The quest for the ultimate!

[canuckaudioguy]

Hello AoS!

For one of my first posts here I wanted to detail my system and create a working 'system blog' to journal the progress on my setup. Of course, I also want to share it with all of you.

This system is going to be what I consider my penultimate. Essentially, I will be incorporating everything I have learned about sound and hi-fi over the last four years into this system, to create what I consider to be the best possible sound I can achieve within my means. Hopefully through doing this I can learn even more, continue to progress my knowledge and improve the sound quality of my system.

Thankfully I have been blessed in that my partner (wife) has been highly understanding of my hobby and has always agreed to allow me to have a dedicated listening room for my stereo. I would consider this to be one of the most important components of an 'ultimate' system - a space in which you have free reign with to do as you please. This is a big part of why I am even bothering to go to this extent.

My listening space has gone through many, many changes over the past 4 years. I first started out with a fairly humble setup, comprising of vintage audio equipment, and basically kept swapping pieces out and buying and selling, attempting to find a sound that I really enjoyed at a low cost. For me, that's something that is important - keeping it within budget. I'm not a rich man and I don't have a ton of money to displace on a stereo, so for me I need to keep costs down in certain areas in order to achieve what I'm after.

Fast-forward to about 8 months ago. I found what I consider is going to be my ultimate set of speakers - a pair of RWOFostex LS/3V studio monitors (see here for more info: http://www.preservationsound.com/?p=7156). At this point in time I decided it was time to put together my ultimate stereo system, with these at the forefront. With these speakers and a dedicated listening space at hand, I knew I could put together something sensational. Unfortunately, when I picked up the speakers, one of the woofers was completely missing. I found one, non-working, and it took me 7 months to get it repaired. It was a long wait, but well worth it!

And that brings me to about a month ago. Once the speakers were working, I could start planning the stereo. Although my listening space was quite small (10' x 13'), I figured with room treatments, I could make them work. I purchased a UMIK-1 omnidirectional microphone and started measuring and addressing the acoustic issues inside the room. This was rather challenging, and I am still learning about this today, but I managed to achieve a pretty good sound in that little room.

Now, that brings us to about a week ago. For Christmas, my wife did something I would have never expected. She told me she was willing to give me the master bedroom for my listening space. In fact, she provided some pretty good reasoning for why it would make sense! There's a reason I married her.. anyway, this meant some big things. The stereo would finally be in a room that was more meant for its size - those 15" drivers need room to breathe! And, on top of that, small rooms have real problems with bass, something that is very difficult to overcome without spending a fortune. It was now that I could truly create my ultimate listening space, and so that is what this thread is all about.

Here are a couple pictures of where my stereo system is at:
DSC01628.JPG
DSC01630.JPG

The gear in question is the following:

Speakers - RWOFostex LS/3V
Amplifier - Yaqin MC-10T, running Winged =C= EL34s, Mullard 12AX7s and Sylvania 12AU7As
Source - Audiolab M-DAC
Media - Customized music server

As well, as you can tell there are room treatments in the room. I have bass traps in all four corners, I also have the Primacoustic London 10 Kit, a pair of 60Hz tuned membrane bass traps and a custom made skyline diffusor.

I still have more work to do, as you can tell. This is my to-do list:

-Purchase a UMIK-1 microphone for measuring acoustics - DONE
-Order the Primacoustic London 10 Kit to start with room treatments - DONE
-Purchase a new listening seat to raise ear height to tweeter level (44") - DONE
-Move out extra gear from room - DONE
-Get rid of any extra gear/parts - DONE
-Decide on speaker location
-Purchase and install new drapes - DONE
-Purchase and install a soundproof door
-Install room treatments
-Remove large armoire in corner of the room - DONE
-Purchase an 11'x13' area rug to put into the room
-Look into room treatments for the ceiling
-Get rid of the rack, have amplifier on its own stand on the floor and move to a headless set-up

I would love to invite any feedback or comments, especially if anyone has any suggestions about something that could be done better. Although I have learned much over the past 4 years, I am certain there are others out there who know more than me.

Thanks for following along, I hope you enjoyed!

[Mika K]

Always nice to see more horns at the forum, especially when other aspects are also covered nicely. Welcome to the forum and keep the updates coming..

[walpurgis]

Excellent. I'll bet that all sounds very nice.

[jandl100]

Fascinating! - and obviously quite a labor of love.
80Kg speakers. Is that right? My gosh. I wouldn't even contemplate that!

Did I miss a mention of your musical tastes in that long thread? Sorry if I did - but what types of music get played?

[jandl100]

I would love to invite any feedback or comments, especially if anyone has any suggestions about something that could be done better.

Better? Well, how about different! Better is in the ear of the beholder.

Personally, I've never been a fan of EL34 valves (tubes), they lack a bit of what I call 'pizzaz' for me. EL34 kind of flatten out the midrange low level dynamic changes to my ear, making the music less interesting. To be honest I find them a bit bland. I know folks who agree with that - and I know others who disagree! So maybe it would be a worthwhile thing for you to try alternatives, or maybe not.
I'd have a go with 6CA7 valves as a replacement, or maybe KT77 - especially as it's an easy job to rebias the power valves in those Yaqin amps. (I use to own a very similar Yaqin MC100B with KT88 tubes).

[AlfaGTV]

Great system, and great wife too!
Would particularly like to hear your speakers, as they certainly have both the power and the refinement to convey an image of a real event!

Like Jerry, i cannot say what sounds "better" to your ears but i'd say, try some bad ass amps with masses of damping factor and power output? Yes, i realise they need to be extremely clean through the compression drivers but those bass drivers really benefit from being managed in the most rigid way!

I have a quad EL34 amp too, but i thoroughly enjoy it unlike jandl!
But it wont drive big elements in a convincing enough way.

But you're missing something! I cant see a turntable!
And actually that is my only real advice; Dont clean the room out, get some irregular surfaces, old LP's, shelving, a big couch etc. That would most likely lessen the need for room treatment, and perhaps even get your better half to accompany you in the "cave" too!
Regards /Mike

[canuckaudioguy]

Always nice to see more horns at the forum, especially when other aspects are also covered nicely. Welcome to the forum and keep the updates coming..

Thank you! These are my first set of speakers that use horns, and I love them. I'm probably a bit spoiled because the horns on these are made of teak - I am told that the way these were made, they resonate beyond their frequency range and as a result they exhibit no symptoms of listening fatigue. They sound lovely.

Excellent. I'll bet that all sounds very nice.

It does, I'm very pleased with how it is sounding so far.

Fascinating! - and obviously quite a labor of love.
80Kg speakers. Is that right? My gosh. I wouldn't even contemplate that!

Did I miss a mention of your musical tastes in that long thread? Sorry if I did - but what types of music get played?

Yep, 80kg a piece, and they definitely feel it! I had to use a dolly to move them around the house. Getting them in the house was also a fun venture.

You did not miss it - my musical tastes are a fairly wide variety, but include: jazz of many forms, particularly jazz fusion and smooth jazz (there is this great Ethnic Fusion Smooth Jazz playlist on Apple Music I particularly like); I like pop, but really I prefer stuff that is more sophisticated such as Sade, however I do enjoy me some Madonna, Phil Collins, stuff like that; 80s music in general is a joy to listen to, there are some real gems in there (my favourite band of all time is Toto); I also really enjoy old and new rock, and also many forms of metal (but not stuff like death metal); I also dabble in singer/songwriter type music like Joni Mitchell; Blues I do enjoy quite a bit, although it's not high on my 'playlist' per se; orchestrated works are a particular love of mine, especially movie soundtracks; I LOVE soul music, R&B, older disco, stuff like that; and.. there's probably more but that should give you an idea

Better? Well, how about different! Better is in the ear of the beholder.

Personally, I've never been a fan of EL34 valves (tubes), they lack a bit of what I call 'pizzaz' for me. EL34 kind of flatten out the midrange low level dynamic changes to my ear, making the music less interesting. To be honest I find them a bit bland. I know folks who agree with that - and I know others who disagree! So maybe it would be a worthwhile thing for you to try alternatives, or maybe not.
I'd have a go with 6CA7 valves as a replacement, or maybe KT77 - especially as it's an easy job to rebias the power valves in those Yaqin amps. (I use to own a very similar Yaqin MC100B with KT88 tubes).

Interesting suggestion! I haven't looked into KT77 or 6CA7 tubes. I love the way the Winged =C= EL34s sound - but in this class of tubes, the EL34 is the only one I have heard. I will definitely look into that, thanks!

Great system, and great wife too!
Would particularly like to hear your speakers, as they certainly have both the power and the refinement to convey an image of a real event!

Like Jerry, i cannot say what sounds "better" to your ears but i'd say, try some bad ass amps with masses of damping factor and power output? Yes, i realise they need to be extremely clean through the compression drivers but those bass drivers really benefit from being managed in the most rigid way!

I have a quad EL34 amp too, but i thoroughly enjoy it unlike jandl!
But it wont drive big elements in a convincing enough way.

But you're missing something! I cant see a turntable!
And actually that is my only real advice; Dont clean the room out, get some irregular surfaces, old LP's, shelving, a big couch etc. That would most likely lessen the need for room treatment, and perhaps even get your better half to accompany you in the "cave" too!
Regards /Mike

I think about the only place I should experiment with gear at this point is with the amplifier, so I'll certainly keep your suggestion in mind. It's been a while since I have listened to a set-up with a high current, high damping factor amplifier. I don't have any laying around, except an older Yamaha RX-V1 receiver (which is running HT duty in the living room), but it could be worth a try. I'm thinking about inviting some friends over for a listen, and perhaps I could see if one of them has an amplifier like the one you describe to try out. With the DAC, I can run it directly into the amplifier as it has a digital pre-amplifier.

As for the turntable, I do have a real nice one that is collecting dust right now - a Denon DP-A100. Reason being my record cleaner died and I don't like to play unclean LPs - perhaps I should snap up a Spin Clean in the mean-time. I've thought about bringing it into my listening space. Unfortunately, I would only entertain putting the LPs in the walk-in closet in that room - not that I am against having them in the room, the problem is with the layout, they would be on one side which would mean the room and reflections are no longer symmetrical. Symmetry is very important to me - I want the reflections in the room to be of equal amplitude and distance arriving at my ears. A couch, though, is a good idea. I've often thought about putting in a love seat so that I could have another seat for my wife to come and enjoy, and also to dampen some of the energy in that spot. Hmm

Thanks for all the suggestions, ideas and kind words!