My room was purpose build using the ratio described by Floyd Toole from the Canadian Research council.
Have 20 dedicated 15 amp circuits, 4x20 amp circuits and 2 220 volt 60 amp circuits. The wall construction is 12" thick ,made up of a double wall of 2x4 studs at 16 oc with the studs staggered ,insulation (rock wool), t&g 3/4 plywood glued and screwed, then the drywall is glued with a v notch trowel. This room is so quiet the music can flow with absolutely no distractions. This is a great way to enjoy the music at the end of long day of work.
Many many changes have taken place since posting my system here.
Decided to repaint the room a much lighter colour to lighten things up for reading in the room.
Using the darTZeel pre amp with two different amps. The first amp in this system is the Wyetech Topaz 211 and second one is the darTZeel amp.
Both bring forth tremendous musical enjoyment albeit different presentations.
Mike L turned my focus back to vinyl after being at his home many years ago. Had my Lp and gear packed up until Mike opened up my eyes/ears.
Now LP playback is 90% vinyl and 10% digital.
Steve Dobbins came by last weekend to deliver and set up the KODO the Beat.
Tonearm on the BEAT is the Reed P3 along with the Kuzma Airline. Room for one more.......
Second table is my Verdier which I bought after visiting Mike L's place.
Using a FR 64s and purchased an ET-2 which will be upgraded to a 2.5 in the next month pending Bruce's schedule.
Studer Tape deck plays a role too but is limited due to lack of tapes. Having spent funds on vinyl rigs and arm/cartridges leaves the deck out side of the music room.
Custom build direct drive turntable by Steve Dobbins. Has a separate power supply and speed controller. Can accommodate three tonearms.
JC Verdier La Platine
Great turntable
Technics SP-10 MKII
Direct drive from the late 70s. This one is in mint condition. Will start building different types of plinths for the turntables that I have recently purchased. They will be made out of combinations of slate, alloys and homebrew plywood using veneers and an 80 ton press.
Kuzma Airline
Airline
Fidelity Research FR 64S
With VTA adjuster
Fidelity Research FR 24 MK II
One Ikeda's early arms. Looking for an copy of the original manual of this arm.
Reed 3P
12
Eminent Technology ET-2
ET 2 will be shipped to Bruce Thigpen to get updated to a 2.5 version and get a full check over.
Dynavector XV-1S
Great sounding cartridge
Ortofon A90
Their latest top flight cartridge.
Lyra Kleos SL1
Low output moving coil Kleos. SL stands for single layer
Empire 4000 DIII GOLD
MM Cartridge from the golden era
Grace F9-E
Had this one on my first Rega 3
Denon 103 R
Denon MC
Denon 103
Second moving coil that I purchased after buying the Kuzma Airline.
Allnic H-3000V
Phono stage which allows the use of two MM and two MC
Loricraft PRC-3
Lp cleaner
Audio Research CD7.5
Reference CD player
Aural Symphonics Magic Gem v2t
Very good power best that I have heard in my system. Powering the Audio Research CD-7.
McIntosh MR-78
Great sounding FM
Wilson Audio Maxx II
Great sounding full range speaker
Wilson Audio Puppy 5.1
Wilson Watt Puppies
Wilson Audio Watch Center
Center
Wilson Audio Watch Dog
Wilson Watch Dog
Nordost Valhalla
Nordost Valhalla Have this as my interconnect through out the system excapt for the zeel connect between darTZeel preamp and darTZeel amp.
Nordost Valhalla Speaker cable
High resolution speaker cable
Stillpoints Dampers and Risers
Isolation device
Theta Digital Casablanca max
Casablanca III with Extreme Dacs
Sony VPL-VW100 Ruby
Great looking projector and stunning picture
Stewart Screen 110
Luxus Delux Gey Hawk
Slim Devices Transporter
Computer based server with with its own DA
Balanced Audio Technologies VK-6200
200 watt five channel Home Theater amp
Toshiba HD-XA2
High definition HD DVD player with great upscaling on SD DVD
Dartzeel 18 NHB-18S
Solid state preamp purchased and hoping for a Xmas delivery. Ordered with two phono stages.
darTZeel NHB-108 model one Version B
Solid state amp made in Switzerland.
AUDIENCE ar12
Top notch ac filtering 20 amp unit made for Wally of Wally Tractor fame.
Audience aR6-T
Used for the amps at the front of the room.
Wyetech TOPAZ 211 A
18 watt SET with the gold plated Audio Note Transformers.
Studer A810
Vintage 1/4 inch 1/2 track. You have to hear it to believe it. Makes great vinyl sound like MP3.
Studer A810
My second Studer. This will be used in another system.
Nordost Brahma
Power cord for the Aestehtix IO
HOMEBUILD Amp Stand
4 inch thick Jatoba ( Brazilian Cherry) wood
Sutherland TIMELINE
Strobe light to check turntable speed. Two speeds only 33 1/3 and 45 RPM. Very accurate and easy to use.
Allnic Speednic
Strobe for Turntable to check speed accuracy.
HARMONIC RESOLUTION SYSTEM ANALOG DISC CLAMP
Record clamp/weight
Unknown Ebony LP weight
Ebony disc weight
Custom LP racks Apple plywood
Never enough room for LP storage, so I took over the front entrance with my wife's permission of course.
Modified IKEA shelving Walnut gables
Wanted a storage area with sliding doors to hide various tapes, LPs Blue rays and misc.
Modified IKEA shelving Walnut gables part II
Picture of sliding doors open
Canadian Tire Tool Chest
Hold all of tubes,cartridges, footers, set up tools.
TEL WIRE HC Power cord 8 feet
TEL WIRE HC Great synergy in my system. Beautifully finished and the Oyaide connectors are of the best quality. Extremely happy with them.
Acoustical-systems P2S
Direct measuring and marking system made by Dertonarm. Quality is very high and very easy to use.
Added two two arms, FR 24 Mk II and an ET-2. Also sold the Nordost Thor which was replaced with an Audience ar6tT. This is for the three amps up front. Will update pics once the Beat shows up. Steve will be here next weekend. The Bridge collapse in Mt Vernon will make it a longer drive.
System update. The Beat tt will arrive this month which will be delivered and set up by Steve Dobbins. Painted my room and also re arranged my setup. Also new shelving for my Lps and cleaning station which is now outside the listening area. Will post pictures next week.
Berony Will do Berony, have another gon member that was interested in the Wyetech as well. Should I have to sell the two of you will get first dibs.
Syntax Danke schoen for your kind words. You have quite the system yourself. Have enjoyed reading many of your posts especially like the comics from yesteryear. Yes the arm board for the Kuzma is a home made solution. Fabricated the armboard of Lignum Vitae that I purchased back in the mid 80s. "Very hard" pun intended to find nowadays. Have several types of armboard material for the Verdier, the LV worked best with the Kuzma.
A very interesting System. Really, Your Turntable is quite rare and the combination with the Kuzma Airline even more.Very well done, also the rest of your System. You are a Connoisseur.
Change made to the analog part of my system. Switching the Aesthetix IO phonostage to an Allnic 3000V. The Allnic with 4 inputs which will give me greater flexibility with the new Beat turntable that should be arriving in January. The Beat will be able to support 3 arms, one of which will be my Kuzma Airline. Allnic should be arriving next week. Will post pics once it's here.
Hi Chris That is interesting to read about the thermostat. Glad that you ripped it out, really concerning knowing that the info is going out of the house to unknown monitoring people. Little bit of George out there. Took a plunge an a new turntable which will be delivered mid to late November. Now for another arm and cartridge. Will post pictures once the table arrives.
Hi Mike on a related note to the smart meters re: thermostats. a couple years back I came back from a business trip to find that Ontario Hydro had come to our house and offered to upgrade our thermostat. They told my wife of the benefits, she agreed and they replaced the thermostat. She did not know this at the time; but they now had central access to this thermostat and during the seasons could limit the temperature we could set - especially for summer cooling. I ripped it out after a couple of weeks.
Thought that I would post this on my thread as well for those that are interested re smart meters.
Hi Albert Long to time no talk, follow and read your thread and noticed your smart meter. Here in British Columbia, BC Hydro our local power utility, (owned by the provincial government) has been installing " Smart Meters". They have given us their reasons for wanting to install the meters but there are a lot of people opting out. Here are some informative videos on the issue.
System update. Added a Shunmook like ebony record clamp. Have been playing around with a HRS Record Clamp along with a vintage EON clamp. At the present time the Ebony clamp is getting more play than the other two.
Any Vancouverites interested in creating a meetup group to share music ? Probably wrong time of year to start such a group but thought I would put it out there.
Thank you for your kind words. Share your enthusiasm about the music on tape. It is interesting that your $40 thrift store deck would destroy your "humble" vinyl. Listening to tape had the same effect on me when I listened to Mike Lavigne's tape decks and compared them to his not so "humble" turntable set up. Mike at the time had his Rockport, Dobbins Technics SP 10 Mk 3 and also the Dobbins Garrard 301. The difference was not suttle and the event at Mike's place became a game changer for me as well. If you want to contact me you can through Canuckmart. Take care,
Fantastic system! I'm also a 'Vancouverite', and new to the whole tape thing. My friend John Chapman is the only other local I know who is soon the tape thing. Great decks, those Studers. I've yet to hear one but I know the build quality is legendary. I've been hooked on vinyl for the last several years (Lenco /Slate) But the buzz around the tape project got me thinking... I got myself a KOB and a Beatles Revolver on fleabay, threaded the Revolver on a cheapo deck (Akai 4000ds) and that was the end , or rather beginning for me! To have a $40 thrift store deck completely destroy my (admittedly rather humble) vinyl setup was a real game changer! Now I have several decks in various states of function, still tryin to put together a decent 2 track 15ips deck, I've got a revox pr99 and an Ampex ag350 to 'work on' fooling around with a little nagra III as well (I'm having the preamp section for 15ips iec and 7.5ips nab cloned, because it sounds so darned good compared to everything else)! Look forward to hearing more about the evolution of your system, for now I'm stuck listening to all of my 2 track stuff thru the little nagra in mono, bit I'll get there soon! Cheers
Have some sad news that I received this week Wednesday. Gary Kerr owner of The Audio Gallery in Lake Oswego passed away on Super Bowl Sunday. Gary whom I had met years ago was very passionate, honest and and a very good man. The Audio Gallery was the type of store where you would always be engaged in beautiful music and conversations. The whole environment that Gary and Cindy had created in their store is rare in a "Brick and mortar" store. It was always one of my places to stop by on our way to Mogfest in Oregon. Will miss you dearly and wishing Cindy my sincere condolences.
Hi Kevin Thank you for your kind words, nice to see another Canuck member here on agon. The privilege of being able to play piano is not mine. The pianist would be my wife, she also plays flute and violin.
Kevin that is a great story about your parents taking you to see Oscar Peterson. What a cool venue and to be see him up close. To be exposed to that at an early age, how lucky was that. Very observant of you to catch the Oscar Peterson bit, yes I am an Oscar Peterson fan and saw him in Monreal and here in Vancouver a few times, love his music. Should you ever be out west drop by. Take care,
Hi Rugyboogie - thanks for the kind words over on my system thread. It's been a fun and educational experience planning, building, placing and replacing my acoustical treatments. I still get out the Dayton OmniMic and play around with things - more tinkering than anything else.
I love your room and equipement too! I see you own a grand piano - are you the pianist? I take it you're an Oscar Peterson fan as one of your pictures in your Totem system has a caption with his name in it. When I was a young lad my parents took me to the Burlington Public Library (west of Toronto) to see Oscar Peterson play in the basement which was a free gig. He was INCREDIBLE. He demonstrated to us different jazz styles of playing. He had the audience yell out the names of a few notes which he then used to improvise a song on - UNBELIEVABLE! I think Keith Jarrett is a great improviser but Peterson is just as great or better, in my opinion.
Hi Glen, Mike, Eckart, Sam and all members. Wishing you and all a very Happy New Year and may we all enjoy the gift of music and the joy it brings us. Happy listening.
