I wrote the comments below years ago. I will keep them for a while as a reminder of my newbie thinking at the time. This hobby is a series of plateaus. I have reached a new one with my current gear. Having a lot of fun.
Have made quite a few changes to this system as my fledgling knowlege of audio has begun to mature. I still have a long way to go...in the knowlege department! I probably won't change components for a while. My goal is best possible 2 channel playback with secondary theater application. Have dedicated room 24 x 17 x 11. There are 5 dedicated 20 amp circuits. My recent focus has been on minimizing negative effects from the room. I have recently added ASC tube traps behind the main speakers and in the ceiling behind the listening position. The most interesting thing I did was to cut a 50x12" hole in the double sheetrocked wall behind the main speakers. There is a large floor to ceiling enclosed cavity that I filled with fiberglass. Then we covered the opening with an ASC custom built sound plank with an open back. The other issue I have worked on feverishly is speaker placement. Getting that right really improved clarity. timbre, and air. Before there was a bit of "congestion" in the sound. Finally, the bass trapping did more for the quality of the bass than I would have expected. Now I have zero bass boom; very tuneful low frequency. Nothing is perfect, but I (with the help of many others!!), have really achieved an outstanding quality of 2 channel music reproduction. Maybe now it's time to focus on the theatre side for a while.
Replaced 1012 DAC/pre. Similar neutral sound with significantly more detail yet musical.
Goodwins Silent Server Server
Custom server for High Rez downloads. Connected to an 8Tb NAS drive
Wilson Audio watch
center channel
JL Audio Fathom F113
Pair of stereo subs. excellent quality. Integrates well with the Wilsons
Theta Digital Casablanca 3
with extreme DAC'c
Oppo BDP-95
DVD/Blu-Ray
Balanced Audio VK 250SE Mono
Center channel amplifier. Replaces BAT VK 110 mono. Sounds great and not nearly as hot.
Balanced Audio vk-220
SOLID STATE for surrounds (pair)
B&W SCM-8
side and rear channels
Transparent Audio Opus MM2 Speaker cable
12 ft pair. Great synergy with my equipment
Transparent Audio Opus MM2 Interconnect
2 ft pair from preamplifier to amplifier.
Nordost Odin
analog interconnect from Vivaldi DAC to preamp
MIT MA-X Digital Proline
3 Digital cables, Vivaldi Transport to Upsampler and Upsampler to DAC
Tara Labs Zero digital
Stereo Pair from Vivaldi Transport to Vivaldi DAC for SACD. Clearly one of the best digital cables made
Tara Labs The One XL Cobalt Power Cable
On pre-amp, and all Vivaldi components
Tara Labs 0.8
balanced 50 ft interconnect run to right and left channel preamp from Theta casablanca
Kimber Hero interconnect and speaker cable
balanced from processor to center channel amp and from amp to center
Running Springs Jaco
power conditioner on theater front end
Sound Application RLS-1
Very transparent. I used this in the past with my Maxx 2's than changed for the Audience AR6T. The Sound app is better on the alexandrias.
Sound Application Brass Alloy Power Outlets
Highly conductive modified Hubbell outlets. Remarkably better that the PS Audio. Used on 2 channel front end and amps.
PS Audio Power Port
Modified Hubbell power outlets used in 2 dedicated circuits on theater front end.
Pagoda Finite Element Master Reference
Rack for Pre amp and transport. Also master reference amplifier stand for Boulder 2060.
ASC Tube traps
This photo shows 16" full rounds behind Maxx's. Recently added a second pair of 16" super traps behind speakers. Unbelievable improvement in imaging. Can't understate the difference this made. The panel on the rear wall covers a 12" by 50" hole cut into the sheetrock which allows low frequency to pass into a floor to ceiling enclosed cavity which is filled with fiberglass. Homemade (sort of) bass trap. There are also 3 16" half rounds on the ceiling behind the listening position.
Sony SXRD
1080p projector
Room Acoustics Custom
Custom designed combination of diffusors and absorption covered in fabric on walls and ceiling.
I recently completed a new audio room. This room will be used for home theater only going forward. The big Wilson's have moved to the new room and Sophia 2s now grace the theater. Will update page when time permits. The new audio room is the result of a year's search for the ideal amplification and preampfification for my tastes. Stay tuned.
TheSaint: I use MIT digital cables only. They were much more extended than the transparent digital, also adjustable. I jumped the gun posting that I was keeping the MIT interconnect. I ended up sending it back. The Odin ended up being better once I found the right settings on the Vivaldi DAC and Upsampler. The Odin ended up being more transparent.
Icorem: I use the upsampler to stream from my computer source.
I own a vivaldi dac + scarlatti upsampler and clock and i'm thinking going to a vivaldi upsamler in order to use it as a streamer connected to a ripping NAS controlled by the vivaldi app. Do you use it also as a streamer or do you use the transport only as a digital music source ? if you do - cn you share your thoughts? Thanks
Awesome system. I haven't read all the posts, but based on what I saw in the list of components, you have successfully married MIT & Transparent cabling, right? What was your thought process behind it. I use all TA cabling. What do you like about MIT vs TA?
Personally, I use my Velodyne DD18 with my Wilson X1s for all music. Its always on. And the Velodyne is cut off above 40hz (48db slope).
The music may only come thru on maybe 50% of my music (deep house, Hans Zimmer soundtracks, organ, some though not all deep house, rock)...but I get a lot of special cues from recordings where shutting off the sub in the middle of a piece of music, and all of a sudden the music no longer envelopes but collapses a bit.
There is apparently a lot of special cue information recorded on classical, orchestral, live, etc...and in my system, I do feel it.
Additionally, many owners of Wilson Xs seem to own subs...in fact I know at least a dozen and 8 run subs in parallel...I think 2 other also use subs but because they are Wilson Thors...they use the Wilson Active crossover to cut off the main speakers below 38hz.
Thank you Bflowers. Are the JL Audio subwoofers for music or movies? I imagine the Wilsons are sufficient for music. Nevertheless JL subwoofers for home or car are the best I have heard.
I never tried transparent power cables. I am a big fan of Tara labs. I have tried many others and have preferred Tara cobalts to all others. I recently had a full suite of shunyata power products for an extended audition and found the Tara to be a better match in my system.
I have just added the Wilson Audio Sasha and use my existing Transparent Audio reference cables for speaker, interconnect and power. Did you try Transparent audio power cable as I notice you use Tara Labs.
It is indeed. That's where I heard it the first time. It's quite good of course. I will say that it made me appreciate the Boulder DAC. That DAC is >90% of the Vivaldi and was 10+ year old technology. I've had several highly regarded digital front ends in my room, and only the Vivaldi was better.
Hi, I can easily believe power makes a difference.
I went a different route (All Shunyata) recently, but my system has differing requirements than yours. It really helped me settle down and enjoy vs always being fidgety about the next thing.
Congrats on getting to that "secret sauce" These last few changes always seem to make a monster imporovment !
Haven't posted anything in a while, but I need to now because I have reached a level I wasn't sure was possible. I started in this hobby about 4 years ago, and like many others have worked hard trying to optimize my system. I have had very good sound for a long time, but never have gotten to a place where I experienced "goosebumps" with every session. Ultimately the improvement was due to some advice I received to convert my Boulder 2060 amp to 240V. I had heard that the amp sounded better on 240V before, but it was never strongly emphasized until recently. I decided to give it a try. I learned that the amp draws 43amps on 120V (thus 21.5A on 240V). I was running the amp on a 20A breaker, thus it was not capable of drawing full spec. I now have it on a 30A breaker, hence plenty of headroom. Boulder gear always has excellent clarity, now it has even greater clarity, with effortless highs and a dead black background. I'm not sure of all the reasons, but I am thrilled. I have recently had 2 different digital sources in for demo, the Emm Labs xds1 and the Boulder 1021. Both had their strengths, but ultimately the best synergy was with my MBL 1621A transport feeding the Boulder 2020 DAC. The Boulder 2020 DAC retrieves more information from a disc than any other digital source I have tried. I am thankful to be in a great place.
THe JL subs replaced a REL studio III. They are incredibly good and easy to integrate into a 2 channel system, where they receive most of their use. I have them on the floor and they perform well. A platform is an interesting idea. I will look into it.
H: just across your great system, was curious if your 2JL audio subs are sitting in some sort of platform or are just on firm padded ground. Specially in my theater room i found my JL f113 to be very smooth without rattling ground or walls if they are supported (i used sub dude and surprising work very well). ALl the best
The measured output impedance of the Boulder 2010 preamp is lower than 100 ohms across all audio band - maybe lower than the output impedance of the buffer you are considerning! Your preamp will drive both loads in parallel easily. I heard the Wilson Audio Alexandria X2 Series 2 this week - really an impressive speaker!
if you are running two loads in parallel you need to know input impedances of your Boulder amp and your Fathom sub BUT it is most unlikely you need a tube buffer because your system is all solid state so not to fret
