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.
Do you have any information concerning Krell Evo 402 power amp? I just checked Audio magazine and found out that it scored 135 points from test. What is current trend over new evo Krell amps in Germany?
CD-7 is a trully great player once broken in. If you want to improve it even further, get yourself a quartet of NOS 6H30DR tubes and dress them with Herbie's Ultrasonic tube dampers.
The back corners of my room are treated with custom absorbers (made of MDF with holes).
Since you are referring Shunyata products, have you tried their Orion and Antares cables? I have them and they sound great with Audio Research electronics. BTW, can I ask you what type of acoustic treatment you are using in the back corners? PS - in my system after a long hesitation the CD-7 won the final battle ...
System edited: Added the new, all-silver WEL Signature power cord to power my CDP. For whatever reason, Shynyata Anaconda Helix Alpha sounded too bright on CD-7 - WEL Signature is much better balanced.
@ Lapierre - I have no other speakers but Sophias 2. I used to have Avalon Eidolon Vision, which I also rate very highly.
@ Mart - I have been using AQ Silver cables for years, and although tried many different cable combinations, I always returned to AQ Everest/AQ Sky combo.
However, I have recently tried Kubala-Sosna Emotion speaker cable and it is a true revelation in my system. It is not as transparent as Everest, but texture is simply to die for.
I will try to borrow the TA MM2 cables you rate so highly, when my dealer finally gets them.
@ Branimir - I agree that the Sophia 2 is the best value for money speaker from Wilson Audio. I could prolly stretch my budget and get System 8, but I think Sophia 2 is more coherent.
@ Pimpinela - I hired a company to do all the design & construction work on my room and know very little about ACS itself.
Dear Sir, congratulations for this great system and also for the room. I am doing in this moment some improvements in the room where I have installed my kondo system. I would be very gratefull for sending to me some information about ACS company. I can not find any news about them by internet.
Sophia 2 is an excellent choice. IMHO it is the best Wilson speaker in terms of value for money. I also like its sonic signature more then W/P8s for example. In fact I will probably order one pair myself! Why? After listening to many expensive speakers in last 14months I did not find any that is much better then Sophia2 but, most of them were costing several times more... Recently, I audition one $50K speaker that did not sound as good as Sophia2. Of course Wilson heritage is another very welcome thing.
Enjoy your Sophia2s, they are indeed excellent speakers...
Elberoth, congrats on the speakers. Don't hury up for cable change as you know I just got Tra. MM2 cables from the States. I will share my opinion soon.( what makes interesting is speaker cable is specially tuned for Sophia series 2.)
Players I have auditioned before getting the CD-7 were as follows:
Accuphase DP-500 Accuphase DP-78 Accuphase DP-700 EMM Labs CDSD se/DCC2 se Krell evo 525
I did not have a chance to audition neither Wadia 581 (dealer sold his demo and did not get the next one on time) nor Esoteric and Ayre stuff (both are highly rated on this boards and both lack the distribution where I live).
Before getting the CD-7, I was using the MBL 1531, and before that - Audio Aero Capitole mk II SE.
Congrats on the new Wilson speakers. I had the KS Emotion cables on loan to me and found them quite good. They were warmer than the Valhalla but over all just too much syrup flavor. Kept the Valhallas. Which other CDP did you audition before getting the AR CD-7. I am sitting on the fence re a new player. Sold my Sony SCD-1 and have the Wadia 581 se, Ayre 5xe and the AR CD-7 on my short list. I will be trying the first two tonight but no AR dealer where I live. Any thoughts? Thanks,
I have tried TA Reference w/MM in the past (both balanced ICs and SCs) and wasn't overly impressed. There were things that those cables did well, but ultimately, I felt that they give up too much in the HF-air/resolution department.
I have found a very synergistic match with the Sophias with the Kubala Sosna Emotion cables, that my dealer brought with the speakers together. When I get my pair of Sophias, I will investigate them more closely.
Right speakers for your setup Elberoth. However, you HAVE to change your speaker cable as well.(at least) Would it bother you if you spend another 6000 Euro on Transparent Reference mm2? Sounds like a bad news:) This is the way has to be done as long as you deal with Wilson Audio speakers..........
Very surprised about your decision on Wilson Sophia II...but as always Elberoth2 your due diligence has led you to excellent decisions in previous systems.
I'm firm believer of synergy vs a selection of quality components.
Congrats on the Sophias. Spin the Yellowjackets on the CD-7.
System edited: I have just ordered Wilson Audio Sophia II speakers in Mercedes Silver finish. The synergy between ARC gear and Wilson Audio speakers is undisputed. I have never been a big Wilson Audio fan, but their latest offerings - System 8, X-2 and Sophia 2 - are not only listenable, but sound really great. This is a huge step up from the older Wilson designs like Watt 5.1, 6.0 or even System 7. And that comes from big Avalon fan and ex-owner no less !
