but just last night I was blown away at the beautiful recreation of space the DI's produced of a cathedral I visited in Europe. It is hard to fault anything about their performance.
If I may ask, would it be possible to tell me where you bought the feet for your Double Impacts? I have a pair coming late February/early March and would like the stability with the larger footprint. Thank you!
Beautiful set up. I am really impressed with the attention to detail regarding speaker placement and room treatments. I am always experimenting with speaker placement and it is nice to see such a well executed room. Not to mention the aesthetic beauty of the room in general. Would you mind providing some measurements? How far apart are the speakers? How far are they from the seat? How far from side walls? Have you tried different configurations and what was your opinion?
Thanks gentleman. Glad you appreciate the effort. I continue to enjoy this room and system more and more. It really is a luxury to have a dedicated room. Frees you up to focus on the interface of your equipment and the room--often overlooked or just not practical for some. For my money, I would focus on this factor far more so than, say, interconnects or even electronics. Michael Green, who has posted recently on this site, was the first to introduce me to the importance of speaker placement and room acoustics. He often has said that relatively inexpensive gear can outperform a much more expensive system that is not set up properly. I would agree with that fully
@jgerman Thanks for the nice comments. I must admit that the visuals and lack of clutter help me to focus on the music. Now I just need to replace the ugly brown carpet and no doubt come up with a couple more "improvements". But it is finally coming together.
As others have also commented, your system is a tour de force of minimalism and symmetry. Its aesthetic qualities alone must bring you much enjoyment, even before considering your excellent electronics. Well done.
@schubert From one composer to another, thank you schubert. Yes, I do prefer simple clean lines and uncomplicated approaches to my system (and perhaps life in general). Thanks for appreciating this!
@david_ten David, the large structure in the upper ceiling/wall corner if my DIY bass trap! It measures 16"x16"x14'. It is filled solid with cotton cellulose panels. It was the only place I could really place a large bass trap and it worked out great. I covered it with the same fabric that's on the Audimute panels I ordered. The panels are actually a double layered affair. Audimute offers mounting brackets that off set the panels 2" from the wall allowing overlapping panels. As is the case with the bass trap, the sound absorption is very high indeed. The white trim on the panels was to hide the shiny aluminium brackets and visually tie it in with bass trap. The front panels columns were to help diffract sound. They vary in width and depth. The dimensions were calculated using precise formulas that go back to the time of the Ancient Greeks..............alright, so I used whatever standard sizes of mdf they had at Home Depot! As I am a bit of sound stage fanatic, room symmetry was very important. But I was fine with putting the subs where ever they sounded the best. While Hsu suggests far corners, they also suggest sub placement right by the chair. So I mixed up all kinds of combo's, and yes I had them placed adjacent to the DI's as well. In the end the cleanest and most extended bass occurred in the front corners. I know some say you need your subs in the same plane as your mains. But my ears tell me otherwise. The room gain afforded by corner placement in undeniable and kind of allows the subs to do their job without breaking a sweat--kind of like the DI's in that regard.
corelli, I love the clean look and simplicity. Are your acoustic treatments self-made? They look really nice. I'm assuming the ceiling treatment behind your seating position is to cover ductwork (or the sheetrock around)? Does it wrap around on the bottom as well?
I know you put a lot of effort into getting the Hsu's positioned. Any thoughts on why the final positioning (even against the side walls) might have worked best?
