Audio Altar

by zmanastronomy on Budget Minded

Description

This is my humble listening room where I spend many hours before the Audio Altar. I have made my own acoustic room treatments from DuctBoard. The same thing as Corning rigid fibreglass but it has a black finish already on it. I done the whole room for $150. That included the 6inch bass traps in the corner and there's two treatments behind the curtains. After the room treatments where added the imaging was increadible. It was the best improvement I've ever heard. I didn't know that room treatments could make such a huge difference. I've also run a dedicated power supply for my CD player. The depth and width of the stage grew quite alot after that. So far I've been blessed with this system and with a friend that is an audiophile guru and bring over ICs and power cords to test out. It has so far saved me alot of time and money with searching for the right upgrades. I hope you enjoy the photos. zmanastronomy
Read more...

Components Toggle details

    • Custom 2024 Tripath
    No expense was spared in the building of this amp.
    24v battery power, Cardas binding posts, Fururtech RCA inputs. Very lively and neutral.
    • PS Audio NuWave DSD DAC

    I've heard DSD for the first time without resampling on my system today with this DAC.

    Sounds a lot better than I expected.

    • JW Audio Cryo Nova
    These are a great upgrade to my system.
    • JW Audio Reference
    These are a great improvement in my system.
    • JW Audio The Rock
    I built this rack myself. It turned out much better than I expected.
    • Gallo TR3d
    The Gallo sub is one of the only subs that can sound better than a floor standing speaker. It is so fast and clean, it's hard to make it sound bad. Integration with stand mounted speakers is too easy.
    • Elrod EPS-2 Signature
    I now have 4 Elrod signature PC's in my system. They have done wonders to my system.
    • Signal Transformer DU-2 (2000va)
    I have this isolation transformer wired in balanced mode. The noise floor droped considerably.
    I built this box to hide it.
    • Signal Transformer DU-5 (5KVA)
    I've added a second balanced transformer to my system. It's for my amp. Words can't describe the improvement it made. I am stunned.
    • William Schaefer Audio Design 4 column
    This is one very heavy duty stand. Filled with lead and sand, they weigh in at 105lbs each.
    • My Room Treatments
    Finnaly there's the treated room. THE biggest sonic upgrade I ever made. I didn't realize what I was missing until I added treatments. The imaging got so good I couldn't believe what I was hearing. If you've got a mega bucks system and don't have a treated room you're only tapping into 50% of the systems potential. I'm glad I took the step and treated my room. My meager system sounds the best it can now. I hope you enjoy the system photos and my attempt to write something. Thanks. zman
    • PorterPort Cryo treated AC outlet
    I use a dedicated AC line with a a PorterPort that Albert sent to me from Here at AG. The improvments in my system was a great leap forward. Without this outlet, I could have never accomplished what I have.
    • Custom LDR Tortuga
    Wonderfully transparent.
    • Sonus Faber Venere

    I just bought these based on reviews and I am very glad I did.

    They sound as good as they look. They didn't overwhelm my small room either. I've learned that front ported speakers are much better for a small room than rear ported.

    • Fanless PC for Server
    I've taken the plunge into Computer Audio. I'm running JRiver on my PC and have about 6tb of music to enjoy.

Comments 129

Showing all comments by mapman.

View all comments

Sign in to comment
Zman,

Thanks for the info. I think I was expecting to hear some coloration (upper bass/midrange warmth?) with the Lore sound relative to Triangle in particular. That might not be a bad thing in that room. I am curious to hear.

I would like to go with floorstanders rather than current monitors on unspectacular current stands I am using there.

For neutral sound, OHm Micro Walsh is the other option that I could see in my wifes sunroom. I've had my larger OHM 100S3 speakers in there and results were good but bass slightly overpowering in that room, so smaller less expensive Micros might be perfect. I'm thinking I'd like to try something different there just to see before going with more of the same good thing. Plus I would likely go with latest and greatest Micro Walsh perhaps with a cutom finish, so I would expect probably 2X the cost of the Lores there.

mapman

Zman,

WHich Tektons did you have?

Could you compare the sound to the Triangles?

I've considered Tekton m lore as an option to replace my Titus' with something larger and floor standing in my wife's 12X12 sunroom with cathedral ceiling that might enable me to donate the current Titus' there to my sister to replace her worn out old Bostons.

mapman

Zman,

IF you are ever interested in another speaker change, let me know. My sisters old Bostons need replacing and I have considered giving her my similar size Tituses ( I gave her the Bostons years ago) and replacing them with slightly larger Cometes.

mapman

Zman,

What does the transformer do that improves the sound?

Thanks.

mapman

I would go with tube amps in general with the Triangles all else aside.

SS certainly works well and some may take to that better, depending.

The TAD hibachi SS pseudo tube hybrid amps I use are a perfect match to the Titus'. I acquired them specifically for a more tubelike sound with out going for a true tube amp and they have worked out perfectly and very affordable to boot.

mapman

Quad (very British) and Triangle (very French) are two very different sounds!

Triangle Titus and QUAD 12L2s would be a better apples/apples comparison than Cometes and Quads. I would expect a lot more extension and pizazz with teh Cometes.

mapman

BTW, I think you system page name may be the best on A'gon in terms of saying how it is for many here.

Audiophiles truly do worship at the Audio Altar! No doubt about that!

I would love to upgrade my Titus speakers to the Cometes, but can't justify the additional expense currently. Also they would have to fit inside my Ethan Allen audio cabinets for WAF like the Titus do easily. In this far less than optimal configuration, its hard to justify spending more. With a proper setup, it would be a different story I think. I have set the Titus up solo in otehr rooms this way. The main issue solo is of course low end extension. The rest is lovely. Have never done an optimal setup with sub though, so I would probably want to cross that bridge first.

mapman

That looks like a very nice setup for the Triangles!

Set up properly with a good sub they are simply very hard to beat at any price IMHO. One of the all time best audio values out there I would guess.

I suspect the jaws of many might drop if they heard the sound of a system like this compared to other popular larger and way more expensive speakers.

The Stereophile Class B rating was well deserved in teh case of the Titus'.

I may also look to move up the Triangle line someday if I get a few extra dollars to waste on more audio stuff sometime soon!

mapman

  • 115.9K
  • 129
  •  1
Latest forum discussions
© 2024 Audiogon.com