this room and system is the result of 10 years in High End audio. my
system has been stable for a couple of years (except for transport and
amplifier upgrades within the same brand). the room has been in the
planning stage for about 18 months and i actually moved in a little over
a month ago.
my audio philosphy is to have the system get out
of the way of the event. i like as pure and simple a signal path as
possible and, at this point, prefer passive to active gain stages. i
love all the formats and enjoy having lot's of music.....vinyl is my
favorite but i listen to at least 60% digital. the new room really
reveals the benefits of SACD over redbook.
the system and room
truely allow the event to be recreated before me. i love the way the
speakers disappear and i am transported to another place/time.
i have choosen my cables, sources, amps, speakers to have as little of their own sound as possible.
recently, i upgraded my digtial transport from the modified Philips
SACD 1000 to the new emmlabs CDSD.....this was a significant step upward
in performance.
i have written an article in Positive Feedback regarding my room building experience.....here is a link;
new version of these cables, a big step over the amazing TRSC model i have used for 10 years. fantastic performance.
WADAX SA Reference DAC
Wadax Reference Dac----state of the art dac with 2 separate power supplies. the best dac i have heard by a good margin. below is a link to a thread about my Wadax experience.
WADAX SA Reference Server with Akasa optical interface
ultimate state of the art music server using Roon. includes the Akasa optical interface.
CS Port LFT1 turntable w/arm
air bearing platter and air bearing linear tracking arm; string drive with zero feedback dc motor, low pressure, low flow air system with zero noise air box.
world class musical flow, nuance and delicacy, combined with authority and ease. serves the music completely.
Esoteric T1 Turntable
magnetic drive/rim drive idler turntable with torque adjustment.
https://www.esoteric.jp/en/product/t1/top
Esoteric G1X Master Clock
Master Clock Generator for speed improvement for the T1 turntable.
https://www.esoteric.jp/en/product/g1x/top
Wave Kinetics NVS
direct drive turntable
Durand ---Two Tosca tonearms.
gimbal bearing design. the finest tonearm i have heard.
one Tosca on the Esoteric T1 turntable
one Tosca on the Wave Kinetics NVS turntable
Primary Control 12" FCL tone arm
Field Coil Loaded uni-pivot tone arm. with power supply.
amazing natural and very high resolution tone arm. link below.
Experience Music/Intact Audio phono corrector + silver wound MC Trio SUT combo for three different tonearms.
bespoke tubed phono preamplifier. silver wound, with custom dual power supplies.
https://myemia.com/LR.html
LFD -3- Phono Cables DIN to RCA
3 sets of very high performance phono cables. amazing performance. built by Dr. Richard Bews in the UK.
one cable uses a DIN to RCA short Dongle + an RCA to RCA interconnect. the Dongle improves the performance of the DIN connection. details at the link below.
two Etsuro Golds, ---a pair of Reference MC Phono Cartridges.
duraluminim (A7075) body, 24 carat 'Kinpaku' Gold Leaf finish, diamond cantiliver. .3mv output, 4 ohms. these are both special versions of the Etsuro Gold.
one is mounted on the CS Port linear tracker.
one is mounted on the Primary Control FCL arm.
finest cartridge i have heard by a significant margin. WOW!
Audio Technica MC-2022 60th Anniversary cartridge
uses the unified stylus cantilever design. which results in extreme lack of distortion and linearity. maybe the best i've heard at musical truth.
mounted on the Durand Tosca tonearm on the NVS tt.
https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/at-mc2022
Koetsu Azule Platinum Stone Body, boron cantilever
.3 Mv output moving coil cartridge. mounted on the Durand Telos 12" wood arm wand tone arm and NVS turntable.
Miyajima Labs --2--Infinity mono cartridge's.
one Infinity cartridge has 0.7mil stylus for modern narrow groove mono pressings.
one Infinity cartridge has 1.0 mil stylus for early wide groove mono pressings.
https://www.miyajima-lab.com/e-mono.html
DS Audio Ion 001 Vinyl Ionizer
generates positive and negative ions to remove static charge from vinyl records. i use this with my NVS turntable.
https://ds-audio-w.biz/products/181/
CS Port Static Eliminator IME1 (two of them)
An unprecedented accessory focusing on cartridge friction. It suppresses the effects of static electricity and makes records clearer.
one is on the CS Port tt, one on the Esoteric T1 tt.
active isolation under 5 separate components: (1) the NVS turntable, (2) the MSB dac, (3) the darTZeel preamp, (4 + 5) both darTZeel mono block amplifiers. custom modifications by Taiko Audio add a linear power supply plus panzerholtz top layer + Daiza platform to provide full frequency resonance attenuation to each platform.
Taiko Audio Daiza isolation platform--22 used in the system
Panzerholtz Platform with spiral cutouts reducing mid and high frequency resonance while retaining life and energy and not changing tonality.
22 Daiza platforms in the system of various sizes under every piece of the signal path.
Adona Zero GTX rack---3 of them--each 4 shelf.
all three with 27" x 21" turntable top.
solid rack for best direct floor connection.
Evolution Acoustics 'system' power cables
a new version of the TRPC model i used on my darTZeel 468 mono blocks for the last 10 years. a big step up.
Sablon Audio King power cord
used on the Wadax Reference Server.
https://www.sablonaudio.com/power
Absolute Fidelity power interfaces
power cords specifically designed for either motors (tt and tape decks), amplifiers, and components. 11 in the system.
Tripoint Audio Troy Signature
Grounding box for chassis grounding the darTZeel 458 mono block amplifiers + grounding the passive main towers of the Evolution Acoustics MM7 speaker system.
Tripoint Audio Elite
Tripoint Elite grounding box. this does chassis grounding for my sources. it uses a a pair of Tripoint Thor SE Master Reference ground cables for my dart preamp and the MSB Select II dac. there are also 4 Signature Silver ground cables to the two arm boards of the NVS tt, the power supply of the NVS tt, and the SGM server.
Equi=tech 10WQ
10kva balanced Isoltion transformer and distribution panel.
Furutech GTX-D NCF Rhodium duplex outlets
10 in the system. used with 10 Furutech covers and frames. uses NCF (nano crystal formula) material to reduce noise by emitting negative ions.
Wave Kinetics A10 U8 decoupling footers
8 sets-of-4 in the system for individual tuning of each piece of gear.
Auralex T-Fusor diffusers
i use 20 of these. 6 each on the front side walls, and 4 each front ceiling and rear ceiling.
Klaudio Record Cleaning System
automatic record cleaner
Acoustic Revive RL-30 mKIII CD-LP demagnatizer
for demaging any disc.
Furutech DF-2 LP disc flattner
will remove warps from Lps
Audiodharma Cable Cooker, Anniversary Ed.
will cook any cables
Winds ALM-01 Stylus Force Gauge
easy accurate, repeatable, measurments.
i-Tower by Koncept LED floor lamp
(3) are used. best audio light ever. 2 'warm', 1 'cool'.
Quietrock THX 545 drywall
specialized drywall with a 1/4" metal layer. used in my front sidewalls to establish proper room boundaries.
A belated Merry Christmas and wishes for a great and very Happy New Year!
These are the best photos yet of your system(!!!) by a considerable margin,...it's shows off the art of your system and each component, cable and of course the room itself better than ever before!
Mike,...thanks for jumping on the phone late this past week and talking through various topics concerning speakers, cables, etc....the help is very much appreciated!
Thanks Mike....what an epic journey! Kudos for coming up with such a common sense and reasonbly priced approach to the whole problem. I'm sure you've got everybody thinking about fabric treatments now !
Mike: Thanks for posting the full-size pics; they definitely convey just how beautiful and well-planned the room and the system are. Very much appreciated!
What led to the application of the fabric treatments? What type of fabric is it and how did you determine where to apply it?
As always,...hope all is well and you are enjoying this dream system!
GREAT RECORDING LIST Mike,...thank you again, I don't have the last two but am familiar with the rest,....gotta love Gary Karr's and Ray Brown's work, definitely agree on those and others by the same guys. Thank you...
Mike,...thanks! BVSC and the Krall discs are entries here to and I enjoy them very much. There is also some well mic'ed and play jazzed piano on any of the Venus Records 24/192->RBCD Hypermagnum recordings out of Japan of various current jazz combos that I enjoy very much. I also dig some of Jordan Rudess' piano work (4NYC, various other accompanied and unaccompanied piano work); the discs are a mix of above-average to very good mastering but the playing is of interest to me. He's a very well-versed talent to say the least.......
Have a great day, keep that heart-rate down, and HAVE FUN!
Mike,...you are very welcome! "Super Trio" has some dynamite "prepared piano" passages on it and several kickass drum-kit entries that are hard to top. It is a very unique recording and on your system I can only imagine the jaw-dropping results. Certainly worth making room on the shelf and server for "one more silver/gold disc" and then the import into the server!
The Nojima and Evans discs you mention are favorites here too; they give a system a great workout in multiple dimension and are damned fine music to boot! I don't have the others and will be sure to look them up. I like Nojima's other works as well beyond the Liszt as well as Guilda's piano work on all the Beethoven recordings that Esoteric remastered and released as an SACD box set last year.
That mislabelled tape you have sounds like someone was mic'ed a live or other recording from the booth and then it went into the archives. I know several people with recordings like this from various venues in NY, Chicago, etc...the little I've heard tell me there are treasures out there; it's been enough to keep me thinking of adding a R2R capability to the system and start buying tape but I've held off as like vinyl, it;'s pragmatic here in that there is only so much time, money and space available (and limited WAF beyond what I enjoy most days).
Mike....what are you favorite piano and violin & cello if applicable recordings or at least your top3 or top5 for each? As an aside, I regularly return to Winston's UDC/UDM Fukamachi done in your room and marvel at how great that disc and the system that produced it are...I've got a long list of piano, violin and string music but I'm curious which ones you return to for the ultimate playback experience.
Have you ever played Winston's "Super Trio" UDC on this system? There are a few tracks I'd love to hear out of this system of yours....
I've looked at this system and love reading through your threads many times every month; between you and Albert Porter and a few others, you do an incredible thing for this hobby (obsession more like...) in how your systems inspire people and all the help and advice you give.
All I have to say is that if one believes in heaven (at least for an audiophile), it must look and sound like this room!!! Have a great weekend and enjoy the music!
Agreed....HRx would be incredible with that disc. I've been going back through al ot of classical over here and finding some great (older) recordings of the Shostakovich Symphonies (Mravinsky & Lenningrad on Russian labels), Janaczek (Glagolithic Mass & Sinfoinetta are huge favorites), Elgar Sea Pictures, Honegger Sym 2-3, Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony (Bournemouth is my current favorite) and various Bruckner and Mahler recordings. I've also been spending a lot of time in big pipe organ works from Widor, Vierne, Dupre, Bach, etc... The amazing thing about this hobby is that once you get a system 'right' you get transported into whatever recordings you listen to and it is incredibly difficult to tear yourself away (who would want to anyway?!?).
When are you going to be able to shoot new pictures of the room, new speakers and amps. It must look amazing in there!
Mike: Hope all is well with you and the new speakers! RR recordings are among some of my favorites as well even without an HDCD player. Have you heard Bruckner 9th with Skrowaczweski and the Minnesota Symphony? It's a drop-dead gorgeous performance and disc.
Mike...thanks for the clarification. Have a great time with the MM7s and let us all know how they sound and the celebratory scotch :-) pans out! I'm headed out for a side trip to Legacy tomorrow after client site presentations in STL to hear the new AERIS and the Whisper models in a non-show environment. 14 crates....wow, what a project!
Mike: That's great news that your MM7s are getting close to being ready finally! Have you considered asking them to hold the shipment of the main towers until the bass towers are assembled and the whole package can be tested and voiced together? This is something I would strongly consider...
Good luck with this massive upgrade; I bet the result will be amazing!
Absolutely Jazzdoc; adding the word grateful is appropos as well!. Many of us have made priority decisions over the years as Mike has mentioned above and in many cases put what we had at the time into audio versus many other things or simply throwing it away on disposable expenditures of all kinds. I remember with pride, every system no matter how small, every transition, no matter how little or how much it cost that I put together over the years all the way back to a college dorm room system 30 years ago that I was simply grateful to have, an awful long time ago when others had nothing. Personally, Mike's system and many others with their custom-built rooms and high-end equipment are nirvana to me and what I hope to accomplish over the time. No matter what form the system and the room takes, it's simply a pleasure to hear music conveyed with realism and all the details that a good system can convey.
Mike,...thanks! Paul L at Adona has been great to do business with over the years. I have all the parts for a triple-wide HT rack system in the garage as well. That's a lot of granite and X and Y-Frames hanging around the house :-). Thanks for your comments and advice. I will definitely do some more investigation into Paul's latest offerings and will plan the move!
Mike, how are the Adona Zero racks working out for you? I utilize Adona prior rack versions with great success particularly when coupled with Composite Audio platforms and was wondering how the Zero Reference racks compare to other things you have looked at? Thanks!
The UCD gold version of Winston's Steinway Take 2 release sounds amazing as recorded using your gear and in your room. You have one hell of a system and must be very proud!
