System Pics 2021
- Thread starter Whaleblue
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James Evans
Bedroom Bodger
Small room so nearfield, 6 ft-ish tweeter to listening position.
When we moved a few years back I got a dedicated room but compromised on size. Figured the speakers wouldn't work and they didn't initially. Much experimentation and ended with a system that sounds much better than it ever did in the larger but more restricted room we had previously. Not especially wide but very deep soundstage with great layering, the speakers disappear. There's an element of personal preference, some may prefer the balance further back in the room
Salamander
pfm Member
Go on give us a photo from your listening position, it looks like a great system, and one you should be proud of.
Tarzan
pfm Member
Could you expand on the 'experimentation' you undertook to get your system singing Mr Deaf?
Ptah
pfm Member
How are you finding the Bel Canto transport?
Pretty much full spec LP12, Bel Canto Cd3t transport, Devialet 400 monos and Neat Ultimatum MF7, and racks by Hutter.
geetee1972
pfm Member
I spent a good few hours yesterday re-arranging my room. The desk has been removed so the room is now purely a listening, entertaining space (additional seating arriving imminently but it will never comfortably accommodate more than three people!). The main differences in terms of layout are much more space around the speakers, which are now well over half a metre from the rear and side walls and the listening position is also half a metre from the rear wall. The distance between the speakers and to the listening position have remained the same so 1.8m between tweeters and roughly 2m to the listening position.
The change in sound presentation is quite dramatic. Gone is the tendency for the bass to bloom and thicken Although this was not a significant problem and only made its presence very obvious on certain tracks, it is apparent now that the problem was still causing a lack of fidelity in other areas, it just wasn’t as apparent.
The sound stage is now significantly larger, especially in terms of depth; imaging is greatly enhanced and the scale and dynamics are greatly improved. On the downside however, the sound is much brighter, perhaps a little brittle at the top end. I am guessing this is down to the window now being a more reflective component overall but I have plantation shutters coming and this should hopefully address some of that. I have a drop cloth I can attach to the lower part of the window as a temporary measure and will see if this helps dampen things down.
Music server is still not here but other small changes include using Graphite Audio isolation cones between the speakers and the stands and under the Lampi and pucks under the speaker stands. Under the DAC the effect is to improve details, clarity and overall cohesion of the music. Under the speakers the improvement is more in scale and dynamics. Added together they make a huge difference, bigger even than buying expensive cables ;o)
I’m also testing an Ideon Audio re-clocker, which is the little device sitting on the middle shelf. I’m not sure how much this is adding as I’ve not really being paying much attention. The server I have coming should have one of these devices included in the build spec.
IMG_0696 by Greg Turner, on Flickr
IMG_0702 by Greg Turner, on Flickr
The change in sound presentation is quite dramatic. Gone is the tendency for the bass to bloom and thicken Although this was not a significant problem and only made its presence very obvious on certain tracks, it is apparent now that the problem was still causing a lack of fidelity in other areas, it just wasn’t as apparent.
The sound stage is now significantly larger, especially in terms of depth; imaging is greatly enhanced and the scale and dynamics are greatly improved. On the downside however, the sound is much brighter, perhaps a little brittle at the top end. I am guessing this is down to the window now being a more reflective component overall but I have plantation shutters coming and this should hopefully address some of that. I have a drop cloth I can attach to the lower part of the window as a temporary measure and will see if this helps dampen things down.
Music server is still not here but other small changes include using Graphite Audio isolation cones between the speakers and the stands and under the Lampi and pucks under the speaker stands. Under the DAC the effect is to improve details, clarity and overall cohesion of the music. Under the speakers the improvement is more in scale and dynamics. Added together they make a huge difference, bigger even than buying expensive cables ;o)
I’m also testing an Ideon Audio re-clocker, which is the little device sitting on the middle shelf. I’m not sure how much this is adding as I’ve not really being paying much attention. The server I have coming should have one of these devices included in the build spec.
IMG_0696 by Greg Turner, on FlickrIMG_0702 by Greg Turner, on Flickr
myrman
pfm Member
I spent a good few hours yesterday re-arranging my room. The desk has been removed so the room is now purely a listening, entertaining space (additional seating arriving imminently but it will never comfortably accommodate more than three people!). The main differences in terms of layout are much more space around the speakers, which are now well over half a metre from the rear and side walls and the listening position is also half a metre from the rear wall. The distance between the speakers and to the listening position have remained the same so 1.8m between tweeters and roughly 2m to the listening position.
The change in sound presentation is quite dramatic. Gone is the tendency for the bass to bloom and thicken Although this was not a significant problem and only made its presence very obvious on certain tracks, it is apparent now that the problem was still causing a lack of fidelity in other areas, it just wasn’t as apparent.
The sound stage is now significantly larger, especially in terms of depth; imaging is greatly enhanced and the scale and dynamics are greatly improved. On the downside however, the sound is much brighter, perhaps a little brittle at the top end. I am guessing this is down to the window now being a more reflective component overall but I have plantation shutters coming and this should hopefully address some of that. I have a drop cloth I can attach to the lower part of the window as a temporary measure and will see if this helps dampen things down.
Music server is still not here but other small changes include using Graphite Audio isolation cones between the speakers and the stands and under the Lampi and pucks under the speaker stands. Under the DAC the effect is to improve details, clarity and overall cohesion of the music. Under the speakers the improvement is more in scale and dynamics. Added together they make a huge difference, bigger even than buying expensive cables ;o)
I’m also testing an Ideon Audio re-clocker, which is the little device sitting on the middle shelf. I’m not sure how much this is adding as I’ve not really being paying much attention. The server I have coming should have one of these devices included in the build spec.
Very nice. What does the system comprise of and are those speaker stands custom made?
adamk
pfm Member
Sound quality is fine.
Mechanism is a bit noisy when initially loading a disc or stopping playing.
geetee1972
pfm Member
So the amps are by Silvercore and are their (or more acurately 'his', since Silvercore is one chap called Christoph Kraus), 833c MKII monoblocs. They use an 833c tube for the output stage, which is the same tube made famous by Wavac in their considerably more expensive SET amps. The Silvercores use handwound silver wired transformers and generate 20 watts of loveliness. Interestingly, though they are a pure SET design, they use an XLR connection. I've been told this splits the signal into two and then those two signals are put through a differential transformer to cancel any noise coming from the input stage. The green hamertone finish is custom specced by me.
The rest of the system consists of the following (posted before):
- Source here is just my laptop but I am expecting delivery any day now of an Lukasz Audio LDMS custom built server
- Lampizator Golden Gate DAC with volume output which feeds directly into the monoblocs (this is a factor reconditioned second hand unit)
- High Fidelity Cables CT1 speaker cable and CT1-U interconnect (again all second hand from Lotus Hifi)
- Silvercore 833c MKII amps sitting on Rogoz platforms (these were new built to order)
- Horns FP10s with internal silver wiring upgrade and sitting atop custom made Rogoz stands (also second hand from the same Lukasz building me my server)
- Graphite Audio isolation cones and pucks under everything except the amps because the amp's feet are too tall for the cones. We're getting some custom ones made to solve this
Everything is supplied by Greg (Grzegorz - since he is Polish and by coicidence I am also of Polish decent. Stolat!) Drygala of G-Point Audio, who came highly recommended to me by a close friend who has worked with him as a dealer for several years and bought a lot of high end kit with and from him (they both went on a road trip to Germany to buy a load of Thomas Manley amps including insanely wonderful 1 watt monoblocs!)
Whaleblue
Southbound
As I don’t think you got an answer on this, I’ll just chip in. As you may know one old foot was 30.48 centimetres. This caused a lot of difficulty as it isn’t easy to do exact conversions in your head. As part of Brexit we are returning to feet and inches, but the EU insisted that the ratio to cm be simpler. They suggested 30cm=1nFoot (the new Foot is to use the nFoot nomenclature to avoid confusion). However, it was considered risky making an nFoot shorter than the old foot, as folk might feel they were being short-changed, so the ratio of 31cm=1nFoot was settled on. To me that misses the point of making the conversion easier to do, but it’s what they came up with.
Personally, although I voted remain, it’s this sort of nonsense that sometimes makes me understand why so many voted to leave.
Amber Audio
This is the Day
Summing it up "straight bananas"
Andy1912
pfm Member
Lovely system and lovely room. Like the green. Might need curtains rather than shutters to dampen those reflections...
geetee1972
pfm Member
Quite possibly but unfortunately that decision Has already been made.
Amber Audio
This is the Day
Yeah try a thick blanket to see how it affects the sound, heavy curtains might improve things. Nice system, I’d have ditched the desk and put the system how you have it. If you have visitors just bring seats/cushions/bean bags in, compromise the space as little as possible, not like it’s a high street midi system!
Bob McC
Living the life of Riley
Could you provide a source for that twaddle please?
Could you expand on the 'experimentation' you undertook to get your system singing Mr Deaf?
Pretty straightforward. Spent the best part of a day experimenting with placement of the speakers and the seating position. Perceived wisdom on my part said small room get the speakers as close to the front wall as the ports will allow and sit back toward the back wall. That sounded muddied. Kept moving the speakers forward until there was a better balance then experimented with toe in and distance apart. Once happy with that moved on to listening position and then readjusted the speakers continuously honing in on what felt to me to offer the most natural presentation. All this using three tracks iirc. Very small adjustments made a noticeable difference. Nothing measured, happy to adjust by ear to my taste. Very much a front row presentation.
Interestingly, when I got the Analog Domain, so profound was it's impact I had to repeat the exercise. It really is as good as the reviews suggest
I bought 2nd hand, the guy I purchased from bought it from Dave Crawley and he mentioned a brand, can't remember what. I've seen a pic of another that looked nigh on identical on a US forum, might be coincidence. It's birch ply with oak veneer, an solid oak tone arm mount and sat on Alto Extremo Neoflex mag-lev absorbers.
Nero
Re: Tired
Well, you know we're going to need a closer look.....
If I ever had valves and horn speakers, they would be on my shortlist, just because they look cool
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