I was finally able to make some edits to better display my current 2025 setup. So much work but worth it. Done for a while, I hope...
Finished the stereo house December 2019. Took six months building it and literally 5 years to research all angles to plan for it. Construction is concrete pad, offset stud walls one foot thick, double sheets 5/8" drywall with green glue sandwich. Ceiling is same sheetrock construction but mounted on metal furring hat channels with sound clips. Used 71 cartridges of compound and 21 sealant. All electrical outlets backed with soundproof putty.
Two small windows 4" thick with triple pane. 3" thick solid wood door, mahogany on outside, pine inside. Whisper quiet mini split AC/heat wall mounted unit.
Result is stunning, I hear nothing from the outside, trash truck included, and no one hears a peep of my music from the outside, no matter how loud.
Mission accomplished for sound proofing. For acoustic treatment I worked with Gik and the results are phenomenal. It took me 3 months to tweak in the system and now 6 months later I have completely stopped tweaking anything. Happy and satisfied music lover here with what I accomplished. The construction was nerve wracking at times since no one around this area was familiar with this type of construction, but I really enjoyed guiding those guys along. Great experience. In the process of upgrading some equipment, pictures will follow. Ended up doing a bunch of acoustic treatment upgrades also. Reality is the journey is never over no matter the level of quality. Lesson learned :)
Jay's Cdt2 mk3 cd transport with Qstab NSE CD clamp
Audio Mirror Tubadour V
Tube dac
Innuos Zenith mk3
Streamer
Gustard C18
Master clock
LHY SW10
Ethernet switch
GUSTARD U18
DDC
Sangea HDT-20 HD radio fm tuner
Simply amazing, some HD stations in Austin sound almost as good as redbook CDs on this inexpensive marvel.
PBN Audio Montana XPS speakers
On Iso Acoustics Gaia feet
Rythmik Audio F 12 A 370 PEQ dual subs
Iso acoustics ISO-200 subwoofer stands
4s11 canare 11 gauge bi-wiring speaker cables
Small Green Computer Optical isolation bundle
Used between the wifi extender and streamer to clean up the ethernet signal. Subtle improvement in space and clarity.
Black Lion Audio PG-2 Power conditioner
Added a PG-2R (conditioner and regulator) as I was running out of outlets.
ADD POWR Sorcer x4
Gik acoustics 8 corner bass traps, 4 absorbing panels for side walls, 2 for back wall and 2 more absorber/diffuser panels for back wall. Later added diffusers for first reflection points, back wall, rear side walls and ceiling for a diffuser surface total of 84 sq. ft.. The total surface of absorbers amounts to 72 sq. ft. plus the floor to ceiling bass traps in the 4 corners.
Once I got rid of all echoes with the absorbers, it took that many diffusers to open up the room and give it the lively sound I lost with the absorbers. Now I have no echoes and a lively room! What a trip!
Cables So many...
A few: Audience front row phono, eno USB III,
Snake River boomslang AES, Cullen power cords, Darwin Natural 2 silver RCA and XLR, Townshend Fractal 1 RCA, Triode wire labs freedom ethernet, Audiolund xtrem cu I2s, Wywire Juice II silver power cord, Audio Envy Ocean-elite3 power cords and more...
Fuses None stock
Many purple, some hifi extreme cu.
Schiit Audio Loki Max
Equalizer strictly for TV/ DVD for music concerts, mostly Blu-ray.
Thanks @faustuss for taking the time to check my system out.
A little update to some of the new equipment I have added recently and is making noticeable sound improvements since I can no longer edit the house of stereo. Overload!
Replaced the Gustard dac with Audiomirror Tubadour V. Connecting my Innuos ZENith Mk3 to it via U18 DDC. Using Audiolund xtreme cu I2s cable. Also replaced the Parasound Halo 21+ with the JC5. I had to use the square wave on the master clock to get the definition I was looking for, now with the JC5 I can go back to the sine wave since the definition has increased. And the result is totally free of listening fatigue wish always gets me on square wave.
Also a fantastic upgrade in cabling between the VPI Classic TT and PSAudio stellar phono pre. Now using Audience front row RCA cables to incredible results. Again, ultimate definition with zero fatiguing. Expensive as heck, but so worth it. Another great cable addition is the Snake River Boomslang AES between my Jay's cdt2-mk3 and Tubadour V. Made some additional changes but not as significant as these. This is easier than starting over posting a brand new system lol.
Thanks for taking the time to check my system out. Unfortunately I have not been able to update it for a long time. Overloaded I guess. It's been upgraded quite a bit. I like to think I do take all improvements I make very seriously, so I can see your point of view. I just checked your room and system, it is perfectly well thought out and very professionally done. It could easily be a demo room for any high end equipment. Well done.
Can't update my system anymore, so I do it here. Moved the Node to my living room setup and got an Innuos Zenith mk3 to take its place in the house of stereo. No huge sound improvement over the Node the way I had it setup but substantial upgrade with its connectivity to my extender. Have not had a single wifi misconnect in well over a month now. Also the Innuos sense app for using Qobuz has more features than bluos, but I occasionally have to restart it as it just drops off when first getting into it, which can get annoying. They do a lot of software upgrades and hopefully will correct that.
I like that the Stellar gives me the option to change the ohms setting via remote. That comes in very handy for certain records regardless of mc cart. I have zero reason to upgrade on it.
Very nice! Great job on the build. I am thinking about upgrading my Phono preamp. The PS audio is one of my contenders. Just wondering if you are pleased with yours. My other would be The Parasound JC-3.
Beautiful detail and sound room, lock yourself away to musical bliss. Looks great and you have awesome equipments. The Gustard X26Pro is a fantastic DAC, and its on my radar next. With your room, I'll never speak with my wife or kids again. The hobby is really fun and and expensive. Cheers to a fantastic setup brother!
The reason I bought the SW-10 was to identically clock both the X26 PRO and the SW-10 with the C18. Works perfect for that with two PNC 50 ohms cables connected via the two square outputs of the C18. I did find out that it takes time for each unit to recognize eachother and work in unison, meaning I am not interested in trying different slaving setups, sorry. The other thing that sold me about the SW-10 is the optical isolation feature. It ties in perfectly to the LPS part of my optical isolation bundle from Small green computer. I was waiting for the new etherregen, but when this new SW-10 came out, the etherregen simply no longer measures up in features. As far as sound, every part of it is better, whether it is worth it to someone has to do with how deep the pockets. It is totally worth it to me and allows me to keep my NODE, using the fantastic bluos os on my android remotes getting sound easily comparing to the quality of my TTs and CD setups.
Lovely system and room design. Appreciate the attention to detail.
There's a small overlap with mine in the area of Gustard and LHY components - both superb bang-for-buck in my experience, on which I have a qn or two if you don't mind.
I have the LHY OCK-2 and SW-8, but am SW-10 curious as it is reputed to have an even better clock that the OCK-2. How did you find its addition to your system? Have you experimented with slaving your X26 Pro using the masterclock output of the SW-10 rather than the C18?
As stated earlier, I have no more ways to update my system and since I don't want to do the work to post a new one, here are the latest additions:
- Sold the pro-ject TT, replaced it with a Pioneer PXL 1000, running the Sumiko Starling cart and Puffin phono preamp on it. VPI Classic TT back with rebuilt Lyra Kleos cart and still on PS Audio Stellar phono preamp.
- Gustard C18 master clock.
- LHY SW-10 ethernet switch which also functions as an optical isolation box and can input an external clock. These are amazing features! Both the Gustard X26 PRO and ethernet switch are connected to the C18 master clock.
Funny, I might have gone over my allowance for upgrading my system components as there is no longer an edit option for me on here. Anyway just wanted to say I added an Addpowr sorcer x4 and I couldn't recommend it more. It's like taking the baffles off the speakers all over again. Livelier, like adding a spring in your step. Plus it works on all my systems, 2 TTs, CD player, streamer, tuner and DVDs. What other single upgrade can do that?
Harder to control resonance. Plus the soundproofing is incredible as is. Stepping out a few feet from building and you hear nothing, no vibration, even with loud electronic music with heavy bass which I am increasingly falling for.
@baylinor WOW!! beautiful system.. It's like real estate. You'd think that you have a nice beautiful home and then you go on house hunting, you see these other homes that are even more gorgeous.. That's exactly how I felt, seeing your audio gear. I have a decent system, and I have them all in a separate room downstairs and I cringe to call it the media room :). you can check it out.. But then I see yours I am like WOW!! You have some fine gear and just shows your fine taste.. I use to have the Parasound A21+ Halo in silver, It's in one of my photos.. I recently traded it.. Thanks for sharing your awesome system
Thanks for the suggestion on an alternative subwoofer placement. Can’t follow your placement due to my room configuration but looking at alternative placements is a great inspiration. Costs nothing to try out, no downside.
I think it is very helpful to describe as well as we can what kind of work we put in our system if we are going to help anyone. Glad you took the time to look it up. Yes, the sound of my room keeps amazing me pretty much at each listen. The only problem now with the new PBN speakers is I would like to get more power than my Halo A23+ puts out. I am looking at a halo A21+ because I want to keep the sound I have. Just more of it. Plus I would like the first 6 watts of pure class A the A21+ has for best low volume listening. The journey goes on...
Also, great description on the panels / diffusors, room construction. I don’t think people understand the amount of thought, planning, time and money it costs to do something like you did here.
I thought I had commented on your system… guess not.
Yeah, I saw it awhile back. Pretty awesome room! I def remember it.
I don’t remember the PBN’d though! Great speakers, great designer. I had some Jamo’s awhile back that Peter had a hand in and I had an issue with the crossover. I reached out to him and he was super helpful. Great guy.
Anyhow, great setup! Hopefully one day I can do a dedicated built room like you were able to do. I bet your setup is really awesome sounding 😀
