One saving grace for the low inventory of houses in 2022 was the pool and this room. Gave up on finding 3 garage stalls, but 10 foot ceilings in this room looked promising. 23.4 feet deep, 16.5 wide, with a 10 foot peak 5 feet wide.
I built some massive bass traps (on wheels) to reduce the giant dip shown at 160 hz. The traps are 24 wide, 35 deep, and 57 inches high. I mate a large Real Traps absorber to the front behind the Wilsons to achieve the 35 inches. The traps contain OC703 and Roxul with a 2.5" air gap inside.
I've been busy auditioning both IC's and power cables in 2023. Here is a list of power cables I have tried out in 2023:
Fed by Cardas Clear PC after a pair of BMI Whale Elites, all daisy chained from the Puritan to the amp.
Cardas Audio Clear
Today: Cardas Clear Beyond XLR to the preamp, Cardas Clear daisy chained to Purist Venustas XLR to Coda amp.
OLD: Presently have a KS Emotion on the Bricasti to preamp.
For the amp run:
I have 3 meter pair of KS Expressions connected to a 3 meter set of Emotions that then connect to a 0.5 meter pair of Elations for the run from ARC to amp. SO, yes, daisy chaining KS cables together as interconnect chain giving me the KS sound but ultimately the signature of the Elation as it is right before the amplifier. Give this a try. It was tested with PAD cables first and then I switched to KS cables. The PAD train was Venustas (4M) to Corvus. Prior to that I was using Museuas to Venustas to the amp. I kept moving up the chain and then jumped over to KS cables.
Cardas Audio Clear
Replacing the KS Elation PC which was previously an Hijiri Nagomi to the amp.
This is the PC after a BMI Whale Elite in the daisy chain in the long run to the amp.
Purist Audio Design speaker cables Venustas Tri-wired set
Tri-wired set of Luminist version 81 inches long. I only needed single wiring but couldn't pass up the deal. I made a manifold to accept the 3 runs per side with a solid piece of copper which hangs on the Wilson binding posts. Incredible speaker cables.
BMI Whale Elite
Two of these on the daisy chain to the amp with the Kubala Sosna Elation PC.
Shunyata Research Sigma USB
All the other cables I tried smeared the music.
ADD-POWR Wizard
I have 2 of these. One is placed under the DAC and one is under the DIY digital power box.
ADD-POWR Symphony I/O
Connects the ethernet to the music server and the server USB to the DAC
Aurender X100L
Replaced my Rich Hollis designed dedicated MS-2 computer.
Cardas Audio Clear
New: Almost all Cardas power cables now
Old: Moved to almost all KS power cables; Elations and one Emotion. Good stuff. Still putzing with the PC to the Aurender.
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Puritan Audio Labs PSM156 Studio Master Power Purifier
Love this unit. The amount of noise it reduces is impressive. Tested the circuit with a noise detector before it and then in it and see how it removes 75% of line noise. My Aluminatas seem to remove another 20%. Now I have barely a tweeter his at 6 inches instead of at 12 inches.
Core Power Technologies Core Power Technologies Deep 1800 AC Power Line Conditioner
Added this to the very front of all power feeding the Puritan.
The Aluminata out front of the Puritan 156 was not a great experience. It accentuated the treble and the soundstage collapsed.
I then moved it to the dac in place of a Tara Labs The One and put the NRG back on the Puritan. That was very fulfilling.
I have 2 Elrods coming tomorrow and will try them on the Puritan and the sources. I have an idea of daisy-chaining some of these "spare" cables together to see how that might influence the sound versus the 28 foot AntiCable Level 3 on the amp. If I run wire as the crow flies from rack to amp, I could get away with a shorter cable on an experimental basis.
Good point on bass trapping. I have an idea to get the room to look like I wanted it to look and still have bass trapping. Those 5 foot walls are really "pony" walls with storage behind them (about 2 feet deep the full length of the room both sides). I'm thinking about venting the walls into those spaces and simply moving the fiberglass into 2 chambers that are sealed from the cold air. I have experimented with moving the traps to the center of the room and verified the corners are key to the trap effectiveness (generally known to be the case). Since the bass would still build up in the corners, I am banking on those chambers to grab it and free up those corners for a more pleasing aesthetic. Not sure when I will get to this, but it is fairly easy to execute.
Interesting (and instructive) how the addition of bass traps actually INCREASED the bass response in your room. One thing people don't understand about bass-trapping is that the traps are able to absorb sound waves which are in polarity opposite that of the output of the loudspeakers, waves which can cause a "suckout" at various low frequencies.
I had my system set up using standard formulas and my experience. Once I had my room responses, I was sure I was good. My assumption was that my Alexia's were dialed in at the midrange and tweeter per their manual appropriately.
But! I kept enjoying the sound even though the center imaging was low. Like no more than 2 feet off the floor. And when I play it back in my weak mind, when I upgraded to JPS interconnects, I felt the sound in the upper registers was rolled off. Then I convinced myself that this must be what it is supposed to sound like with these higher end cables.
I lived with that for weeks, still enjoying the overall experience. Then Saturday I decided to get out my laser pointer and verified that according to Wilson's manual, the tweeters were angled toward my belly and not my ears. Easy enough, I moved the top module down 2 steps so the laser pointer was more at ear level, and whalla, the top end came back in a huge way. And the imaging went way up vertically to the window level. So, I am admitting I trusted my set-up but if I hadn't paid attention to that little voice in my head to check it out, I would have kept on as it were. Feels a little silly, but I am so glad I made the adjustment. Day and night improvement.
Now will you believe me it sounds fantastic? Cuz, obviously I was lying last month!! ha
Douglas, fantastic to hear from you! Haven't shaken your hand in a decade! Love your reviews.
My source is a dedicated small computer made by Rich Hollis (Hollis Audio Labs) out of Maryland. He has a thread on AudioCircle. I've met Rich and he is a guru of all things electronic. Anyways, the small computer I have is a little dated still on Windows 8. It has a ~80 gb solid state hard drive in it as a buffer. It is small footprint and stripped of non-audio apps.
I rip CD's or download HDTracks and drive the tunes with JRiver. I feed the server with an external hard drive. I purchased an ADD PWR Symphony IO to clean up the ethernet feed that travels 75 feet from my living room and to interface with the USB out of the server before going to the Bricasti. I use an Avanti USB before the Symphony and a Shunyata Sigma to the Bricasti. I found the Sigma to be very clean and it mates well with the Bricasti.
milpai, I got lucky! I was looking for technologies that made a difference and I felt that reducing EMI/RFI was key to getting that background noise as low as possible. I was looking at all the usual players who have a reputation for lowering noise and before spending a thousand dollars on a used cable I kept looking for bargains. When I saw the NRG I looked at their website and liked what I saw, so I spent a whopping $200 on a used The Five cable and liked it. Literally a week later another one came up for sale and I grabbed it for $180. All I know is they work and I'm thrilled. I like the flat wire tech in the Tara's and I was able to grab 2 of those used and the combo is making me happy. Lesson learned is high dollars aren't always needed to achieve performance.
Congratulations on an impressive system, which I'm sure enthralls you! Your relentless push for perfection is showing! :)
It appears you are streaming and file playback. Perhaps I missed it, but what is your source? Currently I am using the Small Green Computer sonicTransporter in conjunction with the SONORE Signature Rendu SE and optical input (reviewed for Dagogo.com). I vary the DACs used.
Just curious - how did you land on the NRG? I am asking this because the other components in your system are far more expensive. So not judging at all, but just curious.
I received another Tara Labs The One cable this week. This gave me an opportunity to place it on my preamp instead of the Kaplan HE and put a second NRG The Five cable on the DIY box I made years ago that powers all the "digital" (music server, hard drive, ADD-POWR Symphony I/O). I had a JPS Analog AC on there. The box is built with copper buss bar, various aftermarket duplexes, and filled with Tourmaline and Quartz.
So now I have an NRG The Five feeding my Puritan, Tara Labs feeding the preamp and Bricasti, and another NRG in-between the Puritan and the digital outlet box.
I fire up the system after the swap and head over to the Wilsons and take my usual position at 6 inches from the tweeter and nothing. Check the amp and it's on. Move in closer so the hair on my head is now touching the tweeter baffle and there is a slight hiss. And the hiss is considerably smoother than the oscillating waveform I did have at 6 inches. Big grins and imaginary high five to myself. THIS, is what I have wanted to achieve!
Played music for 2 hours while in heaven (more so after the first hour of warm-up). I purchased the NRG's on a bet after reading their website about their construction when I saw a few up for sale. So for me, they have definitely filtered out noise without diminishing the overall output of music. I'm thrilled I can stop looking for power cables for the time being.
High level, this is the first system I have created where I can honestly say I have soundstage moving outside the speakers. Pretty spooky but highly enjoyable.
I have significantly reduced electrical noise with the incorporation of JPS Aluminata interconnects. They dropped the small nagging hiss from the tweeters to barely detectable. To explain, at 18 inches from the tweeters, my ear could pick up a small electronic hash before the Aluminatas. Now I can barely hear some hash at 6 inches from the tweeter - with my good ear!
Previously owned Sasha 1's and the Alexia 1's are really surprising me with the bass they have, especially exposed by the Aluminatas. I never really had an issue with the inverted Focal dome on the Sasha's, but the dome of the Alexia's is much smoother and blends in very well. I was always so appreciative to have owned the Sasha's. I am amazed by the Alexia's.
I removed so much noise with the Aluminatas, I decided to pursue power cables more seriously. I have never really gained much in the sound department before with AC cables. Now I have gone another step up and am really digging the Tara Labs and NRG cables. I'd like to swing an Aluminata power cable later this year.
