Ah, that makes sense. I have about 55 square feet of panels here in a room a little under half that size. Maybe I should send some panels back! Paul seems a nice chap
A 60 year audiophile journey ends (maybe??) with my latest acquisition: 3 stack dCS Vivaldi consisting of the APEX DAC, Upsampler & Clock.
Enjoy the photos and I’ll go back to the crowded living room & grab a chair; trying not to bump into Keith Richards on the way. I already told Nat King Cole he couldn’t smoke in there.
Best to all,
Bob
System Components/Cabling:
VAC 450iQ Mono Amps
VAC Master Preamplifier w/Gold Lion 6922 Gold Pins
VAC Renaissance Special Edition Phono Preamplifier w/6 Gold Lion 12AX7 Gold Pins & XLR Outputs
SME 20/2 Turntable w/SME Series V Tone Arm & Sumiko Palo Santos Presentation Cartridge
Akai GX-400D Reel-to-Reel w/relapped heads by JFR Magnetic Sciences, Akai RC-17 cabled remote (Original Owner since 1974)
dCS Rossini Transport
dCS Vivaldi APEX DAC
dCS Vivaldi Upsampler
dCS Vivaldi Clock
Wilson Alexia V1 speakers standing on Wilson Acoustic Diodes
2 Furutech GTX-D NCF ® 20A Duplex Outlets/plate/cover on 2 Dedicated 20A runs on same phase in power panel.
Shunyata Everest 8000 Power Conditioner
Shunyata Omega XC 1.25M Power Cable (feeding Everest)
2 HRS M3X2-1921 Isolation shelves with G7 Footers/G-Links and Sound Anchors Conecoasters
1 HRS M3X2-1921 Isolation Shelf (for TT)
4 HRS DPX-14545 Damping Plates
Nordost Odin 1 Supreme Reference 3M speaker cables resting on 4 Sort Lifts
6 Nordost Odin 1 Supreme Reference Power Cables, 1.25M
1 Nordost Tyr 2 Power Cable, 1.25M
2 Nordost Heimdall 2 Power Cables, 1.25M
2 Nordost Odin 2 XLR/XLR, 1.25M
2 Nordost Odin 1 XLR/XLR, 2M
5 Nordost Valhalla 1 Digital BNC/BNC 75-ohm Clock Cables, 1.25M
3 Nordost Valhalla 2 Digital AES-EBU Cables, 110-ohm, 1.25M
1 Nordost Valhalla 1 Phono Cable, .75M
1 WireWorld Platinum Starlight 8 Ethernet Cable, 2M
Audio Desk PRO Record Cleaning Machine
ENM hour Meter (handbuilt &records hours & tenths of audio play time - runs off VAC Preamplifier 12v trigger)
Congrats Bob! I doubt this is the end of your journey (does the journey ever end for folks like us?) but I’ll make a wild prediction that it is going to be largely if not only sidegrades from hereon!
Say hi to Keith for me, Nat asked me to say he may be a bit late as he played four encores here and hasn’t packed up yet!
I know – that’s what I told the wife anyways.
You must have Nats imposter?
Best Sir.
Bob
Congratulations, it is a great way to end a journey. You have a fantastic stereo.
But, if you spend to much time on this forum, I am afraid the journey is not ended yet…Do you know you can improve the accuracy of the Vivaldi clock, with another clock ? You don’t ! Some will tell you
Thanks Sir – probably much truer than I want to believe. I’m not entertaining any additional clocking component to sync an already fine clock.
I have heard recently there is new research of a 300B tubed driven clock of all things. Mid way testing has discovered older clocking designs are far more accurate than modern methods in that there is less stray capacitance in tube amplification than transistor based resulting in a more consistent & accurate periodic oscillation. Time will tell.
Best Sir,
Bob
Wonderful system Bob.
If you do get the urge for improved clocking, you can always add the NIST-F2:
“NIST-F2 would neither gain nor lose one second in about 300 million years…”
; )
Excellent @keiserrg! Now I know what I want for Christmas next year. A ‘cesium fountain’ sounds absolutely delightful, maybe I’ll get one for the summer cottage as well? @PaleRider please let us have your listening impressions as soon as you get yours burned in!
10 years of development, just for the benefit of us Vivaldi clock owners, I’m flattered!
My Bartok feeding into a Nagra Classic INT and a combo of Nagra PL-P and 300P, driving a pair of Stenheim Alumine 2.
I am in awe of all the BBLPC (big-boy-long-pants-club) systems here but tbh it is these “small but perfectly formed” systems built around Bartóks and Linas I love most. There is something so “Zen” about them. I have owned both the Bartók and the PL-P and have friends with Stenhiems. I can guess the rest!
Why do you use a Rose Audio in your setup lumdicks? Don’t you stream over the build in Bartok Ethernet port?
I mainly stream over Ethernet with the Bartok and the HiFi Rose is used for RoseTube (Rose paid version of YouTube without advertisement).
Well, my clock components in my system are long since settled in, and I have shared many impressions here. It’s a superb system. When I recently finally came to a consolidation point between the Vivaldi and the MSB, I chose to retain the Vivaldi and sell the Select II. But there were many more reasons for that beyond “which is the better DAC.” It was easier and more rewarding to keep the speaker system and consolidate the headphone stack into it. I could have simply swapped the MSB into the speaker system and eliminated quite a number of boxes, but listening over timed the gradually increasing differential in hours spent with the speaker system vs. the headphone system—sold me on the organic “wholeness” of the Vivaldi system over the etched detail of the MSB [teeny tiny marginal, incremental differences contributed to these impressions], and it was physically easier to pull, sell, and ship the MSB transport and DAC. Both were superb playback systems, and I feel fortunate to have enjoyed both for quite a few years. Purely from an electronics perspective, I haven’t heard anything better than either of them, but then, I haven’t been seeking the “next great thing” ever since I added my reference clock to the Vivaldi stack.
I remain of the mind that transducers like speakers and headphones (and rooms) are far more influential to our final listening impressions than the sum of all the electronics and associated cables and other system improvements.
P.S. Very nice setup Bob!
Thank you Sir (BTW, I made up that 300B stuff – early April fools😉)
Best to all,
Bob
Thanks Greg – appreciate it Sir – it’s been a fun ride.
Best to all,
Bob
Adding to my Vivaldi DAC with the MKI transport, guess that will kind of make it some sort of short stack.
Will take some time to get here still (has to cross the Atlantic) but I’m in eager anticipation.
I had the very great pleasure yesterday to pay a visit to Pete at his home in London. The few hours we had were in no way adequate to cover all the topics we wanted to discuss. But I had plenty of time to listen through his system which as most here know is a Vivaldi full stack with an EAR preamp driving ATC SCM50ASL active studio monitors all connected with Envy cables.
Well, I wont beat about the bush folks, the sound was stunning. Full range resolution and transparency, effortless dynamics and a soundstage you could walk around in. Despite the smallish room the system was so perfectly dialled in that if you closed your eyes it disappeared completely. Very easily one of the best systems I have ever heard, and definitely a 6.3 on the Struts scale, I may even retrospectively bump it up to a 6.4. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of the system itself but here is at least one of me with my host snapped for posterity.
Thanks for your hospitality Pete. It was a pleasure to meet you IRL, a really fun afternoon and a memorable listening experience.
A wild guess: is this @struts001 and this @PAR ?