Description

Prior to living in my current home I had a dedicated listening room which was really just a spare bedroom. During that time all of my listening was with 2-way monitors in the nearfield. Pro-Ac, Audio Research, Wadia was my primary system. No turntable due to limited space. My current system represents a concept that I wanted to achieve by having a great system in a living room environment without all the equipment cluttering the room while being child friendly. I chose an antique Baker Furniture cabinet and configured a system that would fit nicely inside. All cables run underneath the floor through the basement. Wife is happy and I achieved the goal of not turning my living room into an audio nerd haven. The Bryston/PMC combo is fantastic too.
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Components Toggle details

    • Steve Blinn Designs Equipment Base
    Custom bases for equipment finished in maple.
    • Bryston BDA-1
    USB DAC
    • Michell Engineering Gyrodec mkII
    Turntable
    • SME 309
    tonearm
    • Shelter 501 Mk II
    moving coil cartridge
    • Bryston Bryston BP-26 and MPS2 Power Supply
    two piece preamp. no phono or dace option
    • Bryston 4B-SST
    Fully balanced amplifier 250 watts/8ohn 300 watts/4ohn
    • Wireworld Polaris
    Balanced/pre and dac single-ended/phono pre
    • Bryston 9 gauge
    Two separate runs/bi-wired
    • PMC OB-1
    Transmission Line Speaker
    • Steve Blinn Designs Equipment Base
    Custom built in maple finsh
    • Symposium Base
    isolation base for turntable
    • Apple/iOmega Mac-Mini
    Mac-mini with 2 TB of iOmega storage. One primary the second back-up
    • Richard Gray Power Company RPG1200
    Power Conditioner

Comments 13

Very impressive!! That is not an easy task to assemble a truly stunning system in a home "living room" setting. Job well done! How do you like the Micehll??

jimbojrjb

Owner
Thanks for the tip Samhar. I will try it for sure.

jla

J nice system!!! I see you also have a Nova Phonomena, I just put a scrap of acrylic on top of the Sims Pucks under mine and what a difference!! I wasn't that sold on it before. I thought the inner detail just wasn't there and was thinking of looking for a Sutherland Phd. Well the detail is there now, I'm shocked by the amount of improvement.

samhar

Owner
Thanks Sunnyboy. I bought the record clamp on Audiogon. Checkout TTWeights He sells a wide variety of record clamps. I prefer the weight to the stock Gyrodec. It is much heavier and you don't have to pull it to remove it off the record. The TTweight is similar to the Transrotor clamp which is excellent, but much more expensive.

jla

Wow thats a pretty impressive system that you have. What record clamp are you using and do you find major differences with the standard Gyrodec clamp ?
Cheers

sunnyboy1956

Owner
I meant shout out.....

jla

Owner
Not only did Jeff help me out with the mac-mini. He also set-up my turntable. Sorry for the non-shot out ealrier Jeff. BTW...where does it say in your posting that I helped you unpack and place your amplifier?

jla

I've been very impressed with the musicality of John's system, especially the PMC's which are giant killers. Their relaxed musical presentation and deep, tight bass is amazing.

Regarding his new music server, I've reviewed his posting several time and cant see where he's given me props for setting up his server!

jeff1225

Owner
Thanks Dressprmex. Still pretty new to the music server, but so far I am extremely happy that I finally made the move. I am listening to so much more music and it really is true that you rediscover your music collection. I will be adding an iPod Touch shortly so I can browse my library remotely. I can't see myself spinning a disc again, unless of course the disc is vinyl.

Regrading the Bryston, I too was concerned about the amp not having enough breathing room, but the reality is that the amp runs very cool. I actually sent James Tanner at Bryston a photo of my set-up and asked if he had any concerns with the config. He assured me not to worry. However, I do agree that I am giving up probably a bit of performance, but this system has limitations.....especially with the long runs of speaker cable required. In any event, the system sounds great and it is a good compromise.

jla

Jla,
Nice system there! Please comment on your digital set up. I have been avoiding a server of some sort, but surely sooner or later we’re all going for it, right? How is it working for you?

Being a married guy myself I totally get the utmost importance of keeping the Missus happy. However, it does look like your Bryston amp could use some room to breathe. My pre used to sit right on top of the amp, but then I raised it by installing another shelve in my rack, and the performance enhancement was immediately evident, not to mention that by running such a hot amp you may be risking a fire hazard. Now THAT will get the Missus going ;-)
Happy listening!!!

dressprmex

Owner
Thanks, your room looks great. I wish I could have a dedicated room like yours. Love the Harbeth's.

jla

Well done. Mission accomplished on keeping your wife happy. Mine would probably still complain that the speakers are too big, but the room is beautiful and absent of any cables. Bravo!

pdreher

Owner
System edited: Forgot to add the RPG1200

jla

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