Speakers are Focal Grande Utopia EM in black finish
Analog music sources,
Technics SP10 MK3 with two Kuzma 4 Point 14" arms. Koetsu Blue Lace on one and Air Tight Opus One in the other. Studer A820 half track tape machine with three sets of cards, each rebuilt by Studer electronics experts so I can compare upgrade performance.
Digital
music source is Aurender W20 Special Edition into Soulution 760 LEEDH. THe best input for music so far is Purist new USB cable and AES/EBU close second place.
Soulution 725 preamp, Soulution 755 phono stage Soulution 760 LEEDH and Soulution 701 mono block amps for electronics. See image posted Nov 18, 2022 to see how it looks.
Cable is 100% top tier Purist Audio design. All latest 35th Anniversary, all ten AC cords are the new Purist 35th Anniversary AC.
My space is 18 X 31 and
acoustically treated with RPG panels, tube traps and fiberglass acoustic treatment
over triple reinforced walls and ceiling. The floor is lamination beams
over steel plates to concrete pier and beam. Two sheets of 5/8 epoxy
lamination sheets make up the floor with two inches of
concrete topped with India multi color slate.
Whisper Wall
rail system and fine textured acoustic cloth covers the work, making everything appear as a normal room of
painted sheet rock or decorative cloth covering.
The room acoustics were conceived by RBDG
and the entire space was torn out to bare dirt under the foundation and
bare studs in the walls. The combo of all new electrical and acoustical treatment resulting in best sound I’ve ever had.
The best offering from Focal, shown with Stillpoints Ultra 5. Ultra 5 was an amazing upgrade for the speakers !
RPG Acoustics QRD 734 (variation)
On front wall, now obscured by acoustically transparent cloth, is floor to ceiling RPG (similar to QRD® 734) in foam, so it's partially absorptive.
Studer Studer A820
Found a near mint A820 at a production studio in Illinois. I was so excited about it's condition I had it driven here in the back of an SUV, covered with moving blankets.
Head block sent to John French and all cards at Soren Wittrup who worked for Studer. This is the machine I spent more than a decade searching for.
Technics SP10 MK3 Rosewood with Stillpoints Ultra 5
Technics SP10 MK3 Panzerholz with African Ebony lumber (no Veneer). This is the original design by John Semrad and myself, copied to death now.
TTM Stainless Mat and Oil Damp Weight
Japan, TTM Stainless mat (6.61 pounds) plus TTM oil filled record weight.
TTM record stabilizer TTM three piece set
Very hard to find, grateful I was able to purchase this last week. Three piece TTM record stabilizer replaces my previous single piece unit.
Air Tight Opus
Air Tight top of the line phono cartridge
Mutech Hayabusa
Excellent MC cartridge, retail about $4500.00
Koetsu Blue Lace Platinum
Top tier stone body Koetsu, perfect alternate to Air Tight Opus One
Soulution 725 preamp
725, Soulution best preamp, shown in system
Soulution 755 phono
Soulution best phono stage, unbelievable amount of adjustment for cartridge including channel balance to 1 DB
Soulution Soulution 760 LEEDH
Soulution top tier DAC, really pleased with performance of this DAC.
I still prefer analog but many recordings that were digital to begin with (and vinyl cut from CD master) are better on Soulution than on turntable.
Soulution 701 Mono Block Amplifiers
Soulution top tier 2KW solid state amps from Switzerland
ORB-DF03 USA version DF03
Excellent LP flattener, simple to use and so far perfect result
Aurender W20 Special Edition
Aurender music server, model W20 SE with 16TB solid state storage on board.
Vibraplane 2212-01
Under my Technics MK3, powered by Silentaire DR-150
Degritter MK2 Ultrasonic LP cleaning machine
From Estonia, very powerful ultrasonic LP cleaning machine. The MK2 version is better than the original which was already the best I’ve heard
Degritter and ORB LP flattner Degritter and ORB LP flattner
View of two important pieces to maintain LP collection
Milbank Transocket three phase 750 amp
750 amp meter base. Pass through design, three phase power is a huge benefit in conjunction with our dedicated transformer.
Porter Port Cryo outlets 20 Amp
14 of these in my system, each to a dedicated breaker in copper based electrical box
Furutech NCF Booster
New NCF Booster added to majority of AC cords in system. Easy to see against light colored wall, arrow points to NCF Booster to my (previous) owned Allnic M-5000 amp.
Purist Audio Design Focal EM Supply cable
New four conductor cord, replaces stock Focal supply cord from EM drive box to back of speaker. Amazing upgrade
(1) Soulution 725 preamp to Soulution 701 mono blocks
(1) Soulution 760 LEEDH DAC to Soulution 725 preamp
(1) Studer A820 to Soulution 725 preamp
Purist Audio Design 35th Anniversary Bi-Wire
1.5 meter Bi-Wire, Soulution 701 mono blocks to Focal Grande EM
Purist Audio Design 35th Anniversary AC Cables
New STUNNING cable from Purist Audio, silver and seven stage network box. This cable brought so much dynamics, resolution and transparency to my system it qualifies as a main component.
Leica Disto D2
Super laser measuring tool. Indispensable for setting distance and alignment of your speakers
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
Turns out they had a concentrator underground at the top of the neighborhood that was buried and whose case had rusted so every time it rained hard enough to soak the ground and for the days after that until the ground dried out, the HDTV and ISP service was slow and/or non-functional.
It was not until their own network techs took ownership of the problem and told Customer Service and Tech Support to get out of the way, that the true problems were found.....
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
Turns out they had a concentrator underground at the top of the neighborhood that was buried and whose case had rusted so every time it rained hard enough to soak the ground and for the days after that until the ground dried out, the HDTV and ISP service was slow and/or non-functional.
It was not until their own network techs took ownership of the problem and told Customer Service and Tech Support to get out of the way, that the true problems were found.....
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
Turns out they had a concentrator underground at the top of the neighborhood that was buried and whose case had rusted so every time it rained hard enough to soak the ground and for the days after that until the ground dried out, the HDTV and ISP service was slow and/or non-functional.
It was not until their own network techs took ownership of the problem and told Customer Service and Tech Support to get out of the way, that the true problems were found.....
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
Turns out they had a concentrator underground at the top of the neighborhood that was buried and whose case had rusted so every time it rained hard enough to soak the ground and for the days after that until the ground dried out, the HDTV and ISP service was slow and/or non-functional.
It was not until their own network techs took ownership of the problem and told Customer Service and Tech Support to get out of the way, that the true problems were found.....
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
Turns out they had a concentrator underground at the top of the neighborhood that was buried and whose case had rusted so every time it rained hard enough to soak the ground and for the days after that until the ground dried out, the HDTV and ISP service was slow and/or non-functional.
It was not until their own network techs took ownership of the problem and told Customer Service and Tech Support to get out of the way, that the true problems were found.....
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
Turns out they had a concentrator underground at the top of the neighborhood that was buried and whose case had rusted so every time it rained hard enough to soak the ground and for the days after that until the ground dried out, the HDTV and ISP service was slow and/or non-functional.
It was not until their own network techs took ownership of the problem and told Customer Service and Tech Support to get out of the way, that the true problems were found.....
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
Turns out they had a concentrator underground at the top of the neighborhood that was buried and whose case had rusted so every time it rained hard enough to soak the ground and for the days after that until the ground dried out, the HDTV and ISP service was slow and/or non-functional.
It was not until their own network techs took ownership of the problem and told Customer Service and Tech Support to get out of the way, that the true problems were found.....
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
Turns out they had a concentrator underground at the top of the neighborhood that was buried and whose case had rusted so every time it rained hard enough to soak the ground and for the days after that until the ground dried out, the HDTV and ISP service was slow and/or non-functional.
It was not until their own network techs took ownership of the problem and told Customer Service and Tech Support to get out of the way, that the true problems were found.....
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
Turns out they had a concentrator underground at the top of the neighborhood that was buried and whose case had rusted so every time it rained hard enough to soak the ground and for the days after that until the ground dried out, the HDTV and ISP service was slow and/or non-functional.
It was not until their own network techs took ownership of the problem and told Customer Service and Tech Support to get out of the way, that the true problems were found.....
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
Turns out they had a concentrator underground at the top of the neighborhood that was buried and whose case had rusted so every time it rained hard enough to soak the ground and for the days after that until the ground dried out, the HDTV and ISP service was slow and/or non-functional.
It was not until their own network techs took ownership of the problem and told Customer Service and Tech Support to get out of the way, that the true problems were found.....
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
Turns out they had a concentrator underground at the top of the neighborhood that was buried and whose case had rusted so every time it rained hard enough to soak the ground and for the days after that until the ground dried out, the HDTV and ISP service was slow and/or non-functional.
It was not until their own network techs took ownership of the problem and told Customer Service and Tech Support to get out of the way, that the true problems were found.....
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
Turns out they had a concentrator underground at the top of the neighborhood that was buried and whose case had rusted so every time it rained hard enough to soak the ground and for the days after that until the ground dried out, the HDTV and ISP service was slow and/or non-functional.
It was not until their own network techs took ownership of the problem and told Customer Service and Tech Support to get out of the way, that the true problems were found.....
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
Turns out they had a concentrator underground at the top of the neighborhood that was buried and whose case had rusted so every time it rained hard enough to soak the ground and for the days after that until the ground dried out, the HDTV and ISP service was slow and/or non-functional.
It was not until their own network techs took ownership of the problem and told Customer Service and Tech Support to get out of the way, that the true problems were found.....
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
Turns out they had a concentrator underground at the top of the neighborhood that was buried and whose case had rusted so every time it rained hard enough to soak the ground and for the days after that until the ground dried out, the HDTV and ISP service was slow and/or non-functional.
It was not until their own network techs took ownership of the problem and told Customer Service and Tech Support to get out of the way, that the true problems were found.....
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
Turns out they had a concentrator underground at the top of the neighborhood that was buried and whose case had rusted so every time it rained hard enough to soak the ground and for the days after that until the ground dried out, the HDTV and ISP service was slow and/or non-functional.
It was not until their own network techs took ownership of the problem and told Customer Service and Tech Support to get out of the way, that the true problems were found.....
My DOCSIS v3 cable modem does not provide a Wireless Router function so I have it hard-wired to my Netgear X6. If the ISP router supplied in the your install has a WiFi router function then you'll need to evaluate which is the faster of the 2 and run only that one (IMHO). It is probable that the X6 or X7 are the faster of the 2. Don't get me wrong, it does no harm to have 2 distinct WiFi networks in the same home as long as they have distinct SSIDs and are truly separate but to me, I'd only have one, the faster of the two up an running so that contention on the WiFi frequencies closest to your equipment is kept to a minimum.
Several providers are rumored to throttle at various points of the day/peak demand periods; there is even an investigative suit right now in State of NY investigating providers not delivering bandwidth 24x7 at the levels paid for by subscribers so this is very much a topic on point today.
The only thing I can say with all this technology running around the house and all these devices having WiFI capabilities, application software modules delivered to BR-DVD, HDTV, and other devices, just like your current iPhone or Android is 'assume nothing'.....My brand new UHD4k TV last summer reinforced that lesson in multiple ways all the way down the WiFI board and the system board ultimately needing to be replace a few times each in a short period of time until they found parts that actually worked 100%. It seems that in the first production runs, they might have had issues with more commodity turn-key parts. Surprisingly enough, my Oppo 105D also had to be replaced brand-new within 3 months of buying it new as well; the folks at OPPO were wonderful to work with and highly competent.
The software aspect of all this (all software has bugs,...) with updates possible via streaming internet, etc...adds an entire dimension on top of all of this.
And yes,...you might also have been impacted by Netflix streaming issues and variety of other things as well.
Zephyr24069 Ah...Google Fiber; we all can dream! Definitely check out the X6 and now the X7. Do you run wireless simultaneity from service provider router and the X6?
Thats interesting info about Netflix, I assumed it was AT&T throttling or Netflix server issues. I have the same problem regardless if Oppo BDP-105D is connected to Netflix or the newer Amazon Fire TV.
The Oppo has current updates and Amazon Fire also shows no downloads needed. The Netflix problem is less now than two months ago when I had 29 MB down with AT&T. I was very close to cancelling and called AT&T and told them.
They said faster 45 MB service was available and for less money. The games these providers play is maddening.
Zephyr24069 Ah...Google Fiber; we all can dream! Definitely check out the X6 and now the X7. Do you run wireless simultaneity from service provider router and the X6?
Thats interesting info about Netflix, I assumed it was AT&T throttling or Netflix server issues. I have the same problem regardless if Oppo BDP-105D is connected to Netflix or the newer Amazon Fire TV.
The Oppo has current updates and Amazon Fire also shows no downloads needed. The Netflix problem is less now than two months ago when I had 29 MB down with AT&T. I was very close to cancelling and called AT&T and told them.
They said faster 45 MB service was available and for less money. The games these providers play is maddening.
Zephyr24069 Ah...Google Fiber; we all can dream! Definitely check out the X6 and now the X7. Do you run wireless simultaneity from service provider router and the X6?
Thats interesting info about Netflix, I assumed it was AT&T throttling or Netflix server issues. I have the same problem regardless if Oppo BDP-105D is connected to Netflix or the newer Amazon Fire TV.
The Oppo has current updates and Amazon Fire also shows no downloads needed. The Netflix problem is less now than two months ago when I had 29 MB down with AT&T. I was very close to cancelling and called AT&T and told them.
They said faster 45 MB service was available and for less money. The games these providers play is maddening.
Ah...Google Fiber; we all can dream! Definitely check out the X6 and now the X7.
Do you run wireless simultaneity from service provider router and the X6?
Thats interesting info about Netflix, I assumed it was AT&T throttling or Netflix server issues. I have the same problem regardless if Oppo BDP-105D is connected to Netflix or the newer Amazon Fire TV.
The Oppo has current updates and Amazon Fire also shows no downloads needed. The Netflix problem is less now than two months ago when I had 29 MB down with AT&T. I was very close to cancelling and called AT&T and told them.
They said faster 45 MB service was available and for less money. The games these providers play is maddening.
Zephyr24069 Ah...Google Fiber; we all can dream! Definitely check out the X6 and now the X7. Do you run wireless simultaneity from service provider router and the X6?
Thats interesting info about Netflix, I assumed it was AT&T throttling or Netflix server issues. I have the same problem regardless if Oppo BDP-105D is connected to Netflix or the newer Amazon Fire TV.
The Oppo has current updates and Amazon Fire also shows no downloads needed. The Netflix problem is less now than two months ago when I had 29 MB down with AT&T. I was very close to cancelling and called AT&T and told them.
They said faster 45 MB service was available and for less money. The games these providers play is maddening.
Zephyr24069 Ah...Google Fiber; we all can dream! Definitely check out the X6 and now the X7. Do you run wireless simultaneity from service provider router and the X6?
Thats interesting info about Netflix, I assumed it was AT&T throttling or Netflix server issues. I have the same problem regardless if Oppo BDP-105D is connected to Netflix or the newer Amazon Fire TV.
The Oppo has current updates and Amazon Fire also shows no downloads needed. The Netflix problem is less now than two months ago when I had 29 MB down with AT&T. I was very close to cancelling and called AT&T and told them.
They said faster 45 MB service was available and for less money. The games these providers play is maddening.
Zephyr24069 Ah...Google Fiber; we all can dream! Definitely check out the X6 and now the X7. Do you run wireless simultaneity from service provider router and the X6?
Thats interesting info about Netflix, I assumed it was AT&T throttling or Netflix server issues. I have the same problem regardless if Oppo BDP-105D is connected to Netflix or the newer Amazon Fire TV.
The Oppo has current updates and Amazon Fire also shows no downloads needed. The Netflix problem is less now than two months ago when I had 29 MB down with AT&T. I was very close to cancelling and called AT&T and told them.
They said faster 45 MB service was available and for less money. The games these providers play is maddening.
Zephyr24069 Ah...Google Fiber; we all can dream! Definitely check out the X6 and now the X7. Do you run wireless simultaneity from service provider router and the X6?
Thats interesting info about Netflix, I assumed it was AT&T throttling or Netflix server issues. I have the same problem regardless if Oppo BDP-105D is connected to Netflix or the newer Amazon Fire TV.
The Oppo has current updates and Amazon Fire also shows no downloads needed. The Netflix problem is less now than two months ago when I had 29 MB down with AT&T. I was very close to cancelling and called AT&T and told them.
They said faster 45 MB service was available and for less money. The games these providers play is maddening.
Zephyr24069 Ah...Google Fiber; we all can dream! Definitely check out the X6 and now the X7. Do you run wireless simultaneity from service provider router and the X6?
Thats interesting info about Netflix, I assumed it was AT&T throttling or Netflix server issues. I have the same problem regardless if Oppo BDP-105D is connected to Netflix or the newer Amazon Fire TV.
The Oppo has current updates and Amazon Fire also shows no downloads needed. The Netflix problem is less now than two months ago when I had 29 MB down with AT&T. I was very close to cancelling and called AT&T and told them.
They said faster 45 MB service was available and for less money. The games these providers play is maddening.
