cobalt

I actually avoid tubes. I tried them years ago and although they have their benefits I found them to be a royal PITA. One day while listening one of the tubes let go and nearly burned down my house. Quite a loud pop. glass smoke and a little flame. Not that I find much SS equipment I really enjoy. I know someone who had a set of VTL MB 450 and he constantly had similar problems. Inevitably once a year the amp would go back to VTL for repairs. I hear their new Mark II version no longer has these issues. Never the less he purchased a set of accuphase amps and has not looked back since.

I was actually considering a tube pre for a while but I decided against it. I am quit happy with my system for now. Sometimes you get lucky and match the right components and get more than the sum of the parts.

Although my wife is driving me crazy lately. Confirmed tone def and had no interest in listening to music but since I purchased the TT she loves the sound and likes to listen with me along with my son. They are taking over my listening room and making me play FAMILY games while listening. Worse yet my wife likes bad 80's music. My son on the other hand is into classic rock which I can live with but not all the time.

Dan,

Never seen a 401 look that good before. Very nicely done.

LT Texan

Thanks Anthony.

A.Wayne

Nice tables Dan ..........

Garrad and Lenco idler tables seem to becoming some kind of big deal in DIY lately ...

rlips

I'll bite. Avalon Isis, Pass Labs XA 160.6, Atmasphere MP1 MK3.1 and EMM XDSD

cobalt

Nice,

Is this your equipment or something you wish you had?

I have never heard the EMM does it truly improve the sound of a CD to SACD quality. I hope it does for $25k.

rlips

It's my system. I had the older EMM gear, and I noticed I usually ended up playing mostly SACD's. With the XDS1, I tend to pick whatever I feel like hearing and it all sounds great. I didn't even notice that until a friend of mine commented that I was playing more CD's now.

Remember, 25k is just list price, there are much better deals to be had.

R

cobalt

I understand but even at a discount that is the cost of a higher mileage 964. I have been focusing on Vinyl myself so i have been staying away from CD's. Although I would love a nicer player one day than the arcam I am using.

Nice system and room. I like the fact you have a couch instead of a single chair as many people seem to do. The art work is cool too. Do you find that although you have blinds the windows directly behind the speakers it causes any form of reflections? I am assuming not since you have invested in the ceiling work. I am also surprised you have hard wood floors throughout but I am assuming all of this has been considered.

A.Wayne

Nice system and room ....................


Cobalt:

the hard floors in itself is not and issue and i do see some kind of "rug " towards the listening position. The blinds in the rear will act as diffusers as the center piece reshaping the wall and the ceiling trays helps alot ....

cobalt

I would have expected curtains instead of wood blinds and the carpet doesn't extend out past the center of the speakers. Every system has different requirements. Not sure if there is rear porting and if it is for high or low frequencies. I have windows behind my speakers and I found curtains helped far more than blinds. Wasn't sure how much of an issue it would have made.

great room non the less, must be very relaxing.

A.Wayne

Curtains work well , but they do not diffuse as well as blinds and his front wall is setup to diffuse.

The idea to diffuse or absorb is very dependent on the type of system ,room and how alive you want the sound. Drapes can lead to a dead sounding room if say working with dipoles. Diffusing on the other hand gives for a room with more life, there is no good better or best , each for it's application and desired results. Usually most rooms will work best with a combination of both and as mentioned before , Dipoles need a live room with a lot of diffusing and very little absorption and with conventional speakers in a small room, tend to need more absorption.

Without seeing the full details of the room i would speculate that the roof treatment is why they chose to diffuse rather than to absorb or use traps for the front wall ... well apart from the center piece that's there..

rlips

Most of the room is covered by the carpet, I used a very wide lens (14mm) to take the photo, so it exaggerates distances. The room is 18 x 21.

The Windows are covered in wood blinds over cloth duets. The Cloth breaks up the reflective surface of the windows and the angle of the wood blinds allows for fine tuning diffusion.

The room was designed by Richard Rives of rives audio and built as a room within a room. There are numerous devices within the construction that let us fine tune the room after it was completed. We were looking for good control of secondary reflections without making the room dead.

Here is a view of the back of the room

Dean_Fuller

Wow....

2 Questions....where do you live and can I come over?

Jim Devine

This one isn't mine- I'm still stuck in the 70's with Marantz & Altec stuff.

I bought a projector & screen from this gentleman when he upgraded. He invited me to stop by & listen if in the area.

Scratch built no limits design by Rives & some great gear. Can't imagine it getting much better than this!

http://cgi.audioasylum.com/systems/663.html

911Jeff

Here's a sampling of the systems in our home.......
This forum is a great addition to Rennlist.
High Performance is HIGH PERFORMANCE.....
Whether it be automobiles, Audio/Video/Watches....etc.

fast_freddy

You guys are retarded...

In a good way.