Systems Showcase

Gallery

Floor plan of the audio room.

A shot of the room from the rear after the acoustic panels were installed.

A shot of the rooms after acoustic panel installation taken from the foyer (right side of audio room).

Beauty is symmetry. I tried my hardest to design the room to be balanced. This shot was taken before acoustic panels were installed.

Another shot of just the audio rack. The rack itself is actually a very inexpensive piece of Ikea furniture. However, under each leg are Herbie's Big Fat Dots which eliminate any system vibration.

Balanced Audio Technology (BAT) VK-40 solid state preamp. I've toyed with the idea of moving to a tubed preamp, but this sounds so good combined with the tube amps.

Logitech SqueezeBox 3 I use this for 98% of my listening. I rip my CDs to bit-perfect WAV format using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) and then convert them to FLAC which is completely lossless. The files are stored on a QNAP TS-439 PRO NAS box and served up wirelessly.

Monarchy DIP 24/96 (Digital Interface Processor) and PS Audio Digital Link II DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) To reduce jitter and digital errors, the DIP re-clocks the digital signal that the SqueezeBox outputs and passes it on to the DAC which then converts the digital signal to analog.

Denon DVD-2930ci I debated long and hard before I actually purchased this piece. I really never use it because all my CDs are ripped in FLAC format (see above). However, I still wanted something to play a CD in case a friend came over and wanted to hear something. Plus it plays both SACD and DVD-Audio so I will occasionally throw one of those formats at it.

PS Audio P500 Power Plant A/C Regenerator with MultiWave II+ Upgrade I'm not sure why I am so obsessed with having clean power, but this little guy puts my anxiety to rest, as it takes the dirty power from my home's A/C outlet, converts it to DC, then completely rebuilds it back into A/C power. It really doesn't matter how bad the power is in your house, because this is like a mini generator that makes sure the power is perfectly clean. This guy is plugged into his own dedicated circuit via 10-gauge Signal Cable MagicPower power cable which allows it to suck as much juice as it needs.

Balanced Audio Technology (BAT) VK-60 Monoblock amp I actually bought these monoblocks from reeltrouble1 (Ted) in late 2008. This was my first foray into tube equipment, and let me tell you... I'll never go back. They sound so very, very sweet! Each one puts out 120 watts and they blow away amps I've owned that are rated at three times that wattage. Anyone who tells you that you need 200 watts or more to get the most from your speakers haven't heard these babies!

Right channel BAT VK-60 monoblock. Each amp weighs 95 pounds and is plugged into the wall via 10-gauge Signal Cable MagicPower power cord. They also both sit on custom made 1.75" thick marble slabs which have five Herbie's Big Fat Dots under them to negate any vibration. Each amp weights contains twelve tubes: four 6C33C-B power tubes and eight 6SN7 tubes.

A top shot of the BAT VK-60 monoblock.

Each amp has it's own dedicate 20A circuit connected to hospital grade electrical outlets.

MIT Terminator 2 Bi-Wire Speaker Cables I know there's always debate about what the "magic boxes" on MIT cables actually do, but I've had a lot of different cables in my system (Signal, Canare, AudioQuest) and these sound the best.

This is a shot of the bi-wire cables plugged in to the rear of the speaker.

A picture of the back of the speakers. You can adjust the highs and lows based on your room acoustics. I was able to place the speakers 36" from the back wall so I didn't need to adjust these settings from the default.

The entire system from DAC to Preamp to Amp is completely balanced. I use MIT Terminator 2 Proline balanced cables for all the runs.

A "behind the scenes" shot of all the cables. Along with the MIT balanced cables I mentioned in the previous pic, there is also a pair of MIT AVT3 interconnects that go between the Denon CD player and the preamp. This is the only part of the system that isn't balanced.

Another shot of cables. I use Signal Silver Resolution coax cables for all the digital runs.

Revel F52 Speakers This is a shot of one of the speakers with the grill off. These were purchased in late 2008 to replace a pair of Mirage OM-7 omnipolar speakers. So far I absolutely love these. I'd love to be able to purchase a pair of Revel Salons someday, but at $25,000+ I think I'll stick with the F52s for a while. I am very impressed with these.

A shot of the waveguide tweeter. "The F52 tweeter assembly features a proprietary 1-inch aluminum dome tweeter housed in an integrated Constant Acoustic Impedance waveguide, which provides both optimum acoustic loading as well as optimized horizontal and vertical dispersion. The result is a virtually seamless transition from the midrange to the treble frequencies that also provides virtual acoustic invisibility, where the tweeter itself cannot be localized as an individual driver." http://www.revelspeakers.com/products/product.asp?product=25

This is the cabinet that houses all my CD boxsets, some vinyl at the bottom as well as extra tubes for the amps.

This is a shot of the CD storage cabinets I use. I can't say enough about them. I bought my first one back in 1998 and I've purchase five more since then. They are 100% steel and lockable. You can see more details here: http://www.can-am.ca

A shot of the system with all the lights off

Left wall acoustic treatments.

Right wall after acoustic panels installed.

Right wall acoustic panels

Rear of the room after acoustic panel install.

Windows acoustic panel.

Close-up of the mechanism I decided to use in order to make the acoustic panels over the windows modular.

Office System

Closer shot of DAC and Power Amp

Closer shot of Preamp

This is what I stare at when I watch a movie.

A closer shot of the component rack

55" Samsung LED Television

Polk DSW Pro 400 subwoofer

The back wall: Polk TSi300 surrounds and about half my DVD collection.

The bedroom system (Samsung 42" Plasma TV).

A close-up of the components in the bedroom system.