Cost No Object Music Room Shames Mortal Audiophiles

[geekwithfamily]

A friend tipped me off to this amazing music room built into a barn or guest house. Follow the link for loads of pics of five-figure turntables, loudspeakers, tube amps, CD players and cables. This guy has really bought into the “cables and isolation accessories make a difference” with interconnects and speaker cables that resemble vacuum cleaners, ceramic cable lifters (I guess DIY cable lifter kegger cups wouldn’t blend well with surrounding décor) and tank-like turntable isolation rack sitting on top of a granite tile (which I assume must be twice as thick as normal granite judging by the overbuilt quality of the rest of the room).
As impressive as the audio system components is the acoustic construction of the room, all built-in scalloped acoustic chambers on the walls and ceiling. I love the floor to high ceiling LP and CD storage that he needs those elementary school library rolling step stools to reach the highest shelf.
Too bad he’s not listening to phase and time coherent loudspeakers. All that money spent on massaging the perfect signal through four carat phono cartridges, preamps, amps and cables only to have the listening experience mangled by the loudspeaker. Heh, if you can hear the difference (I would hope this system to be punishingly revealing).
What a Fortress of Solitude (Auditude?). What’s this guy escaping from? (Not to judge, I’m just overcome with envy.)
Tags: Audiophile Home Audio Electronics Room SetupAudiophile, Home Audio Electronics, Room Setup

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[Sonnie]

:holycow: :holycow: :holycow: :holycow: :holycow:

I can't even muster up a dream about anything that nice...

[Exocer]

Wow, he doesn't even let his wires touch the floor :holycow:

[majorloser]

More money than brains.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Nice job hiding the electric screen, I can't even see the seam in the ceiling where it drops down from.

[majorloser]

Bob in St. Louis wrote:

Nice job hiding the electric screen, I can't even see the seam in the ceilaing where it drops down from.

What makes you think there is a screen? It's a audio listening room. I don't see anything but two channel source and two speaker towers.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Sorry, Being a Home Theater guy, I always see where the screen SHOULD BE in these fancy 2 channel listening rooms.
I get an "F" for my execution of making a joke there.
(Also get an "F" in spelling, I just noticed I misspelled 'ceiling')
I'll go back and fix that....

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

A system like that, playing back “snap, crackle, pop” vinyl. What a waste.

Those purple stranded power cables look dangerous to me.

Regards,
Wayne

[Bob_99]

I guess that if you're making a million or two a year, you need to spend it on something. Must be a bit strange though to have to go out to the barn to listen to music.

Bob

[Josuah]

I'm not entirely sure which speakers those are, but why wouldn't they be phase/time coherent? Also, there's two camps on phase/time coherence, just like with cables. I myself have yet to see any scientific experiments that indicate phase/time coherence, within the tolerances we'd find in well made speakers, makes an audible difference. Plus, it looks like the tweeters are offset from the midrange and bass drivers anyway, which would imply some sort of effort towards phase/time coherence.

And I don't know why you'd expect vinyl to create snaps, crackles, and pops. ??? If he's taking care of his records and using a well made cartridge on a very stable transport I don't think any of those mechanical artifacts would show up. Purple power cables look fine to me too, since the only danger would be from someone stepping on them, and I don't think anyone's going to do that without getting shot. The braided lines may actually make their electromagnetic field less of an issue as well, although that'd just be a guess as to what sort of marketing they're sold under.

Anyway, as far as I can tell it's an excellent no-compromise setup although I do think there's a fair amount of snake oil in there.

[JCD]

As a complete non-believer in many of the audio "tweaks" out there, I think I'd probably end up using every crazy tweak, including those dumm (sic) pebbles, in a room like that.

Not that that room isn't completely over the top though.. I'd love to have a listen.

JCD

[Otto]

Josuah wrote:

I'm not entirely sure which speakers those are, but why wouldn't they be phase/time coherent

I think the list of phase and time coherent speakers is pretty short -- Vandersteen, Thiel and Green Mountain. There might be others, but I think these three (esp. the two former; the latter is a smaller player) really use it as an advertising vehicle.

Also, there's two camps on phase/time coherence, just like with cables. I myself have yet to see any scientific experiments that indicate phase/time coherence, within the tolerances we'd find in well made speakers, makes an audible difference.

Yeah, tough to say. I have Vandersteens, and I like the sound of them (else I wouldn't have bought them, right?). However, is that due to their phase and time coherence, driver selection, minimal cabinets, or what? I don't know, and I would say that I haven't done the research to argue either way. You're defintiely right in that there's two camps.

Plus, it looks like the tweeters are offset from the midrange and bass drivers anyway, which would imply some sort of effort towards phase/time coherence.

I think the sloped baffle is generally to address time coherence. Phase coherence must be addressed in the crossover.

Anyway, as far as I can tell it's an excellent no-compromise setup although I do think there's a fair amount of snake oil in there.

Can't argue with that.