My Apartment 2ch/HT Rig

[mulveling]

A couple pics from last night, showing the changes I've recently made: Auralex Grammas under the speakers, LENRD bass traps along the bottom front wall (top of wall is still untreated), and also added a Denon 3910 as my main source. I messed up these pics since you can see a slight green tint - that's from the flourescent lights in the kitchen behind this room. Can't retake them now since my camera broke :




A closeup of the right Legacy Signature III taken a couple iterations of system changes ago (July-ish 2006):


My headphones of choice for music listening:


My cheap $200 digicam broke right after I snapped the pics, so I couldn't get the closeups of the rack I wanted

Equipment List:
Speakers:
Legacy Audio Signature III, in rosewood
Headphones:
Audio Technica ATH-L3000, Sony MDR-R10, JVC HP-DX1000, Sony Qualia 010
Amp:
PS Audio HCA-2 digital 2ch amp
Preamp / Headphone amp:
Sugden Headmaster, Singlepower SDS
Source:
Denon DVD-3910
TV:
Sony KD-34XS955 34" Widescreen CRT HDTV
Stunning image. Weighs in at 200 lbs. I hate not being able to move it by myself. I can manage to move around the 130 lbs. each Legacy speakers, but no chance with this TV. I've got Comcast HD. The HD channel variety sucks. I'm still upset that they took away INHD2.

My priority for this system was clearly the musical purity of 2ch over HT. I have no center channel, sub, nor surrounds. I enjoy watching movies on this system but have no plans of building a serious HT anytime soon - music is my priority for now. Actually, I'd love to move the TV out of that room to improve imaging, but then I wouldn't have the speakers or Denon for movies...I still consider doing that every now and again.

I came here since I've been wanting to address room acoustics issues. The Grammas & LENRDs are just a start; I've got GIK tri-traps coming in this week. If I like them I'll add some panels. I'm a bit conflicted since I'd like to keep things looking relatively clean, yet there's always a nagging feeling I should do whatever it takes to improve 2ch quality I'll be exploring options (and taking suggestions) for achieving this. I'd be willing to have some sort of "non-permanent" treatments where I could put them in place for critical listening and then remove them before I have company over I sort of do that now, draping a super thick hand-weaved blanket over the TV screen for 2ch listening, but I'm not sure how effective that is - I suppose propping a couple good panels up there would do much more, right?

My room is about 14'x18'x9'. Floor is padded carpet over suspended wood; hence the dire need for the Grammas (to decouple the speaks). The setup you see is along the short wall. The room opens up into a kitchen in the back; this adds several more feet to the long dimension. As I understand, this could be a good thing since it adds more empty space behind the listening position and the kitchen probably acts as a diffusor. There is a counter separating the kitchen from living room, but it's about the height of the couch so I didn't think it would have much acoustic effect.

[brucek]

Have you done any frequency response checks of the room using REW.

It can be useful for speaker placement issues and checking bass trap/room treatment effectiveness.

brucek

[mulveling]

brucek wrote:

Have you done any frequency response checks of the room using REW.

It can be useful for speaker placement issues and checking bass trap/room treatment effectiveness.

brucek

Yep, I spent some time with REW last week - I think it's awesome. I need to do some serious experimentation with placements, etc. So far I've just got a few baseline measurements - and I did determine that the presence of the LENRDs was of measurable benefit in terms of LF ringing (waterfall plot). I'm going to wait until I get the GIK traps this week before I really go to town with measurements. I might also try to glue a couple LENRDs in the front wall upper corners...

Edit: Looking at the baseline measurements, they indicate that the most severe room mode peaks are at 65 and 118 Hz. Using an online room mode calculator, I determined that these peaks exactly correspond to axial modes for the room dimensions of 25.5' (including the kitchen in the back) and 14.1', respectively! Neat - this science stuff is pretty cool when it works

Can't wait to experiment with trap configurations...

[ACGREEN]

Off subject but how do those Legacy's sound? I really thought about getting a pair?

[Sonnie]

Nice setup Mike. I've always been impressed with the beauty of Legacy speakers.

[mulveling]

ACGREEN wrote:

Off subject but how do those Legacy's sound? I really thought about getting a pair?

Well, they sound superb - otherwise I wouldn't have purchased them
I had the pleasure/misfortune of auditioning them extensively in my friend's super 2ch rig before I bought them from him - he upgraded to Thiel CS 7.2 ($15,000/pr, IIRC). His system consisted of Parasound Halo JC1 monoblocks, BAT VK-32se pre, VPI Scoutmaster/Dynavector 20x/Dynavector P75 for vinyl and Audio Aero Prima DAC/Sony SCD-1 for digital, all in a nice dedicated room. Pretty **** tough to live up to! Obviously I'm not there, and I don't have the budget to replicate that system, but I'm tweaking my way closer to that kind of sound. They already sound super - warm, musical, punchy, smooth, plenty fullrange for music - and oh! How they scale with primo electronics! BTW I think it's pretty close between Legacy and Thiel in his system - the Sig III's are a bit warmer & lusher while the Thiels are more neutral and have tighter focus.

Being so large, they are very dependant on proper positioning - that's made a bigger difference than moderate acoustic treatments thus far. The latest successful tweak I've tried is to toe them in more than usual - I really dig the improved focus, even at the slight expense of some soundstage width. Being a headphone nut, soundstage width was never too important to me in the first place...I mainly care about how sweet the music sounds within the stage

As great as the Auralex Grammas were at decoupling from the floor, I've replaced them with my 1" granite slabs. I put the spikes back on the speakers, and then placed little rubber discs between each spike & slab. Aesthetically, it looks a lot better this way (slabs are very light/pinkish and polished on top) and still decouples pretty well since the slabs rest on padded carpet.

Got a Halo A21 amp, Dynavector P75 phono, VPI HW-19 table on the way (my first vinyl rig)...hoping to get things locked-in soon

Sonnie wrote:

Nice setup Mike. I've always been impressed with the beauty of Legacy speakers.

Thanks, Sonnie. These still have the best wood veneer finish of any speakers I've seen (WAY better than the Tyler Acoustics veneers some people rave about - I've owned them and they're nice but the finish is not at this level) - you have to see them in person to fully appreciate the beautiful balance that's been achieved between texture, smoothness, rich color, and sheen. The mirror-image veneer matching is a nice touch too.

[JaceTheAce]

Nice photography!

[mulveling]

Well after a substantial battery of changes (all to the great benefit of sound quality) in short period of time, the now-dedicated 2ch rig is finally "locked in" and sounding amazing!
I'm now left with this:









These are my first pics with the new camera I picked up tonight (Nikon D40, my first digital SLR)

I'll take some more wide-angle shots of the room after I've cleaned up a bit.

It was WELL WORTH tossing the HT and dedicating the entire living room to 2ch duties. Nothing was ever quite right with previous configurations. The Halo A21 amp made a big difference, too. Things are now locked in!. I know what these speaks should have sounded like all along and they're finally there! Should have done this long ago. Even the gf is happy now that the HDTV is in the bedroom (along with some new furniture). She could care less about having to use the stock TV speakers

I repeat, dedicating the room to 2ch was WELL WORTH the effort and hassle!

[khellandros66]

I would love to have some Legacy speakers in my HT. Totally kickin rig man.

~Bobby

[JCD]

For crying out loud, you're doing this just to make me feel small! That's an amazing looking system -- and in a couple of months since your first post, you've gone from a denon received to a tube ?preamp? and a Parasound amp (A21?).

I.....just.....hate.....you!!

But in all seriousness, that is a fine bunch of equipment you've got there. And I love the simplicity of it.

1. Can you tell me what kind of preamp is that?
2. How would you rate the incremental changes to your system? I.e., after the speakers, what changes do you think the biggest improvement?
3. How did you come up with plan for the various accoustical treatments?
4. What are you using for your movie watching now?

Anyway, I'm gonna go away and sulk now.. but again, great looking system.

JCD

[mazersteven]

I hope that system sounds as good as it looks. Sure is eye candy.

I might have missed it, but is that a Singlepower headphone amp on the top?

[mulveling]

Thanks for the kind comments, all!

JCD wrote:

For crying out loud, you're doing this just to make me feel small! That's an amazing looking system -- and in a couple of months since your first post, you've gone from a denon received to a tube ?preamp? and a Parasound amp (A21?).

I.....just.....hate.....you!!

But in all seriousness, that is a fine bunch of equipment you've got there. And I love the simplicity of it.

If it makes you feel better - I sold the Denon AVR almost 2 years ago and then began the gradual upgrade progression up to today. At the time of registration here, I had a PS Audio HCA2 and soon switched to an A21 - and extremely glad I did so!

1. Can you tell me what kind of preamp is that?
2. How would you rate the incremental changes to your system? I.e., after the speakers, what changes do you think the biggest improvement?
3. How did you come up with plan for the various accoustical treatments?
4. What are you using for your movie watching now?

Anyway, I'm gonna go away and sulk now.. but again, great looking system.

JCD

That preamp is a Singlepower SDS headphone amp...and one of the best ever made. Typically an excellent headamp makes an excellent preamp - unfortunately the 6sn7 tubes that amp likes (Tung-Sol 6sn7 roundplate) tend to be a tad microphonic, which is a disadvantage in a fullrange speaker rig (which tends to vibrate things a bit). Not to worry, I've recently acquired a Rudistor RP7b headamp/preamp that is a superb hybrid of tubes/SS, sounds sweet, and has no microphonics.

Of course, you are correct that speakers makes the biggest difference. After that, so far, the biggest differences came from:
* Speaker placement and careful selection of listening position
* Treating first reflection points, especially sidewalls. I'm going to see what I can do about the ceiling next. Disappointingly, bass trappnig hasn't made as much difference as I'd hoped. I guess it takes a lot before it's really noticeable.
* Upgrading to the A21. Seriously, this was bigger than going from the Denon to any other 2ch power amp I'd tried. I guess the Legacy speaks need a lot of something...something that the big Halo amps provide in spades. I've also heard the JC1's with 'em and the add in that extra bit of refinement over the A21.

Cables, digital sources, and preamp swapping have made substantially less difference than the above thus far (though I can still appreciate the difference a sweet pre makes).

The HDTV is now in the bedroom and I'm just using its built-in speaks for movies and cable. Heh, sacrifices had to be made...

Oh, btw I also got some Parasound JC1 monoblocks and a vintage SOTA Sapphire Star table (Koa wood, Fidelity Research FR64fx arm, Benz Ace cart) on the way within the next couple weeks... Well, it was my birthday recently. I'll post pics

[Owen Bartley]

Mike, great looking setup, I'd LOVE to hear a pair of those Legacys. It sounds like you've got a serious case of upgradeitis!! Whatever it is, keep it up, because you seem to be doing it right. And don't forget to update us with pics as things change, because we're nosy and we like to see new gear.