My modest but very nice sounding system. As this is a living room and listening room, it combines both 2-channel and HT. The HT set-up is completely separated from 2 channel listening as the 2 channel Belles Aria Signature pre has an HT pass-thru. The Vandy Treo’s are driven by the Belles MB200’s, even in HT mode. My two subs are connected directly to the each of the Belles MB200 in stereo mode, thus no LFE. Vandersteen 2CE Sigs are my rear speakers. HT is not really ‘critical’ at all for me. My concentration is 99% 2 channel, and those components, especially the vinyl rig.
My rear speakers in HT. A bit of overkill, but sound great.
Elac Debut 2.0 Center
Center speaker
Belles Aria Signature Preamp
New 1/22. Very little info on this, but a wonderful preamp. Has broken in nicely.
Power Modules MB-200
Belles mono block amps. 200wpc of the wonderful David Belles sound.
Hagerman Trumpet MC
Tube Phono Pre with two CBS-Hytron 5814A in the au7’ sockets, and 2 Dynaco/Telefunken smooth plate + 2 Blackburn Mullard ax7’s. A combination I’ve settled on and sounds wonderful. Powered by a SBooster power supply. Sweet.
Sbooster BOTW P&P ECO MKII 15-16V
Power supply for the Hagerman Trumpet phono pre
SOTA Sapphire sIII
Turntable
Jelco TK-850s MKII
Arm
Benz Micro Ruby 3
Could become my main cart. Got a pretty good deal on this, in wonderful shape. Sounds fantastic.
Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC
Lo version of the Zephyr. .4mV output
Main cart
Soundsmith Zephyr III
Back-up cart #1
Goldring G-1042
Back-up cart #2
Denon DL-103r
MC Cartridge. Great for the $
Grado Prestige Red w/8mz stylus
Back-up #3
Ortofon 2M Mono
Mono cart
iFi Audio Zen Stream
Streamer only. Nice unit, great sound.
iFi Audio iPower
iPower X used to power my iFi Zen Stream
Media converter boxes and optical cable. Media converter boxes and optical cable.
Per a recommendation, purchased two media converters off Amazon tethered together with an optical cable. Nice improvement to SQ with more detail and definition vs without. Easy enough setup; router>two converter boxes tethered with optical via ethernet cable>iFi Zen Stream via ethernet cable.
Denafrips Ares II
‘Ladder’ DAC
Audiolab 6000CDT
CD Transport. Very nice improvement over the Yamaha Blu-Ray I was using as a transport prior.
Nakamichi CR-1a
Tape deck
Yamaha RX-V781
AV receiver
AudioQuest Comet bi-wire
These were literally ‘thrown-in’ with my Treo purchase, which was quite a deal. Running them installed right now. Sound very nice.
Western Electric 10 awg bi-wire speaker cables. 1950’s NOS
Custom made for me. Had these hooked-up to my Vandersteen 2CE Sigs, and recently the Treo’s. ‘Sitting on the sidelines’ right now while I check out the AudioQuest Comet set.
AudioQuest Water
5m Interconnects between my Belles Aria Signature preamp and Belles MB-200 mono block amps
Audio Envy Studio Prestige
Interconnects
Phono Pre to Preamp
Cerious Tech Nano braided XLR cables
Interconnects
From DAC to Belles preamp
Silnote Audio Morpheus Classic Reference
Interconnects
Nakamichi tape deck to Belles preamp
Silnote Audio Morpheus Digital Reference
Digital cable
Audiolab CDT to DAC
XLO Electric UltraPlus
USB Cable. Steamer to DAC
Chord Electronics Ltd. Crimson Vee 3
Interconnects
AVR pre-out to Preamp
GR Research B16 Power Cables
One (1) six foot for my preamp, and Two (2) 4 foot for my mono block’s
Audience PowerChord
Power Cable. Just picked this up, thanks Spencer, for my Denafrips Aries II DAC. Interesting design, as it has a ‘fold away’ ground pin.
Pangea AC-14SE
Power cord for use with my Audiolab CD transport
BIC America F-12 Subs
2 - Connected in stereo via Belles amp. Cheap but powerful subs. Ports stuffed with foam in order to work with the mains. All crossover and gain settings at the Subs.
Bellari Audio HA540 Headphone amp
I hardly ever use headphones really, but as my Belles Aria Signature preamp has no headphone amp/jack, I purchased this simple tube headphone amp for those rare times I do. Replaced the stock 12AX7 tube with a RAM EI smooth plate, made on Telefunfen machinery. Pretty good deal for a smooth plate very similar to a Telefunken. Doesn’t sound too bad really. This is the earlier version of this amp.
Thanks Joe. Obviously I like the Belles stuff. David does nice work. If you are working with Johnny at Audio Connection, there is none better. I almost went with the new Belles dual mono amp, but when the MB-200's became available, jumped on those instead. The Treo's are great as well. Good luck, and thanks for the note.
Beautiful system. Dropped by to see how you put it all together. Been looking at the Belles gear myself...stuck between the Aria Sig preamp for one system with my modded McIntosh MC250 and getting either the Aria Dual mono or the Signature model or just going all out to the monoblocks. Heard both in NJ last year and was totally blown away. Loved the VS Treos too but given a bad room layout (LR is listening room) I am likely going to stick to my Ohm Walsh2-100s as they sound good and work for a choppy room. Still dream about the Treo s though if we ever move....its all gotta sound great. Aloha.
Brian, your speakers look great and must sound lovely. Congrats! Good to see the analog and LP’s. You’ve got a comfortable room vibe going on for sure. Cheers!
Agreed. As you can see, my room is naturally damped with rugs and furniture, so the little absorption I use works to tame a bit. This was a matter of a few days of trail and error, and listening. I also found that for me, diffusion was much more important. Not perfect by any means, but much better than without either.
My experience was starting with a 90%/10% absorbers/ diffusers ratio which killed all echoes but rendered the sound way too lifeless. The later addition of multiple diffusers bringing the square footage absorbers/diffusers to a 55%/45% ratio brought back all the liveliness and still produces no echoes. Point being diffusers do widen the soundstage but they do much more than that. The acoustic treatment road is a tough journey but highly recommended.
Yep, when I was playing around with some absorption and diffusion within my room, that made a pretty big difference in the soundstage. I learned real quick that a 'hole' in between the speakers is not a good idea.
Thank you very much. Yep, the Belles is special to me. I probably won’t hesitate to refurbish it when necessary. For a bi-polar amp design, it sure sounds more like a mosfet amp. David is amazing, and I’m proud to have one of his earlier efforts.
Hey Brian. Dropped by to check out your place. Looks very comfy! Great to see the Jelco 850 and Nobby springs in use. If I may: new speakers might be next.
I would have to hunt that info down. I know I looked at tons of them on various sites before finding that one, and purchasing it. Yes, the frame is partially welded but the front, back, and sides, actually bolt together.
Those are actually 3D architectural tiles I found, and use them (attached together) for diffusion. I painted those so they blended/disappeared a bit better over the fireplace opening. Can be taken off easy enough to use the fireplace as well, but, since I put the Belles on the hearth, that didn’t happen last year.
They work really well, and helped out the soundstage and imaging instead of being ‘sucked into’ the fireplace opening (which only has a mesh screen over it).
