This is the result of my quest for decent desktop sound!
I found out that my job will be sending me to work full time from home, so I wanted to build a system that I could listen to 8 hours a day. I was looking for something that would give me a full satisfying sound, excellent detail, clarity and imaging.
I was previously listening to a pair of Audioengine A2 speakers on my desktop, but they didn't have the midrange clarity, top end, or impact that I was looking for. After much research and consulting with the fine folks on the forums here I was able to select something that better met my needs.
The Ushers have a sweet, clear sound and also do wonderfully even at lower volumes - crucial for the wife acceptance factor! The Virtue Audio Virtue One amp also sounds great. I was able to pick it up directly from Michael Mardis, one of the designers and consultants for Virtue Audio. It's the perfect size for my desktop and sounds great, smooth sound, detailed imaging and excellent clarity. The Beresford DAC also sounds great, perhaps not quite as good as my Dacmagic in the downstairs system, but it does have a very good headphone amp that I can use with my Grado SR-125's for late evening listening.
I also built my own speaker stands and a pair of acoustic absorbtion panels. One panel sits behind the monitor/speakers and the other panel sits on the wall directly behind me. The are home built frames filled with 2" thick Ultra Touch Cotton Insulation and covered with fabric. They do a great job of cutting reflections, getting rid of bass muddiness, and improving the overall sound in the room.
Overall I'm very pleased with the system. It rivals the Mac Mini/DacMagic/Thiel/Rotel system downstairs!
Cool desktop system! I think AudioGon should create an extra category just for desktop audio, don't you? I was trying to put together a decent budget desktop system myself and found it difficult to do research based on other member's systems. For example, I had no idea the "$250 Beresford TC-7520 DA converter" even existed when I was in need of -and spinning the interwebs for- a good USB dac...so I ordered the VERY new Harmonic Tech "Music Streamer." Anyway, I like that your setup is really clean and fairly simple and the speaker stands & acoustic panels look just like OEM. Great job!
