Description

My present system: Overall the system has a very natural sound. The midrange is deep, colorful and as rich as many SET based systems. The highs are airy, open and extremely effortless with no glare or harshness. Bass is extremely well defined with no bloat or bloom but solid and deep. The system is easy to listen to for five or more uninterrupted hours with no fatigue and never losing interest. Imaging is pinpoint with a deep and wide sound stage. I've back my toeing by a very tinny amount to keep the imaging from appearing artificially etched. In my opinion the tonal quality is as accurate and life like as any system I've auditioned. I go to a lot of live performances in small clubs, 1000 seat theaters and two world renowned orchestra halls. I for the most part find my system more enjoyable to listen to than live. It's impossible to duplicate the energy of a live show, but in sound quality I believe I have surpassed most venues.

Room: This is the most overlooked and yet important component in an audio system. Sadly most of us must use the room that came with our house and don't have the luxury of designing a perfect room. I am part of the masses, I use a separate room that was a livingroom in another life. It's size is wrong and it's finishes are suspect. The room is 17'-6" x 13'-4" x 8'-0". I have set the speakers on the long wall as recommended by the speaker manufacturer. The tweeters are placed 2'-8" (approx. 1/5 the 13'-4" dim.) out from the front wall and 3'-11" (a min. of 1/3 greater than the front wall) from the side walls. This means they are 9'-8" apart and the speakers are toed at 31 degrees. My head is set 4'-5"(approx. 1/3 the 13'-4" dim.) from the back wall which in turn leaves my ears at 8'-0" from the tweeters. This is a bit more "near field" than what is usual, but the recommended alternative of my head against an acoustic panel on the back wall is not possible in my room. The front wall has a large window with full length wool curtains. The window is treated with 9 Margo Audio Labs dots and I have two custom 15 lbs steel/rubber anti-vibration plates leaned against the glass. The back walls are full height book shelves filled with books set at varying depths. One side wall is a fireplace and the other is a french door. These are both very bad surfaces and I use acoustic panels (only when I listen) at the reflection points. The ceiling/wall corners are treated with corner tunes. The floor is hardwood with a large 14' x 10' wool rug. I have two wool throw rugs on top of the overall rug. I continue to focus my attention on my room and plan to try some other DIY project.

You may have seen that my speaker cable, interconnects and power cords equal almost 50% of the value of my system. This is far above what is the "recommended" budget but after testing more that 50 interconnects and 20 power cords I've found this is an extremely important aspect of getting the most from the equipment. Most of the cables I own are used and were purchased at considerable discounts off the retail price. I advise everyone to consider finding good prices on the best cables they can afford.

You may have also figured I'm very big on tweaks and vibration control. To learn more about my experience with tweaks, power and other stuff see "winter lessons" on Audiogon.
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Components Toggle details

    • Sony Sony SCD-1 modified
    Sony SCD-1 SACD/CD player with full Audiomod (Richard Kern) modifications. ($5000 standard unit, $4900 modification) The modification includes all VSR4 Vishay resistors and Black Gate capacitors along with modifications to the power supply and an upgraded audio board op-amp. The second round of modifications include Black Gate capacitors to the transport board, Super Clock 3 and Super Clock 3 power supply, Audio Consulting Silver output transformers, Cardas RCA, along with new motors and laser pick-up (as preventive maintenance) The sound is wonderfully full, dynamic, transparent with excellent depth and superb PRAT. The standard 16 bit (red book) playback is as good as any I've tried to date. The SACD is extremely smooth and non fatiguing, better than all digital source I've auditioned including up-sampled, DVD-A and other SACD source.. I wrote a full review of this unit here at Audiogon.
    • Plinius SA-102
    Plinius SA-102 Class A, solid state 125 watt. This amps is extremely revealing, smooth with pinpoint definition, great depth and a huge sound stage. They have the warmth and color of a single ended tube amp with the slam and definition of the best solid state. I wrote a full review of this amp here on Audiogon.
    • Aesthetix Callisto
    With NOS tubes
    • Custom made belt drive Empire 208
    Tri-planer arm, Koetsu Urushi cartridge
    • Aesthetix IO
    with NOS tubes
    • Dunlavy Audio Labs SC-IVa
    ($8495) These speakers are the heart of my system, I built my entire system around them after auditioning as many high-end speakers as possible. The bass definition is excellent with full extension to 20 Hz. The high end is detailed, smooth, open, and completely grain free. Midrange has always been the strength of Dunlavy speakers, it is full, rich and warm with excellent definition and depth. For vocals and jazz these are the best most natural sounding speaker I found under $18,000, the final bass slam is lacking for loud rock and roll, but for all other musical situations these are a great speaker and a real value in audio. In my application I removed the bases and set the speakers on #3 Black Diamond Racing (BDR) pucks and BDR cones. This tightened the base and midrange definition with no affect on the overall voicing of the speaker.
    3-way, 91 dB, 5 ohms impedance, 190 lbs ea.
    • Jade Audio Reference Solid Gold
    XLR between Io and Callisto. RCA for remaining
    • Jade Audio Vermeil
    bi-wire speaker cables
    • Dream State Dream Catcher power cords
    Dream Catcher power cords throughout
    • Running Springs Haley power conditioner
    six outlet conditioner
    • Power supply
    20 amp dedicated circuit using 10 ga. Solid cord wire and Hubble outlets ($60). These tweaks each remove a layer of noise and glare in the signal. Combined the sum result is a relatively cheap
    • Apollo/ Nuance Aria - 455/ shelves & O.B. cones
    Lightweight rigid metal stand with spiked feet and adjustable upturned spiked shelf supports. Very easy to assemble and expandable. ($110 per section, 7 sections used in my system)The Placette's Alpha uses it's factory footers placed on a Nuance shelf (approx. $300) that sits on three Orchard Bay brass up-turned cones ($200) that rest on a MDF shelf that then sits on the Apollo rack. The SCD-1, with it's factory footers, sit on a Nuance Beta shelf (approx. $350) resting on a separate Apollo base unit. This unit is then spiked to another Apollo system below. The Plinius SA-102 treble/mid-range amp uses three Orchard Bay titanium cones with titanium pucks ($600) sitting on a custom Nuance shelf (approx. $500). The Plinius bass amp uses three Orchard Bay titanium cones on brass pucks ($500) sitting on a custom Nuance shelf. ($500) The Hydra sits on EAR footers ($1.50 ea.) and a BDR
    • Marantz 20
    One of the best tuners ever build. Note the Oscilloscope on the right side of display. this is my original High School tuner, and better than most!

Comments 43

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Hi Jade
Not surprised about your cabling & AC cost % compared to total system: I'm somewhat just under the 40% figure myself. I couldn't agree more that this is a major part of what makes or breaks a really great rig.
Agree with Oz that your attention to detail certainly approaches the fanatical; the isolation & vibration tweaks again make all the difference, assuming that the hardware is initially capable, then these "little things" all add up to show off its' true character.
BTW: I just ordered those special brass pucks for the OB titanium cones from Stewart, along with Zoethecus Z Slab shelf which he suggested to try in place of present Black Diamond shelving; this will certanly be an interesting experiment. Thanks again for all your help & suggestions which have helped to realize dramatic improvements from such seemingly insignificant & easy-to-implement tweaks.

bob_bundus