This system sits at the wall end of a 35 ft. x 15 ft. x 9 ft. room.
Sonex is in a checkered pattern on the wall behind the system. The floor is solid concrete with hardwood parquet covering it. To calm the hardness down I have thick throw rugs on the floor. I have a Zero gravity chair that sits around 90 inches from the front speakers.
The front speakers sit 5 feet from any wall on top of the spiked HR 60 speaker stands, which are filled with fine grade sand.
The subwoofer sits in the right corner in a reinforced encasement but points directly at the listening position. This sub sits on top of a set of Ultimate Triplepoint Cones that have small three small points on top of the cone. Mighty nice. The Subwoofer crossover is set to 50 Hz.
I have run two separate dedicated 20 amp circuits with 10 gauge wire ( separately grounded by an 8 foot copper rod driven into the ground and connected to the system with 10 ga. Phoenix pure copper cable ) to this system that terminate into a WATTaGATE 381 and a PS Audio Power Port. One connects to a Hurricane A/C cable to the 20 amp Ultimate Outlet by a 20 amp IEC. The Krell amp is connected to the U.O. by a BMI Whale and the Velodyne HGS is connected to the U/O with a Synergistic A/C Master coupler. The PS Audio Power Plant 300 is plugged into to another separate circuit with a Sonic Horizon Silver Moon and then all of the front end units are plugged into it.
All of the components except the Power Plant, sit on the Poly Crystal rack with the 1 Ultra High Density shelves. The Power Plant 300 is sitting on two slabs of 3/4' granite with a thin sheet of sorbothane in between the two pieces. There are steel cones below the granite and brass cones between the granite and the PS Audio 300.
What would be the nost logical upgrade at this point?
SACD player Top grade Sony SACD decoder chip, CXD2752 24-bit/96kHz Upsampling via Crystal CS8420 sample rate converter Burr-Brown PCM1738 24-bit/192kHz DAC for standard CD and SACD Sony KHM 234AAA laser head and servo system
Project Perspective
belt, 33, 45
Sumiko Bluepoint Special
MC, 2.3 mV
NAD Silverline S-100
with phono
Krell KAV-250a
250w x 2, 57 lbs
Dynaudio Contour 1.3SE
pr, 6.5in woof, 1in twtr ONE OF THE TOP 10 MINIMONITORS OF ALL TIME. SILKY, EXTENDED HIGHS.
Velodyne HGS-15
90 lbs
Nakamichi DR-2
3 motor, 3 head
Pioneer Elite CD R/RW PDR-W37
CR Recorder Re-Recording up to 500 Times 44.1 kHz Sampling Frequency Hi-Bit Legato Link Conversion 24-Bit D/A Converter 96kHz / 24-Bit A/D Converter CD-Text Input and Edit Keyboard Input Optical & Coaxial Digital Input & Output Acoustically Dampened Chassis
P S Audio P-300
MultiWave II Upgrade
Harmonic Tecnnology Magic Link
1 Meter interconnect, RCA
Harmonic Tecnnology Pro Silway Interconnect
1 Balanced 1 meter 2 Unbalanced 1 meter
Harmonic Tecnnology Truth Links interconnects
2 1 meter unbalanced interconnects
Harmonic Tecnnology Precision Link
Balanced 3m for subwoofer
Harmonic Tecnnology Pro-11 Plus
8 ft. spades
P S Audio Ultimate Outlet
high current version, 20 amp connector
Harmonic Tecnnology Pro AC-11
2 Meter Schurter 4781.0100 IEC, Hubbell Male plug
Sonic Horizon Silver Moon
HSO-EGC conductors,MSC technology, triple independent isolated shields, triple extra large RFI-Zero noise suppressors, and our proprietary Z-Stat technology WATTaGATE 330 AC, WATTaGATE 350 IEC, 10 gauge
Sonic Horizon Skyline
2 each 2 meter WATTaGATE 330 AC, WATTaGATE 350 IEC, HSO-EGC conductors, dual independent ground isolated shields, dual large RFI-Zero noise suppressors, and our proprietary Z-Stat treatment, 13 guage
Sonic Horizon Hurricane
WattGate 320 IEC, and WattGate 8215 Hospital Grade AC
BMI Whale Elite Mk II
4 ft. big fat cable
Synergistic Research A/C Master Coupler
5 FOOT
Target HR Series
28 in stands
Poly Crystal Oak stands, 5 shelves
Oak panels and 5 Ultra High Density Poly Crystal shelves.
Poly Crystal Small cones
Set of 3 under each component
Mapleshade Ultimate Triplepoint cones
Large brass cones with thre small points on top of the cone to bite into the piece sitting on them. They are used for the feet of the SUBWoofer.
Not that your system is exactly crying for an upgrade..but if you insist, I would look at a tubed CD player, like Audio Note or the new Shanling for a better sound from the digital quarter, as it will be hard to improve much on the Genki with another solid state cdp. Your analog setup also has room for growth. I would probably sell the Project and BluePoint and buy a mint condition Linn LP12 I have available...oops, cheap plug. But seriously, if you listen to records very often, a Kuzma Stabli with a similar step up in cartridge quality would be the way to go. They are quiet and untouchable under $ 2K. Of course, a good tube preamp and phono stage instead of the NAD would do wonders. You might try this hybrid route while keeping the Krell for its bass control and authority. Also, I did not see a record cleaning machine like a VPI or Nitty Gritty, a must for getting the most out of your vinyl(my next purchase in fact.) Discwasher or even Last do not come close to doing the job. I love Nakamichi for cassette decks, and I think someone(not me) has the legendary Dragon listed for about $ 850 on the site. If you don't buy it, I might. Nothing else ever came close. At least you have a Nakamichi, just not THE Nakamichi. :-) All in all, a very well thought out and balanced system, but if you are still not satisfied(are any of us?) than warming up the sound with a tube pre might be the trick. Not knocking NAD - I own two. But I was blown away recently by an audition of a modest system consisting of the Manley Stingray/ProAc D15's/Audio Note CD3(CD4?)/Nordost Solar Wind at Arizona Tube Audio. And I have almost always owned solid state equipment, thinking tubes were too much hassle and too bass/power-shy. Scary to think they could well be worth it! That is why a hybrid system may well do the trick. I believe the Velodynes are self powered, so you have some options here, although the Dynaudios probably like a fair amount of power to open up. I am in a similar quandry, and am looking at tubes as a possible way to make the most difference, short of changing transducers. Let your fellow Audiogoners know what changes you wind up instituting.
