A year ago, my wife asked if we could get rid of our only TV. "Sure," I said. "Can we get a stereo for the living room?" I've spent 12 months in deep geekery learning how to assemble a system. Most nights she goes to bed early and sleeps like a rock, leaving me to meditate on sound to my soul's content. What a hobby.
I've got a wall-to-wall soundstage, low end that can distinguish the kick drum and bass note as separate events, rich harmnics in the mids, and a just-rolled-off top end that makes my ears happy for hour after hour.
38-watt tube integrated. Tube rolls include Russian military old stock SP3C-E power tubes in the 5881 slot and 6N23P-EV subbed for stock 6922s. Sylvania 12AU7A, and Sylvania 5751 in the 12AX7 slot.
Wyred4Sound DAC2
Sends signal to subs and to integrated amp.
Squeezebox Touch
With Soundcheck mods to disable analog outputs and wireless receiver, reduce buffer size, and perform flac decoding at Vortexbox Appliance server. SBT sends PCM digital to Wyred4Sound DAC2 via Bluejeans coaxial.
Vortexbox Appliance
Flac on 2TB Vortexbox Appliance (in adjacent room, not pictured) is hardwired by Cat6 ethernet cable to Squeezebox Touch.
Grant Fidelity MBS-1
GF-spec'd 1st-order crossover, Vifa drivers, and silk-dome tweeter. Housed in a Jungson cabinet that is a shameless rip-off of the Sonus Faber Cremora Auditor.
PS Audio Power Plant Premier
Improves every AC-consuming component in the chain. The difference this thing made in the ease of leading-edge transients and palpable presence of instruments in the room was not short of stunning.
SVS SB12-NSD
Sealed cabinet, 12-inch speaker, 400W amp. These are fed RCA inputs in stereo from W4S DAC/pre. Low-pass is set at 45 Hz.
Sony DVD Player
For the occasional movie, we set up a computer monitor on a stool and connect video by HDMI, while PCM digital audio goes to the DAC and system.
Jungson (Grant Fidelity-branded) SPC-2.5 5n
30x30 gauge conductors, 5n (99.999%) pure copper, insulated, conductors in parallel (un-twisted), teflon shielded, protective jacketting and gold plated connectors.
Two of these 7-awg garden hoses feed from a dedicated 20a line to the Power Plant Premier, and from the PPP to the integrated amp. The addition of these cords made a clearlty audible difference in ease of presentation and really seemed to add warmth without loss of resolution.
Pangea AC-14SE
Feeds power from the PPP to the DAC-09.
Micheal Green Audio Corner Tunes
Triangular pillows for taming upper-corner boundary effects. Results are a subtle warming of overall sound.
Boltz CS-4 Rack
Welded steel, custom height and shelf spacing. Probably not the best-available isolation, but the wife got to pick this one....
nice system, how do you like your MBS-1's? I have the same ones and absolutely love them. From the pics, your room seems to be a good size. I also am using GF power cords and some of their interconnects and have been quite happy with them. Your room looks very nice
