I just finished building a dedicated listening room in my new apartment. It took me one year and a half to complete, but it was well worth the wait. I simply love it.
The room size is 14 x 19 x 8 feet.
The room was designed by a company that specialises in acoustic design. Not the popular Rives Audio, since I live in Europe and that would increase the costs of the Level 3 project well past $10k mark, but a reputable local company.
The room acoustics was was first designed in a digital domain and then improved upon with the real world measurements taken during all stages of construction work.
The room is soundproof and - among other things - features soundproof windows, double doors and 11" thick double walls. The measured noise level inside the room is 26dB during the day (measured during rush hours, at 16:00), so it is almost dead quiet.
The room has two dedicated lines, each rated 20A @ 230V, one for analog and one for digital gear. All cables, circuit breakers and mains outlets are of audiophile quality.
MSB DAC IV Signature with Diamond Power Base - replaced the dCS Scarlatti, which served me as my reference for the past 3 yaers.
MSB S200
Fully balanced 200 Watt stereo amplifier. Class A, Zero Negative Feedback design. Fluid, palpable, a bit on the warm side of things. An amazing piece.
Magico S5
New addition to the system. Replaced Wilson Sasha speakers.
MUSA S21T USB
Computer based transport with SOtM PCIe USB card, SOtM sata filter, fanless PSU, fanless i5 CPU, SSD, 8GB RAM and Synology 2x2TB NAS. Running Win 7/64 with Jriver and Jplay.
AudioQuest WEL Signature
Replaced Tara Labs The RS-1 interconnects.
AudioQuest Diamond USB
USB cable.
Shunyata Anaconda Z-Tron
A new model from Shunyata. Replaced van den Tara Labs RS-1 cable.
Shunyata Anaconda CX
I have two of those, powering Dart and dCS.
Pure Power 2000
Battery powered AC Regenerator.
Finite Elemente Pagode Master Reference HD09
Top of the range component stand from Finite Elemente, with their resonator technology (3 used). I favour those over a 4-tier Pagode rack, since they do not interfere with soundstage when placed between the speakers.
Finite Elemente Ceraballs
I have two sets placed under my speaker cables. Very unussual location, I agree, but works a treat.
Finite Elemente Cerapuc
I have two sets placed under my speakers. A simply stunning improvement in low-level detail retrival and microdynamics. Worth every penny !
HMS Energia SSDB mains outlets
Two of those finish off my two, 230V/20A, dedicated power lines.
AHP Klangmodul 3+
Audiophile circuit breakers. Gold plated, solid copper contacts. Each of the two dedicated power lines has his own breaker.
ACS Diffusors
Diffusors made by german company Acoustic Control Systems. I have 3 sets of those, one on the rear wall and two on the side walls. As you can see on the pic, the whole part of the rear wall, to which the diffusor is attached, pertrudes 12" into the room.
Custom absorbers
The whole room is fitted with custom absorbers, tuned to specific frequencies. The pic shows one of the six absorbers fitted to the front wall. If you look carefully, you wil notice, that there is an MDF plate with lots of small holes fitted inside, which divides the internal volume of the absorber into two smaller chambers. The sound enters the traps by the front gaps, goes to the first empty chamber and then through the holes to the next chamber, where it can dissipate in a mineral fiber (not fitted on this pic).
Custom diffusors
Set of 5 custom diffusors fitted over the listener's head.
RT-60 curve
This is the RT-60 curve of my room. Black trace is our target curve, blue one is base curve (empty room, no acoustic treatment, no floor), red curve shows how the room responded after ACS diffusors, wooden floor and sand stone were added. Green curve is the most recent one. It is still not perfect, but we are working on it.
Room Frequency Response curve
Room Frequency response. Quite nice if you ask me :-)
Daikin ultra quiet A/C unit
Daikin A/C split system replaced McQuay unit. The difference in noise levels generated by those two units is staggering. Daikin is so quiet (22dB) that you can barely hear it from the listening chair. There are CD-players that generate more noise than this ! The other outstanding feature of this unit is that it can work when outside temp drops to 10'F - so it can be used during winter too.
ARC CD-8 and dCS Puccini offer very different perspective. Puccini is more transparent of the two, is more forward and has loads of details.
CD-8 is much warmer sounding, with lots of texture and much better rendering of soundstage depth.
When I first heard the Puccini, I was ready to proclaim that it is much better than CD-8. But after some 4+ weeks, I'm not sure anymore, I find myself listening to the CD-8 more and more, 'cos it seems to be more musical.
I still didn't have the time to borrow the new Mac MCD-500, so cannot comment on that.
Grr6001, I have the Dart pre and Dart pwr on dealers loan right now. I will offer my thoughts when I'm done with it.
Elberoth2 I made a radical change and replaced Boulder pre with ARC Ref 3. It is interesting you are moving to Darts and I am moving to ARC. If you calculate the cumulative value of the all the gear entered service , you may end up with a figure quite enough open a Hi-End shop in Europe I guess.:) regards
Sorry that my answer on your question took some time. I needed to consult first.
The modifcation of the REF3 has to do with making the REF3 more lean in the signalpath in a reversable way. The results are stunning. The person who can tell you all about it is Mattijs from Pink Faun http://www.pinkfaun.com/
Yes, that's the one, very dedicated and committed. IMHO people who claim "by far the best and more reliable" is as useless a comment as they come. Try out yourself and make your own opinion. And if you like tube sound, good for you, then you can build around that. If you are open to other technologies used, all the better to form a wider opinion. As they say, there is no one best sound, its all subjective.
I listened to ARC pre and CD5, KR poweramp on SF Guerneries last weekend. Not out-of-this-world sound but pleasant enough! Enjoy.
Elberoth2 from the amps on your short list the Lamm is by far the best and more reliable. FYI I tested Puccini directly to Lamm amplifiers and mate very well together. Good luck.
Check out www.audiofast.com the DartZeel distributor for Poland (in Todz). I met the fellow at CES this year, I'm sure he can arrange an audition, very nice guy to deal with.
I would love to get the DarT pre as well, but unfortunately, it is out of my budget. At least for now. I may get the DarT pwr amp and run it with the Puccini direct, and add pre at the later date.
Adam, if budget is an issue I recommend trying the DartZeel integrated ... its 95% of the magic of the separates at ~50% of the price with more power to boot!
Elberoth2, If you want to try the DaTZzeel in your system you should also borrow the NHB18NS preamplifier and 50 ohm cables. I also have a Reference 3, that has a special synergy with the CD8, but when using the Dartzeel amplifier I prefer by a wide margin the NHB18NS - when you mix the two preamps there is a lack of fluidity in the sound. If you match the preamplifier with the respective amplifier you feel much less there it is an electronic coloration in your system. This does not mean that the ARC Reference does not sound good with the Dart - before the NHB18NS was developed I have lived with them!
Yes, this is true, I have only 3 components stands and no intention to get a rack. This is why I'm seriusly evaluating the preamp built into Puccini. It is really rather good. My Ref 3 sounds different, but necesarly better. One of my close friends runs Puccini direct to DarTZeel (used to run EMM CDSD/DCC2 SE combo) ... this is one of the combinations I would like to exlore in detail.
First reaction is to move up to ARC Ref 210 as you said... but I have 8 6550s in my smallish room and it can get a bit toasty. 18 6550s increases the toastiness factor by twofold. Good observation.
DarTZeel, Lamm, and Wavac I have not auditioned.
What about Spectral DMA-360?
I auditioned Spectral DMA-150 with your beloved Avalons (still my favorite of your previous systems) a couple of years back and was really impressed.
Are you sure the Gold faceplate of the DarTZeel fits with the aesthetics of "the European Experience?"
If you go with Lamm or Wavac that means you're back with two amp stands with a total of four. I know not a big deal but a factor in small rooms. That is one reason why I have procrastinated on building my rack which may end up being a platform for better flexibility.
I too am looking at the DarTZeel 108 and Wavac options, I just bought the dCS Puccini which is just amazing IMO, problem is the DarTZeel 108's price has just gone up to £17900 in the UK - gulp that is approx £5000 increase since December 2008!
It is time for an upgrade. As good as the Ref 110 is (and quite simply, it is the best <$10k amp I have heard by far), there are still better amps out there.
I have 3 amps on my short list right now: DarTZeel 108 ($23.000), Lamm ML2.1 ($30.000) and Wavac MD805 ($20.000).
I would love to try the ARC Ref 210, which would be a natural successor to Ref 110, but 18 6550 output tubes would heat my small room way too much.
Yes, I'm gonna try the NOS 6550 TungSol Black Plate in the CD-8 - I have one spare left.
I'm also gonna try the NOS 6H30-DR tubes, but do not expect much. I've already tried them in both CD-7 and Ref110, and the improvement was pretty subtle, certainly not worth $500 extra.
Very intesting comparison you are going to make. Are you going to "upgrade" the 6550 and the 6H30 tubes in the CD8?
It looks that also the REF3 can be upgraded further (after replacing the tubes) with exiting results. Mine will be changed in the beginning of februari.
