I got lucky with my listening room. 14' vaulted ceilings. 20'X24'. But the cool part is a 6'wX4'd cut out in the center of the wall that houses my gear. My Dali Euphonia MS5 speakers have better sound stage depth because of the cut out. The other thing that's special is the look on friend's faces when they hear a good system for the first time.I'm done upgrading, now I just sit and enjoy, daily.
Full range drivers (alternating between Fostex FE208EZ and Audio Nirvana 8" alnico) in free air are my magic at the moment. ML Abyss off the speaker taps on my Primare SPA21. Volume around 55-60 db. For me, heaven.
What makes mine special? Starts with the shortest signal path. Dac runs direct to the mono amps via balanced XLR connections. Amps are located at base of the open baffle speakers and connected with 1’ of DIY speaker cable. Servo controlled open baffle DIY subs. Room is diffused live end / absorbed dead end. Ekornes stressless lounger. Fatigue free - always.
Future improvements would be ceiling treatments...a larger room, possibly.
(I run DAC Cherry amps and dacs feeding Spatial Audio speakers. Subs are GR Research)
Careful auditioning and selection of gear, so system has been built to the type of sound I prefer, allowing me to listen to high quality music reproduction for hours on end. Desire to change anything? Only to exchange tubed gear for solid state (to reduce maintenance effort, cost of new tubes, reduce warm-up time with the ability to keep the system on 24x7 so I could listen at a moment's notice) without spending loads of cash and without losing any sound quality. But I think this is not possible. So no.
I’ve had a number of systems over the years: at least 3 different 2-channel setups in 1st house; casual 2-channel system in TV viewing area of this 2nd house; and a series of ever-changing gear in home office which has a complicated desktop/nearfield system (on 5th or 6th set of powered monitors/or speakers here).
In all that time, I had 2 systems that really nailed the heart of the music: big Vandersteen 4s in 1st house (tube amp on mids/upper & SS on subs); and the vintage but so good sounding KEF 103.2s on the desktop now. They both bring out heart & soul of music, all the different genres I listen to.
I never expected the KEFs would so easily dethrone my really excellent previous fave, the ATC SCM12 Pro passive monitors. But the KEFs locked in from day-1. I shouldn’t be surprised. I heard these ~35 year old 2-ways back in the late ’80s (my college roommate was given a pair when he graduated med school). And I had heard the very impressive, musically satisfying larger KEFs in audio salons back then.
In my experience, it’s a happy accident when one stumbles over a system that just locks in with music and satisfies the listener...
All of the road trips and untold hours finding and fixing old Altec parts. Turntable from Czech Republic, cabinets from Austin Texas, horns from Vietnam, speakers from high in the Ozarks, trips to Bill at GPA in Oklahoma City. Tubes from Canada, Crossovers from Washington. We have been all over the place picking up parts one thing at a time as the system evolves. There’s a story and a reason for each purchase. The kids understand not to put it in the dumpster when we kick off.
Well, I own it, meaning it’s paid for. Mostly bought used, saving lots of money. Most expensive were Martin Logan Summits, bought new. But all Class A Plinius, and Threshold gear and a few tube integrated’s. It’s all the audio I need. As Eastwood said: A man’s gotta know his limitations.
Surely everything in a system matters. And it is difficult to name one component as the most significant. But the one piece that my entire system was built around is my Woodsong Garrard 301. I looked for many years for a special used rebuilt 301. When I finally found mine it became the the rock and center of my now fully analog system.
What makes my system special ? I get juiced up, put on my favorite CD in 5 minutes I"m out like a boxer in the 13th round. I wake up and its time to go to work. You can not beat that.
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