Audio Asylum - Inmate Systems

MaggieLover's Primary Two Channel System
IP Address: 69.115.248.163	Last Update: October 11, 2010 at 22:05:20
Amplifier:	2 Electrocompaniet AW70 stereo amplifiers running as bridged monoblocks. 220wpc into 8 ohms, 380wpc in 4 ohms. >60 amps peak current from each one. Damping factor greater than 100. Thay are stable to almost 1 ohm and in bridged mode running 4 ohm speakers, they run only slightly warm. No fans or external heatsinks. AW70's are rebadged AW220's. The AW220's were reviewed in Stereo Times in 2003.
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Electrocompaniet EC4.7, upgraded by distributor to SE. I'm using balanced connections between the CD player, the pre-amp, and the amplifiers.
Speakers:	Magneplanar MG 1.6 QR, maufactured May, 2005 with Mye stands and HiFi-Tuning fuses.
Sources:
CD Player/DAC:	Electrocompaniet EMC 1 UP
Turntable/Phono Stage:	AR 'The AR Turntable' (circa 1983), Linn Basic LVX arm, Ortophon X5 high output MC, Graham Slee Gram Amp 2 Special Edition phono preamp
Other Source(s):	Parasound Halo T3 tuner
Other Accessories/Room/Misc.:
Speaker Cables/Interconnects:	NBS Serpent III biwired configured speaker cable and XLR interconnects.
Other (Power Conditioner, Racks etc.):	3 Ultimate outlets
Tweaks:	Room modifications
Room Size (LxWxH):	36.5 x 13.33 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments:	My listening room (ex family room) which is 20' x 13' 4" opens into my kitchen two steps up which is 16' 6" x 13' 4". There is no wall between the rooms so the overall space is 36.5 x 13.33. The speakers are set up in slightly modified Cardas positions on the partially bricked short wall with a wooden fireplace mantle surrounded by wooden bookcases on either side of the brick. The middle of the bass panels are 66" from the rear wall and 40" from the side walls. The speakers currently are towed in several degrees so that the tweeters converge several feet behind my listening chair. They are also currently tilted around 1 1/2 degrees FORWARD from vertical as a result of the suggestion by Jim Smith in his book "Get Better Sound" The purpose of this is to align the center of the tweeter with my ear height at my listening. postion. As also suggested in his book, I have carefully measured angles and distances from both speakers to my ears so that they are as reasonably identical as possible within 1/2 an inch to an inch. The results were far in excess of any thing I expected. Everything is not only more musical than before, but soundstaging has improved dramatically, being both significantly wider and signifcantly deeper than before. The listening position is 9' 7" from each ear to the center of the corresponding tweeter of each channel. The center of the QR tweeters are 93" apart. Sonex sheets are on the side walls to control the first reflection points. While additional room treatments may be added, I have a large combination of wall surfaces to diffuse, absord, and reflect the sound. The low end response seems very extended at my seating position with a substantial amount of low bass. Response is almost flat within a few dbs from the midbass to around 2 db up at 40hz and only around 7db down at 31.5hz. All in all I seem to have a pretty smooth in-room response except for a dip which is currently around 5-6 db in the upper bass centered somewhere between 90-120 hz. There also appears to be some small amount of usable undistorted bass at 25hz. As a result of the excellent response I'm getting, I never have found the need to add a subwoofer into the mix. The highs start to roll off in the upper treble between 12k and 16k, but then so do my ears. While I've moved my seating position around almost a foot closer to the speakers in October 2010, this move not only further improved imaging but providing me with noticably deeper bass than before. The thwack of a concert bassdrum on a good recording send chills up my spine! I still sit a bit farther back from the speakers relative to the distance between them than do many members of this forum. With this setup, I'm geting an even deeper and wider soundstage than before and on good material, the side and front walls disappear entirely. It still amazes me. With some large scale works or film scores, like that of the film 300 or Inception, I would swear I was listening to a good SACD surround system instead of a standard stereo recording over two speakers.
Music Preferences and Comments:
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Classical, Jazz, rock, folk, you name it, I probably have it. 750 LPs, around 1000+ CDs
System Goals/Comments:	The best possible sound I can get within the contraints of budget and existing room limitations. Still working on it.
System Strengths:	Wide and fairly deep soundstage, flat frequency response except for noted 5-6db suckout, reasonably deep bass, lots of air and life like images.
System Weaknesses:	Probably many, but right now the system sounds just great to me. I'm not aware of any glaring problems. As a result, I'm not currently focused on setup or upgrades. I'm just enjoying listening to music.
Video/HT System: Integrated
TV/Projector:	Sony 42" projection LCD
Processor/Receiver/Amplifiers:	Yamaha v881 7.1 receiver
Speakers (Center, Surrounds, Sub):	Klipsch 5.1 speaker system
Sources (DVD/VCR):	NAD T533 DVD and Sony Playstation 3 (for my son mostly), and for Blueray discs. The NAD also plays DVD audio.
Other HT Gear:	Scientific Atlanta 4250HD set top box, using upconvert feature. All regular channels are displayed in 480P. The over 60 Cablevision HD stations we get are displayed in 1080i
Comments on HT System:	Video is not a passion for me or my family so a reasonably good viewng and sounding system is all we really needed and wanted. The room used is one of our two finished basement rooms. It's 28x15 with a carpeted raised wooden floor, 7 foot ceilings, and sheetrock on the walls and ceiling. The viewing distance is 86" from the 42" screen.
Other Interests/Hobbies/Occupation:	Scratch building historic model ships and workboats