A sailor's refuge

by wrxsti on

Description

A small room setup for a sailor's tunes.

It was always a dream to have a room to myself and my music. I've had my system in my living room for quite a few years. But my love for gear, meant I quickly ran out of real estate. Luckily rearranging the house, landed me a small room to indulge myself in :) 

The system as it stands today, was slowly acquired over 10 years by accumulating my hard earned savings, with what I would consider a good measure of financial discipline. 

But my biggest joy is the room. What started as a white, hard tiled, barely furnished, echoey and boomy room. Has transformed into a very well behaved acoustic environment with my DIY treatments. I lugged 550 kgs of Geowool up the stairs, built wooden frames to house it, and covered it with matching acoustically transparent fabric. The end goal was to achieve a personal space that was both pleasing to the eyes as well as the ears. To this end, I lined the borders of the bass traps with wooden frames wrapped in gold. And added a few accents in gold, to mask the bass traps as much as i could. I painted the room myself, to maintain a dark blue and Turquoise color theme, to mimic the only two colors i ever see at sea :D

Acoustic measurements show a RT60 decay time of under 400 ms in the bass below 200 hz, and close to 280 ms in the frequency range upwards of 200 hz. The cleaning up of the excessive bass energy, which was drowning everything else before, has resulted in a huge improvement in clarity and imaging. I do not claim to know anything about the dark art of acoustics. So Iam pleased that what started as a DIY experiment with a lot of reading, intent and hardwork has paid off sonically in the end. 

So to sum it up. Iam happy with how things have panned out. And i now get to spend my vacations, sipping my favourite brew, immersed in music in a small nook to myself. Cant ask for a better refuge after a long and hardy sail.
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Room Details

Dimensions: 15’ × 11’  Small
Ceiling: 8’

Components Toggle details

    • Esoteric K-01
    Dac cum SACD player
    • LUMIN U1X
    Digital streaming transport
    • Acoustic Signature Challenger mk3
    Turn table
    • Acoustic Signature AS 1000
    10" Tonearm
    • EMT Audio TSD 15
    MC cart
    • EMT Audio STX 21
    Step Up Transformer
    • Big Bottle MK3
    MM / MC tube phono stage
    • MFA classic TVC
    Transformer coupled passive preamp
    • T+A Elektroakustik P1260R
    Active preamp
    • Line Magnetic LM 503 PA
    Tube mono blocks with 845 tubes - about 24 watts each
    • TAD 1000
    Tube mono block amps with EL34 tubes - 68 Watts each
    • Audio GD Master 2 H
    Solid state mono block amps - 250 watts each
    • PMC Twenty 26
    These are my secondary speakers that I mainly use for EDM, punk and Rap.
    • DIY Krypton
    These are my main speakers. DIY & Built for my specific room and listening distance by a knowledgable gentleman. 3 way with transmission line bass. External crossovers built into farady cages. Long term plan is to go active and bypass the external crossovers.
    • PS Audio P1200
    Power plant. Only feeds the source chain till the preamps. And all power amps go direct to wall.
    • Sound Foundations Epsilon Rack
    Central rack, Power amp pedestals and Speaker plinths.

Comments 6

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Owner
@milpai ..yes the speakers were definitely over powering the room before I got the treatment in place. So, the size of the room might not be an issue now. The reason could be one of two below or both :

1. Probably the room is over damped and not sounding lively enough. I will have to start covering some of the absorptive area and see.
2. Probably the idea of listening alone and not with the family at hand is taking away the pleasure of enjoying music in a sociable way.

wrxsti

Interesting...is it because of the smaller room? Are the speakers overpowering the room and not causing the rest of the frequencies to bloom? I do wish that I had at least 9 foot ceilings.

milpai

Owner
Thanks @milpai ..the speakers are DIY, but built by an another gentleman for me. These replaced a pair of PMC twenty 26. 
Yes, having a dedicated room is indeed nice. But lately I have a nagging feeling that I enjoyed music more in my living room when I shared it with my family.

wrxsti

That’s a fascinating setup. What speakers are those? Thanks for sharing your story. Yes, a dedicated room is fun and you don’t bother others. You have achieved your goals about the room and system. Looks great! Enjoy your music.

milpai

Owner
@bimmerman2 ...Thanks for your kind words sir :)

wrxsti

Beautiful room.

bimmerman2

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