Pictures of your speaker system

I find wide dispersion designs to be fairly sensitive to early reflection effects (since they radiate so much energy in all directions). You may want to look into placing furniture like bookshelves (or treatment) at your first reflection point on the sides.

 

Well, wow, those things look like fun. I'm glad they sound like fun too!

These are possibly the first speakers I've seen that ought to have names. Do let us know what you call them.

 

I love the vivid speakers, wanted the small ones the 1.5 and never got them, enjoy, there a delight

 

Finally, my 2-channel rig is home and complete! I’d like to acknowledge @shaizada @drfindley @bazelio @brencho because they were the SBAFs who were of great inspiration as I elected to undertake such a long and arduous path. Also, many thanks to everyone who purchased gear and helped seed this madness back in 2016.

-Ron

 

Wow, that's quite the rig!

 

beautiful system

 

Enjoy in good health...u deserve it and earned it.

 

Just got some Philharmonic BMR Monitors v2, satin zebrawood. Can't wait for the break-in period to be over!

 

Looks fantastic. What's in the system?

 

I've been interested in these for a long while. Are you going to share impressions, especially compared to other bookshelf speakers?

 

thanks! Here goes:

[EAR Yoshino]

V20 Integrated
- Wathen Cryotone 12AX7-WCLP x 26
- Wathen Cryotone 12AU7-WCLP x 4
- Herbie’s Rx-9 x 30
- Triode Wire Labs Obsession power cord

324 Phono stage
- Triode Wire Labs Spirit II RCA
- Triode Wire Labs Obsession power cord

[Marten]
- Miles 5
- Triode Wire Labs American Speaker Cable
- millercarbon cable cradles

[Rythmik Audio]
- E15HP x 2, Gotham GAC-4/1 XLR
- for filling out nulls in the frequency response at the listening position

[Townshend Audio]
- Rock 7 w/ Helius Omega Silver Ruby, Decca London Reference (rebuild in process), Furutech AG-16
- Allegri+ autoformer passive preamp, Triode Wire Labs Spirit II RCA
- Podiums (speakers)
- Seismic Pods (components)

[Abbas Esoteric Audio]
- EL84, EF86, EZ90 Phono stage, Triode Wire Labs Spirit II RCA

[Vinyl Nirvana]
- Thorens TD125MKII
- Armboard 1: Sorane TA-1, Triode Wire Labs Spirit II DIN-RCA Phono, Ortofon SPU T GE (MC Cart 1), VAS Audio Denon DL-103 Elliptical w/added mass (MC Cart 2), Auditorium A23 (DL-103 specific Step Up), Triode Wire Labs Spirit II RCA Phono
- Armboard 2: SME 3009 S2 Improved, Yamamoto HS-3 headshell, Acutex LPM 320 II STR, Triode Wire Labs Spirit II RCA Phono
- African Padauk Plinth
- Isoacoustics Gaia III feet

[Nakamichi]
- 680 fully rebuilt by former Nakamichi factory tech, Triode Wire Labs Spirit II RCA
- CR-2A same as above

[Pi2Design]
- Pi2AES, Jameco DFU240050F1121 Transformer
wall wart
- Mercury V2, PLiXiR Elite BDC LPS
- Triode Wire Labs Freedom RJ45

[miniDSP]
- SHD (Dirac Room correction & dual-sub integration), Triode Wire Labs Spirit II RCA
- Puritan Audio Labs classic power cord

[Audial]
- S5 w/transformer coupled output, Triode Wire Labs Spirit II RCA
- Ricable Supreme OCC HDMI i2s

[Yamamoto Soundcraft]
- YDA-01B modded, Triode Wire Labs Spirit 75 Coax, Triode Wire Labs Spirit II RCA
- Wathen Cryotone WE408a Gold Pin
- Wathen Cryotone Sylvania 408a Gold Pin
- Wathen Cryotone Philips TS61
- Triode Wire Labs Obsession power cord

[Sony]
- MDS-JA50ES, Lifatec optical, Triode Wire Labs Spirit 75 Coax,
- MDS-E10, Lifatec optical, Triode Wire Labs Spirit 75 Coax

[Puritan Audio Laboratories]
- PSM156, Ultimate XX power cord 20A

[Monster Power]
- AVS 2000

[GIK Acoustics]
- 242 x 3

Unknown brand acoustic panels x 2

ASC TubeTrap (not shown located behind listening position)

MDLDJSM Clip on Light LED x 7

DEWENWILS 57.5" Minimalist LED Corner Floor Lamp
LED x 2

Sanus AFA racks

some components listed aren’t pictured but rotated into the system.

-Ron

 

I can. Audio-wise, sometime after next week. I think there's another thread for bookshelf impressions? Any thing specifically you'd like to know?

Got these because I blew up my Janszen za2.1 ;-( Had to make do with some Cambridge Audio Minx 10.

These are the curved satin zebrawood versions.
Physically, heavy, solid. Pictures don't do the finish justice. Better half likes the appearance of these more than the za2.1 (which were an off-white). The zebrawood matches the walnut of the stands (from Tyler Acoustics) and the elm of the cabinet nicely. Not an exact match, more complementary.

As mentioned around the 'net, the packing of these is solid -- could go to the Moon safely.

One thing off the bat, the sensitivity of these on the preamp seems to be double the Minx. For the Minx, an acceptable volume was -20 and for these, -40 to -45. On paper, the Minx's sensitivity is supposed to be higher than the BMR.

 

Nice! That's like a whole room of screaming good value high end.

Obviously you quite like this cable - I know their power cords are good but haven't heard many reports on the RCA. Did you try against anything like the Zenwave D3/D4? The Zenwave used to look like killer value but the prices went up quite a bit a few years ago and now I'm not so sure, they are sort of on the edge of extravagant.

 

I haven’t tried Zenwave D3/D4. I did have Townshend Fractal F1 and those were sublime. However, they were very stiff and when my Monster HTPS 7000 Mk2 Sig started failing, I needed to reallocate funds toward a replacement.

TWL Spirit II are super low mass, flexible and built with OCC. All TWL cables undergo several processes, cryo, cable cooking and multistage demag. I had a choice of going with a full loom of TWL or a set of secondhand Jorma #1 speaker cables. I’ve also tried Ice Age Audio IC, speaker cables and power cords, Decware DSR3 IC’s, Mogami Neglex IC’s, Gotham IC’s, Blue Jeans IC’s, Belden 9497 & DIY 24 strand OCC speaker cables.

There’s definite synergy running the full loom. In one of our conversations, @shaizada expressed a curiosity in hearing what the TWL loom might sound like. At that point in time, I didn’t have a single piece of TWL. Fast forward a week or so, I invited him over, haha. I think the best comment he made was, “I feel like I’m listening to my system…”

The rig is very responsive to switching out IC’s in various positions. Any lingering cable nervosa has been fully abated!

-Ron

 

Thanks. I run mine with a sub, so don't care about 1st 2 octaves. Something I find annoying is the boost some bookshelves have in 3rd octave to make up for thinness below. Can make lower male voices sound tubby.

 

Quick impressions in that regard.

Have an Anthem avm 70. Disabled Anthem ARC, set the crossover to 60Hz and played the Police's Ring Around My Finger. The bass line there sounds very nice. Using a pair of stacked Starke Sound 10" subs.

Last night we used them to watch the old 80's movie, Romancing the Stone and later I watched Supernatural's 8th season finale. Michael Douglas, Jared Padleski and Jensen Ackles all sounded so good and natural.

 

my combined headphones and 2ch rig. I would like to try the NOS GE 6L6 tubes in this Musical Paradise amp provided I have free funds, the plan for Atoll IN50 Signature amp and Parasound D/AC-1100HD is to go into my big room eventually, to be paired with something like Lintons or something else - I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I'll probably add a streamer there too. was on the fence about adding a streamer in current configuration, but decided that I prefer the flexibility of a laptop. hoping to live with this setup for a while (he-he, let's see for how long am able to hold out before the itch comes back).

 

This is my current 2-channel rig. I had to go with smaller Focal Sopra 1 speakers due to limited space here at home. Streaming through Bluesound NODE feeding into Holo May KTE and then a Luxman L-509f integrated amplifier. I've been putting off upgrades lately due to my headphone rig getting more focus. Eventually, I plan on upgrading the amp with an Accuphase Class A model (either the E-650 or E-800), while adding a Chord M-scaler into the chain for external upsampling.

A Schitt Syn is also something I'm looking into right now since the rig is mostly used for home theater purposes. We watch a lot of movies here.

 

Just got these last week Troels Graversen Purifi-6