The room is a dedicated listening space but it was not purposely built for audio, so it has its limitations. It is roughly 21.5' x 18.5' in a irregular pentagon shape. The walls are 2 feet thick and the door to the hallway is a sliding double glass patio door. Not exactly sure what the original intention was for this room, but the room is essentially sound proofed from the rest of house. The room is heavily treated using ASC bass traps and panels which has contributed significantly to its overall sound, more so than any equipment upgrade could have offered.
The system has slowly evolved over the years and the collection of gear is slowly piling up. Some of stuff gets recycled in the HT room, but it's about time to start cleaning out the closet.
About 3 years ago, I got the itch to replace my aging Threshold T400. I heard good things about a small manufacturer in Innerkip Ontario Canada called Blue Circle where the owner hand-built all his gear in a unorthodox fashion - point-to-point wiring and prolific use of silicon just about everywhere. The chassis looked fairly ordinary as it was not what I was commonly accustomed to when comparing it to other manufacturers who are the the 5-digit price range. Where's the audio jewelery, you know, the huge heat sinks and 1/2" thick brushed aluminum faceplates?
I asked my local audio boutique about BC and although they were not a dealer, they had some good things to say about the company. I saw some reviews on the BC206 stereo amp and read how it compared favourably to other well known brands costing many times more and decided to take a HUGE leap of faith and placed an order for the BC206 as a replacement for the T400. The BC206 took significant time to settle in but once got over that painful process, the reviews were bang on about the sound of the BC206 and my only regret was that I had not purchased the BC208. And for the audio jewelery ... Gilbert says he would rather invest the money on the inside which makes a whole lot of sense to me.
3 years later, I had the itch to make some significant changes. I had been using my EMMLabs CDSD/DCC2 as my digital source and I was using the DCC2 as my preamp. The DCC2 is fast and detailed, but I felt that it too much on the side of being clinical and forced. My goal was to replace the preamp with something better - and I wanted it to be a statement piece. I contacted Gilbert again and inquired about his BC303 DWBB but about the same time, Gilbert was working on his "Pinkie" prototype, which is now officially named the BC109. It is a pure SS design but is somewhat unique in that it uses a large bank of supercaps like batteries so that the pre can run without being on the dirty power grid. Gilbert determined that the more that he beefed up the power supply, the better it sounded - better refinement, authority, detail, extension ... everything improved significantly. He ultimately stopped at 2800 farad - a ton of capacitance! The pre will easily run for over 24 hours between charges but the purity in sound is simply breath-taking. I ended up getting the BC109 spec'd at 2800F and with a custom built remote controlled 47 point Shallco attenuator. The attenuator itself required 788 hand soldered joints and is likely a first of its kind.
At the same time, I decided to do what I should have done from the beginning which was to go with the BC208 monoblocks. The new amps are also a custom order in that I asked him to build it in a more traditional chassis, ie. horizontally mounted and slightly smaller. It is the same chassis that is used for the BC204, so there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room left inside.
Gilbert was kind enough to post pictures during the various stages of construction:
The faceplates are custom using birdseye maple on the outside and bloodwood in the middle. I think they look stunning. The BC109/208 is still going through a prolonged and painful burn-in process. Due to the amount of capacitance that is used in these units, I have been warned that it will require a significantly longer time than usual for the gear to settle in.
I changed digital sources over a year ago and replaced the EMMLabs combo with the Playback Designs MPS-5. This player is very well constructed, uses some variant of the Esoteric VRDS transport and has worked flawless. Sonically it was a significant step forward over the EMMLabs.
Good points Nikki...both players are outstanding in delivering great music experience. And they should be for the cost.
Will the PD provide updates to the software via USB? I've updated my CDSA SE once via USB. Along with the software update and modification the player really sounds great.
I've to notice the Emm Bass a bit thin...but only on some recordings. When checking into this I found the power supply maybe the problem along with my stock PC. The CDSA SE power supply is smaller compared to Esoteric higher end players--beefer power supply. There is a review on the new Emm German transport for Emm single box unit (positive feedback online) that reports the upgrade improves the bass significantly. So I do have options to help improve my sound.
Having not listen to my system in several weeks because of travel. I spun Seal (IV) and Propaganda (a Secret Wish) on the Emm player Monday night. Very surprised to hear female and male vocals sound that good on my system. Usually I focus on percussion but the vocals stood out to be very rich and smooth. Played both disc twice.
