This system really isn't just about enjoying music. It's more about creating a memorable experience. All components and component changes must make that cut before they take up residence in the music room. The presentation is extremely holographic and immediate - the whole back portion of the room, starting at about the back plane of the loudspeakers , becomes the recording venue. Front to back layering is quite apparent which digital usually has a hard time portraying well. Lateral imaging can make the room boundaries disappear if the recording captured the venue size well. Tonal Balance is very good but need to treat the room better to even out the bass a titch. No sense of gear playing back music - just very easy to get swept away to a performance. System Approach and Philosophy: Optimized Simplicity.
Music preferences:
Chamber, Baroque, Pop Rock, Jazz, Slam Symphony, Punkabilly and Death Folk. (Genre/Selections): I enjoy most genres but have a particular fondness for acoustically recorded material such as smaller chamber works or Jazz. On the other hand, Big Band can be lots of fun too.
Other tweaks not mentioned in the listing below include: Xtreme AV Quicksilver Gold Contact Treatment, Extreme AV Liquid Resolution, Machina Dynamica Codename Turquoise, Herbie's Black Hole CD Matts, RSAD Cable Risers, Misc. Room Treatment, Dedicated Cryo'd 220 Lines Split For 120 Balanced AC For Mono Block Amps and Mono Block Phono Stages, Dedicated 120 Cryo'd line for Front End Electronics. Demagnitized and Tourmaline injected Brown Peanut M&Ms pointing South For Resonance Tuning - NOT.
With judiacial and thoughtful use these panels do an outstanding job at taming room resonances and abnormalities that screw up imaging and soundatage, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Previous Music Room... Ridge Street Audio Designs
This was our original music room prior to 1999 on Ridge Street, LaPorte, IN
Previous Music Room... ...Another View.
This was our original music room prior to 1999 on Ridge Street, LaPorte, IN
Mac Mini 2010
Mac Mini 2010 with Snow Leopard OS, Hardware and Software Modifications.
Ridge Street Audio Designs Mac Mini CLD-15 System
A custom project consisting of three point fixed spike footers for the Mini with a 15lb loaded damping brick on top of the Mini. Yeah, it works wonders!
Ultra Fi DAC - 41
To these ears the DAC - 41 raises the bar for NOS USB DACs for anything up to around $6k. Great Piece!
GNS Modified Resolution Audio Opus 21 CDP
Very good CDP, especially with the GNS Mods. Also added Michina Dynamic's
Ridge Street Audio Designs RA Opus 21 Exousias Umbilical
An awesome upgrade to our GNS modified Resolution Audio Opus 21 CDP.
Marantz CD-63 se
"...That music is comming from a deck you paid $200.00 for?" Yea...but I spent over three times that to get it there. I actually have three of these decks. I love playing with this thing. It's almost become a hobby in and of itself! New precision clock with it's own power supply, new Op-Amps in the analog stage with a dedicated regulated power supply for it and the HDAM module. Completely re-worked output satge. Furutech IEC AC receptical added to accomodate different AC cords. A 75 ohm digital input has been added to accommodate a seperate transport. Chasis and transport bracing and damping along with numerous diode, capacitor, resistor and regulator upgrades. I gotta be nuts!
Turn Table & Arm Project RSA Designs
Silicone Damped Hung Suspension. Custom Built Tone Arm after Well Tempered
Sumiko Bluepoint Special
Rebuilt by Van den Hal and a few othe mods done here. Great little cart.
Well Tempered Labs Reference
Always loved this table and arm. An engineering marvel.
Benz Micro M-09
Benz Micro M09
Ridge Street Audio Designs On going project...
Not really a preamp but this unit is the phono amp with RIAA equalization we use for our analog front end. The whole unit was built here and is in it's forth iteration. Chassis built from silicon steel, aluminum, Plexiglas and Corian. Bottom module is the regulated power supply, top is the audio circuitry. Circuit boards are something new I'm working on that's essentially "no circuit board". Audio circuitry is IC based with two gain stages. All parts are...too expensive! This phono amp has enough gain to drive our amps directly eliminating the need for a formal preamp. Volume is controlled outside the signal path...novel idea that works better than any control I've used in the signal path. We like it.
Pass Labs Aleph 3
I actually have a pair of these that I've modified to work as vertical bi-amp mono blocks. Ahead of the AC transformer the power supply is now fully discrete for the B+ and B- voltage rails and the left and right channels. One channel to drive the woofer, one channel to drive the tweet per speaker. Virtually four amps from two. The inputs are now paralelled into one and the input impedance has been changed to a more accommodating 100k. Key capacitors and resistors have been replaced with more esotaric parts and the voltage rails now include smaller value bypass caps. At only 30 watts, this was probably the best sounding amp in the Aleph series when used appropriately. Great little amp made greater!
Luxman Vintage 3045 Mono Blocks
This is a rebuild/upgrade project when I can get to it. Looking forward to seeing how much performance I can squeeze out of these.
Golden Tube SE-40se
Actually A system Image. The SE 40's are great little amps made better with numerous mods and tweeks. The small pair of amps under the turntable are custom RSA Designs mono block phono amps. They drive the amps directly and also feature volume control outside the signal path...novel idea!
Ridge Street Audio Designs Sason Ltd/Si Granite Loudspeaker
State of the art Two Way design. Custom Danish Kevlar Mid/Woofer and custom Danish soft dome tweeter. State of the art custom crossover components from Duelund of Denmark. RSAD custom fabricated silver wire harness.110lb Ganite cabinets. Awesome performance that's more akin to a great full range speaker while maintaining the virtues of a two way monitor.
Reference 3A MM DeCapo i
Unassuming but wonderful two way. Once you get a handle on it's own (musical) character, it'll tell you just about everything you wanted and didn't want to know about the recording and gear. No pic till I'm done with new cabs. Already changed the cap to a Mundorf silver & oil supreme and replaced the wire harness with a custom Poiema!! harness.
Energy C-2
Modified C-2 Project: New Cabinets, Out Board Cryo-Treated Cross Overs. All Cross Over Components Replaced With 10ga Air Core Inductors, Film and Foil Caps and Precision Wire Wound Resistors. Cross Overs matched to .5% Tolerance.
Early Loud Speaker Project RSA Designs
2 way MTM with Lead Damped Cabinet. Out Board Cry-Treated Cross Overs.
Ridge Street Audio Designs Poiema!!!R-v3 Signature Biwire S/Cs
Custom silver based speaker cable. No harsheness or thinness. Just the music as it is. Very life like in its portrayal. One of the best...but of course!
Ridge Street Audio Designs Alethias! Signature Biwire S/Cs
As good as the Poiema!!! Sig. S/Cs are and as much as we enjoy our music with them in the chain, the Alethias! Sig. is trumps!
Ridge Street Audio Designs Poiema!!!R-v3 Signature I/Cs
Silver based interconnect. No harsheness or thinness. A great I/C that just gets it right. Perspective is convincingly real as well which most I/Cs seem to miss.
Ridge Street Audio Designs The Enopias!! USB Digital Master
Unique innovative design isolates Data and Vbus within the server all the way through to the DAC.
Ridge Street Audio Designs Alethias!! USB Digital Master
A substantial upgrade from the Poiema!!! R-v3 USB cable.
Ridge Street Audio Designs Poiema!!! R-v3 USB Digital Master
USB cable done right. A Better USB cable doesn't make a difference?...Yea, right!
Ridge Street Audio Designs Alethias!! & Alethias!! Sig AC Cord
The Alethias!! series AC cords have convinced us that properly designed AC line cords are the foundation to a system's performance capabilities.
Ridge Street Audio Designs Alethias!! C7 Power Correction Cord
Designed around the Mac Mini and terminated with the required C-7 connector from Furutech at the CPU business end
Ridge Street Audio Designs Alethias!! TD Power Correction Cord
Providing AC duties for our digital front end. Great Cord with Z correction to optimize Power Factor of DACs and Transports.
Ridge Street Audio Designs Poiema!!!R-v3 Sig. ACPower Cords
These cords were on par to a signal cabling upgrade. One of the very few cords I've experienced that relegate AC filtering devices virtually unnecessary! Theses AC cords together with our cryo-treated AC lines and Z-der BlocK or Bloom Box allows our system to perform way beyond what I expected. I love it!
Ridge Street Audio Designs Cable Risers
If I may say so myself...A well thought out clever idea I came up with years ago before there was any talk or debate about elevating cables off the floor. They work great improving clarity and focus
Ridge Street Audio Designs Z-der BlocK AC Re-Clocking Device
Along with the other things we produce, if we wouldn't use it here, it doesn't become a product we offer. No power conditioning of any kind used in our room. The Z-der BlocKs on the back of each of our components stay!
I'm curious what value Mundorf S/O you put on your Reference 3a Decapo tweeter. I have an older pair of Dulcet that I sent the woofers back for an upgrade. With this upgrade, they suggested that I replace the 5.21uf green can PIO cap with a smaller value 2.2uf( either Mundorf S.O or Dueland)
Thanks for your thoughts and comments. I appreciate them.
I can hear your passion as you write and that must translate over into your thoughts about how to construct a fine cable. I will continue to explore them through your site, online and also keep them on my radar.
I can see how 'supple' might be understood as a coloration but in fact i mean it as a sonic virtue and not a sonic vice. Its opposite in my mind would be dry and brittle. A good analogy between the two would be the difference between a green mapleleaf that is still on the tree and a brown one which has dried and fallen to the ground.
I feel the same way about what a cable should and shouldnt do in and to a system. The hard/tricky part is making a UNIVERSALLY neutral cable that does 'nothing' independent of the context of the system in which it was voiced? I could be wrong but this might be impossible? Though as you do move up in quality there does seem to be some emerging general universal concept of what 'neutral' means.
"...A tall order!" We actually go by length, i.e. 1.0m etc. (Well, that was lame....I guess I suck at comedy.)
The Poiema series is our 'cream of the crop'. If you'd like to investigate upgrading from what you're using, why don't you give me a call: 219-324-2253.
In the meantime, here, in a nutshell, is what I value in a cable's contribution: It needs to get out of the way and introduce the least amount of editorial as possible while at the same time, letting the virtues of the partnering electronics shine - again, without the cable 'embelishing' those virtues. Things like speed or transients, dynamics, perspective, tonal balance, cohesiveness and the like are all things I'd say our cabling allows. Good cables also allow good gear to be transparent the system is simply disappears not calling attention to itself which is also very important to me. I absolutely hate it if I sense Im listening to a collection of gear however good the gear might be.
"...ripe and supple?" I hear those adjectives as 'colorations'. They may be pleasingly euphoric but they're not something I want our cabling to add. I believe this: Once one starts adding cabling that has a dominate signature of it's own to add to the music, system synergy becomes like chasing a rabbit - catching that rabbit is a real crap shoot. On the other hand, I also believe this: If cabling 'does' things correctly to a high - timing, etc. - then the cabling doesnt need to have its own signature to call attention away from its deficit. Any added discernible coloration, however pleasing it may be in and of its self, becomes a distraction and dosen't serve the music's 'organicness', if you will. I call this latter 'hi-fi spectaculars' which get fatiguing to me.
I could definitely go on but... If, you'd like to pursue this further, why don't you give me a call? :)
Thanks for the invitation! If am, i will! Which interconnect in your line do you consider to be the most resolving, has the best timbre reproduction and is ripe and supple? Dynamic and fast. A tall order!
Currently i am using the acoustic zen silver mk 2. In the context of my system i find it to have superb timbre reproduction, superb speed and dynamics. Its perceived weakness is maybe sometimes it falls on the side of "lean" a bit more than is "right". I do make up for that with VH audio Flavour 4 power cords. They provide some of the needed body and suppleness to "cancel out" the slight leanness of the zen cable.
It is interesting to me how depending on different system configurations, one interconnect can come on top as the "reference" interconnect and in another context it is the other that sounds reference.
Graeme at Audion (my amps brand) believes in alot of silver in the cables to go along with his amps. I have yet to explore this fully. I find that a good silver cable is holographic and extremely transparent.
System edited: Over the last couple months the 2009 Mini has been replace with a modified 2010 Mac Mini, a custom resonance system has been installed to the Mini, I mostly use The Enopias!! USB cable and I've upgraded the Tranquility SE DAC's AC cord to the EssenTra AC Power Correction Cord.
Thanks Vertigo. It's a very comfortable room; warm and inviting and just a great place to get away - free from distractions. For me it's all about the experience where all the senses are pleasingly engaged over hours of listening.
What I love about the sonic presentation is the system simply and wholly disappears. The staging is immense. The whole back half of the room becomes the sound stage with images that are absolutely tangible.
If you're ever in our neck of the woods - NW Indiana - give a call and stop by!
System edited: Finally getting around to updating this a bit: Sason Ltd/Si Loudspeakers: 10/08 GIK Room Treatments: 10/08 Ultra Fi USB DAC 11/08 Alethias! USB Digital Master Cable: 11/08 Enopias USB Digital Master Cable: 4/09
I'll answer for Robert as he just left here, having picked up the Daytona 845 Monoblocks for RMAF, and will be on the road for some time yet.
The iRoc is USB input only. Robert uses it with is newly acquired MacBook via the new Ridge Street Audio POIEMA USB cable - which by the way, just happens to be KILLER!
Yes, the Codename Turquoise is the real deal. When I first got the Opus player w/GNS Reference Mod package I was actually a bit disappointed - the performance didn't meet my expectations though I was convinced more could be rung out of the player. I just had to figure out how to get there. For the cost, the C.T. was a no brainer to try. Applying the C.T. made enough difference by itself that I was now happy with the machine. Better immediacy, detail and better transparency as I recall.
Added our Alethias! Signature AC cord in combination with a Z-der BlocK Rev.1 in place of the Alethias! Standard with an older version of the Z-der BlocK - very good upgrade.
Knowing the stock umbilical was a significant bottle neck I developed a new umbilical - the RA Opus 21 Exousias. Wow! Now the player was completely un-impeded in doing what is was trying to do.
I also use a pair of Poiema!!! R-v3 Signature I/Cs that are made specifically for the Opus 21.
All in all the player has now exceeded my expectations. The playback with this machine and ancillary is KILLER! in our music room.
I aksi have the Opus 21 w/GNS Mods. Does the Michina Dynamic's "Codename Turquoise" made a difference?, can you descrivbe it? Did you do something with the Opus 21 umbilical? Thanks
System edited: ...and the cartridge. Cart's been rebuilt with new coils, beryllium cantilever and Van den Hal's line contact stylus (I think...his best anyway.). Did a few other mods to the cart. afterwards including one that required the table saw! Don't ask! Cheers! Robert
System edited: System Edited. Since an analog cartridge can't drive an amp, I thought it would be good to include what we use for gain and RIAA with the analog front end. Just realized I never included that. Cheers! Robert
System edited: System Editied: Addition of Z-der BlocKs and Poiema!! Power Cords upgraded to 9 gauge conductors. Also, system set up changed a bit; Longer speaker cables with shorter I/Cs. I know this arrangement doesn't work best for most cables but Sean inspired some re-evaluation and after thinking this through in light of our cabling, we gave it shot. I like it a bit better. Cheers! Robert
Killer system Robert. I'm really impressed with the looks of the turntable. Please, tell us more about it. I wish more of the vendors posted their systems. Love your cables!!
I talked to Jeff a while back. Most of what he does I've already done to the SE-40s. Though of humble origins, they really are great amps once you fix'em up! Thanks for the heads up!
Nurdy,
You're killin' me. I'm no longer in that room or even that residence. It wasn't girly. I think that that's come up for you says more about you than whether the room was femi or not. What's the story with you!? You're scaring me my friend! I loved that room. I'm now in a specific built room. When I have it all tricked out, I'll post pictures. Yea, all my gear is tricked out to at least some degree.
Kirk,
The plants are courtesy of Jena Labs and Lamm industries. I had them cyro-tempered and they used to glow in the dark like tubes. It was really kind of freaky. As for image, I'm not sure. Evidently they didn't do much for mine!
Robert don't take that from Nrchy! Time to come clean with us and let us know that your wife is really building the cables as well as doing your system set up... by the way- what kind of plants are they? If they improve imagine I will have to buy a few also! :)
Contact Jeff at Sonicraft concerning your SE-40 Upgrades. I had my SE-40's upgraded by Jeff and they sound wonderful. You can get better sounding amps; however, you would have to spend a bunch of money to better the sonics of the upgraded SE-40's.
