I have only used one other "pre amp" in this room, and that was the Theta casablanca that I now use for theater only. The 1012 is more neutral and detailed. I think that is the sonic signature of Boulder gear. I can see if some one prefers a more "lush" sound choosing something different.

bflowers June 15, 2007 09:06

The1012, How does it compare with other front ends like DCS ,spectral wadia.?

louis2859 June 13, 2007 17:39

If you look at the picture of the rear of the room you can see 3 half round 16" ASC tube traps on the ceiling. The rear and side walls all have partially reflective fabric with 1" dacron/rayon padding underneath. The Pic next to "ASC Tube Traps" in the equipment column shows the custom floor to ceiling bass trap in the right corner of the room. There is a rectangular sound plank that covers a large hole that leads to a partially fiberglass filled cavity that goes from floor to ceiling.

bflowers June 12, 2007 11:10

Bflowers,

Can you post some more pictures of your room to see the results of the room treatement? thanks in advance.

dgad June 11, 2007 03:58

System edited: Might be ready to move this into "Done for now" (yeah right) or "All out assault" (on my wallet):-) . Most of the changes concern room treatment. I have added several ASC products to the room with a surprising improvement in sound quality. Things are really "right" now. Also have paid a great deal of attention to speaker placement. Both of these issues paid huge benefits. It's amazing and humbling how long it takes to get a systemm to a very high level. If I had known how much work this was, I'm not sure I would have signed up for it. This really is a full fledged hobby, much more than just cobbling together a few items from the stereo shop and having SOTA sound. If you are reading this you probably realize that!

bflowers June 09, 2007 18:24

Beautiful system B! The woodwork and cabinetry around the screen is awesome looking. I'm sure the sound is great too. Someday I would like to have a room that I can outfit to complete home theater as yours is. Great job!

opticaltee January 16, 2007 12:20

Thanks for your suggestion Carl. Having Rives evaluate the room is one of the plans that is on the table.

bflowers January 15, 2007 00:41

Hi Bflowers
Very nice setup. If I may make a suggestion. You have invested quite a bit in your system. You should make an investment in the room and have it properly analyzed and set up. I, as well as countless A'gon members have worked with Rives, and achieved stunning results. Getting a room to sound right is quite a bit more complicated than throwing up a couple of absorption panels. Have them set up a plan that will meet your needs. It's the best investment you can make.
Good Luck
Carl

czapp January 13, 2007 17:53

I am in the process of tweaking the Wasp system now. As is stands now I sit about 14 ft from the Maxx's and they are no more than 4ft off the rear wall. I think they could probably come out a bit more. My chair is about 3 ft from the rear wall. I have "padded" walls everywhere you see blue in the photo except the ceiling. The room is pretty lively, and I thnk it helps with the first reflection. My biggest issue is bass coming out of the front corners. My plan is to put ASC tube traps in the front corners, and corner busters in the rear corners. Questions I would have for you are:
1. Any thoughts about seating positon relative to rear wall?
2. I would like to get the speakers further forward, but how close is too close to the Maxx's?
3. Would you do one ASC tube trap in the front corners or stack 2?
4. Would you do anything (traps?) to deal with first reflection in the center of the room keeping in mind the asthetics of the room and WAF?
5. What do you think of TACT and the like?
Thanks,

bflowers January 13, 2007 17:07

If your subwoofer integrates seemlessly w. your Maxx IIs then I suggest you move your Maxx IIs well out off the rear wall. It sets the image free and lets the speaker breathe. Bass will suffer slightly but the subwoofer crossed over at below 30Hz should solve it.

In my opion over damping a room is worse than an a slightly live room. Music looses life. Ceiling and wall treatment at the points of reflection is critical. This is done by placing a mirror along the wall & seeing your tweeters for each speaker while seated if I remember correctly. Then using a wall panel to damp it. Double check but I think I have it right. Also use corner busters in the ceiling / wall junction. Great improvements as it stops the "horn" effect. Your image will stabilize and differences will become more apparent.

The Wilson WASP system works fine. You need the help from a friend to talk & walk towards you & you can easily hear the "nasality" of the sound free from the side & rear walls to determine your neutrality zones, reference your seating position. Working inside the zone is just fine tuning. Try running your subwoofer full range w. the Wilsons & turning it on & off. You can determine if you like the effect. For me in my room a sub is a must. Who would think and neither would Wilson but the room dimensions make the difference.

dgad January 12, 2007 18:43

Before the Tara I had transparent reference speaker cable and kimber interconnects. The transparent was good cable. The omega exceeds it in detail, soundstage, and bass control. I wouldn't say it was an enormous change however. The 0.8 was an enormous improvement over the low level kimber I had. I must say that I never got a chance to do a direct compaison with my current setup so I am making these statements based on my old amps and front end. As you may have noticed, many things have changed lately, and I'm likely done for a while on the equipment side. I do have some room issues to finalize.

bflowers December 18, 2006 17:45

How do you like the Tara Lab Omega and 0.8 with your Maxx2?
Hic

hic December 17, 2006 16:06

Hi to you Hic! I am using the mongoose with the Jaco and the Dukes. I am using Tara The One AC on the transport and pre amp. The Boulder 2060 comes with a proprietary power cord. On the theater stuff I am using Tara RSC Air AC. I am running the MBL digitally to the Boulder 1012 and using it's DAC. I used the 2060 for a while with the old front end (Theta and Lexicon). The sound was markedly improved as it relates to bass control and detail, but I was missing a bit of the "texture", "soul", "life" that I had become accustomed to. Once I put in place the MBL and 1012, that life returned. I have heard that MBL will provide a bit of warmth, so I presume the transport more that the pre amp is responsible. But that would be nothing more than a guess. I am still likely in the tail end break-in process (120 hrs at least so far), so we'll see where things go. I must say that I am VERY happy where things are now.

bflowers November 26, 2006 12:02

System edited: New Pictures

bflowers November 26, 2006 11:49

Hi, I agree the Running Spring is a keeper. Are you using the Mongoose with the Jaco and Duke? What power cord are you using with your other electronic? How do you like the MBL 1521A transport? What kind of DAC are you using? I have the Wilson 7 now.Maybe upgrade to the Maxx2 in the future.

hic November 24, 2006 21:30

System edited: The updates continue. Have just about broken in the Boulder 2060 stereo amp. There is one word that comes to mind to desribe this amplifier so far...control! Out are the occasional bad notes and questionable bass. I was concerened that a solid state amp could prove bright. This one is not at all bright, very natural without leaning one way or the other. I have not been at this hobby for an extremely long time, have not heard every piece of equipment, and don't have all of the flowery terms to describe gear. I will say that I do not plan on auditioning any amplifiers any time soon.

bflowers November 17, 2006 11:01

I scared to even post this reply, but here goes. The only room treatment thus far is that all 4 side walls have fabric and sound dampening beneath. The room is double sheetrocked and foam insulated, and 3 of the walls are exterior walls. My audiophile friend who got me into this mess agreed that the room was appropriately "alive" as we left the ceiling and some of the front wall untreated. One thing that may not be evident from the photos is that the screen is recessed 2 ft, and thus there is cabinet space underneath the screen. That is where the dedicated lines come in. Also, there is a floor to ceiling cavity along side the screen. In my folly, (once again at the suggestion of this friend of mine) I had the fabric taken down, cut holes in the sheetrock, and filled the cavity with fiberglass insulation. A homemade basetrap! Who knows what frequency I'm trapping, but it seemed like a good idea at the time:) Anyway, I noticed a small decrease in bass bloom afterwards.

Currently I am rack mounted (not ideal) but have the universal player on symposium rollerblocks. I have coming in next week a Boulder 1012 pre amp and Boulder 2060 stereo amp. The preamp will sit on a Finite Element master reference stand. Not sure if that stand benefits from any other coupling device, or whether the components will perform best on their own feet. See...I told you I was losing it! Anyway, an MBL transport will feed the preamp, and there you have it. It's a bit complicated how I arrived at all this, but I will have to work out the synergies as things all arrive. Any input appreciated as always.

bflowers November 04, 2006 09:56

wow, this is shaping up nicely! even got omega speaker cables. must say it looks like this is going to be SOTA when its done.

1 question & 1 comment:
what have you done for room treatments / vibration control? (no mention of a rack, footers, etc)

preamp up next? given your BAT (fully balanced), i'd recommend going w/ something balanced as a preamp. i'm terribly fond of my einstein preamp (review avail on dagogo.com) as its done more for bringing the event home than any other component i've ever demo'd. ---well worth finding one to audition in your system.

best
rhyno

rhyno November 04, 2006 05:09

System edited: It was evident that I needed an improvement in my cabling in general. It was difficult to demo interconnects as my run is very long. After much counseling and many phone calls I was able to get some long runs to demo. I settled on Tara Labs. I also decided to use their speaker cable and digital interconnect as well. Of the other contenders, it came down to Tara versus Nordost Valhalla. I felt like the Nordost was a bit thin for my taste. The Tara was just more musical in my system. As mentioned earlier, I am about to add a 2 channel preamp, CD transport, and demoing a new amplifier for the main speakers. Hopefully I will still feel the same way after the changes. More to come:o)

bflowers November 03, 2006 22:33

System edited: As this is a relatively new house and a lot of the contractors are still around, I had the electricians add 3 dedicated 20 amp circuits for the amps and sub. This was the least expensive thing I've done (by far!) and has yielded an enormous improvement in "presence" and quieted the background even further. I am still playing with amps and conditioners, but every amp I've used so far sounds better in the wall now than they did before and better than through any conditioner.

bflowers November 01, 2006 07:43

System edited: The most noticable change to my system so far. I liked the shunyata, but in my system, there were plusses and minuses with the Hydra. The running springs made the soundstage explode in all dimensions. Clarity in treble, midrange and bass was improved. My bass immediately began to sound more like musical notes vs a single mushy note. This one's a keeper. I am in the middle of some pretty drastic changes with new power amp, cables, 2 channel linestage and transport on the way. I'll post more as they come in.

bflowers October 21, 2006 23:20