Hi all.  Having grown up in a musical family, I've been exposed to jazz and classical music as a kid which dad and mom would listen to.  I've played several instruments and would attend live music (e.g. saw Oscar Peterson at the Burlington, ON library in the basement for FREE in the '70s), so moving into the audiophile world was a no-brainer once funds became available.  Below are a few thoughts around why I bought the equipment I did and the importance of adding acoustic treatments to further the enjoyment. Thanks for reading!   .... Kevin

EQUIPMENT:

I've always had box speakers so wanted to try electrostatics.  The size of the SoundLabs means they also do low bass (~30Hz) which is augmented by a pair of servo-controlled subs by Rythmik.  A Dayton Audio OmniMic is used to optimize the placement of speakers, subs, and acoustic treatments.  I like a tilted upwards bass curve meaning that 25Hz is about 15dB louder than 100Hz in a pretty linear straight line.  Much experimentation has gone into SoundLab placement and front wall treatments.  When the speakers are too far from the front wall all songs sounded like reverb had been added to them, and too close to the front wall collapsed the soundstage depth and introduced phase issues.  The best distance was 5' front back to speaker to front wall. Just as important as distance was front wall treatment:  Absorption killed the "live" sound I prefer, Diffusion (QRDs, Skylines) was better at keeping the live sound, but the best solution was a bit of absorption behind the speakers with diffusion mid front wall. This allowed the details to be presented along with the "live" like sound.

Digital files are managed by JRiver and fed to exaSound DAC which handles all file types and offers headphone listening.  An old Sony 5-disc player is used to play CDs picked up at garage sales to know if I enjoy them enough to rip to my laptop music server.

Tubes have always sounded a bit better to my ear than solid state so have selected a solidly built preamp (PrimaLuna) and time tested amp (VAC) with the magic of 300B tubes.  With two 300B tubes per channel, it puts out 32watts/channel which is enough to drive the speakers to levels I enjoy.

ACOUSTICS:

Having built a dedicated music room in my previous house, I was appalled at how bad it sounded without any acoustic treatments.  So I began studying the physics of small room acoustics and bought and built my own treatments which began a multi-year education and experimentation process.  I'm a huge fan of how much of an improvement room treatments can make despite the room looking more like a recording studio which I'm fine with.  The Dayton OmniMic is critical for seeing what you're hearing in real-time so placement adjustments can be made.  NOTE: just because the room measures well doesn't necessarily mean it sounds best I learned.  The ears/brain must be able to detect things the mic didn't . . .