Thread: My humble setup

Many of you have seen these pics elsewhere but here goes again. My living room is Audio Central for a dedicated 2 CH setup, HT setup, and another system driving speakers in Family Room and outside. I have also repositioned a few pcs after these pics were taken and put together a nice little setup in the Family Room for music and movies using my Hafler 945 Pre and Stratos amp driving Dynaudio 42s.

Main gear is VAC CLA1 MKII - Counterpoint NPS400 - Rotel 1072 CDP - Clearfield Continentals or Dynaudio 82s depending on the mood. Other gear include Dynaudio 122c and 42s for rears, JM Labs Tantal 509s in the Family Room, Mirage OM12 sub, 2 OPPO 93s, an older Onkyo-Integra Tape Deck.

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With Danes
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Counterpoint NPS400 with 6fq7 RCA Cleartops
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VAC CLA1 MKII
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Dynaudio 42s
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JM Labs Tantal 509s
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Other side of main room
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VTI Racks
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My custom machined Now Playing stand that Matt will like.
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Family room with JMs (system at left is now Hafler-Stratos-OPPO-Dynaudio that I need to get a current pic of)
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Why are the pics so small?

Very well done! I love Counterpoint amps. Delicious.

Thank you for posting the photos.

Very nice Brian, I love it all! ...My fav is your family room.

* Your pictures are small because you downloaded attachments.
You gotta find another technique to post larger pictures.

But it ain't no big deal really because we can click on them and they get bigger.

____________

TEST:

Brian... Thanks for sharing pictures of your system with us!!!

Great setup! Nice room!

Nice setup Brian..

Very nice! I love the old VAC.

I like Dynaudio speakers, and JM Labs too, and Rotel CD players. ...And Oppo BD players

There is nothing humble about your system. Well done Brian

VERY Nice Brian...I agree on the family room !

So do your outlets get hot ? Dang man, you fire up those systems, I bet the lights dim and the dishwasher runs slow...LOL

Thanks for the pics....

Originally Posted by ohbythebay

VERY Nice Brian...I agree on the family room !

So do your outlets get hot ? Dang man, you fire up those systems, I bet the lights dim and the dishwasher runs slow...LOL

Thanks for the pics....

Ha, they very rarely run at the same time except the HT where I use the front outs of the Integra to my main system.

The CP throws a little heat but the Stratos stays cool at heavy loads.

Originally Posted by Shadowfax

Many of you have seen these pics elsewhere but here goes again. My living room is Audio Central for a dedicated 2 CH setup, HT setup, and another system driving speakers in Family Room and outside. I have also repositioned a few pcs after these pics were taken and put together a nice little setup in the Family Room for music and movies using my Hafler 945 Pre and Stratos amp driving Dynaudio 42s.

Main gear is VAC CLA1 MKII - Counterpoint NPS400 - Rotel 1072 CDP - Clearfield Continentals or Dynaudio 82s depending on the mood. Other gear include Dynaudio 122c and 42s for rears, JM Labs Tantal 509s in the Family Room, Mirage OM12 sub, 2 OPPO 93s, an older Onkyo-Integra Tape Deck.

IMG_3564.jpg

With Danes
IMG_1487.jpg

Counterpoint NPS400 with 6fq7 RCA Cleartops
IMG_3574.jpg

VAC CLA1 MKII
IMG_1031_zps73ff3101.jpg

Dynaudio 42s
IMG_3586.jpg

JM Labs Tantal 509s
IMG_3587.jpg

Other side of main room
IMG_1028.jpg

VTI Racks
IMG_3565.jpg

My custom machined Now Playing stand that Matt will like.
IMG_3578.jpg

Family room with JMs (system at left is now Hafler-Stratos-OPPO-Dynaudio that I need to get a current pic of)
IMG_1005.jpg

Why are the pics so small?

Very nice gear Shadofax, love your now playing stand.

Nice gear Shadow, I guess I never saw your system on AR. I also have my main system in my family room.

Originally Posted by MrAcoustat

Very nice gear Shadofax, love your now playing stand.

Thanks, I made 2 of them when I was a Toolmaker and tried to get the boss to make a run of 100 to sell, but he wouldn't go for it.

Originally Posted by Mechnutt

Nice gear Shadow, I guess I never saw your system on AR. I also have my main system in my family room.

Thanks Larry,

Main setup is Living Room. The pic of the family room is missing my latest configuration. I took those JM Labs and hooked them up to my Stratos with the old Hafler 945 and Oppo93. Really opens the old JMs up.

How'd I miss this !!! Looks awesome!!!

Great stuff Brian !! Congrats !!!

very nice but tell us, inquiring minds need to know…………what's your toupee doing resting on top of one of your speakers ?? ……..

Originally Posted by chumlie

Was thinking the same thing. Great setup. beautiful room.

Originally Posted by CR141

There is nothing humble about your system. Well done Brian

I agree looks awesome Brian

Wow...very nice !!1 Thank you for sharing !!!

Originally Posted by Mikado463

very nice but tell us, inquiring minds need to know…………what's your toupee doing resting on top of one of your speakers ?? ……..

hehehe, that is for when I want to be a Golden Haired Sheila. I sure could use a wig these days.

I always place rabbit furs on top of my speakers just in case. We are both trained but sometimes you just have to quickly set something down.

Me likey!

I rearranged my Family Room setup a while ago. I did have the JM in the corner cabinets next to fireplace and they were driven by a Rotel Receiver that sits in the main rack in the Living Room. Since I rarely use that as it is mostly for driving the outside patio speakers, I dropped some cheap Polks in their place.

I could use a better rack here but we like the TV being up higher to watch from the kitchen.

Here is my full Solid State setup that starts with an OPPO93 to do Movies/Music/Streaming > into a 90s Hafler 945 Pre/Tuner > into the Odyssey Stratos Plus > driving JM Labs Tantal 509s all wired with Tara Labs. The other two items in the rack are a non working but never used cassette deck and a HDDVR. TV is a Sony XBR4.

Originally Posted by MusicDirector

In your latest pick here.....hey there is something I recognize in there. he he he!

So far I have used it twice, and screwed up the second time....got 4 minutes instead of an hour and 4 minutes

Originally Posted by Gopher

Very cool rig! I grew up in a house with Clearfield Contientals. My dad has had a bunch of speakers come and go over the years but always had a soft spot for those. They're capable of great sound when done right.

Thats cool Gopher. Right now they are sounding their best with my Pre re-tube.

I have not been able to talk with more than 3 people who know these speakers and one of them was Albert

This transitioned once again. In the latest pic just above, the JM Labs speakers were replaced with Dynaudio 82s and the JMs went back to work in their original 3rd system and into the built in corner cabinets of same room. So I have 2 different setups that have their speakers in the Family Room. System 3 also drives my outdoor patio speakers.

I love both my 2nd and 3rd systems because I do not listen to the Gear at all when they are playing, just enjoy the music. In the 2 pics below, the JMs are in the corner cabinets, and they are driven from a Rotel receiver and an OPPO93 (lower left of pic 2) connected to 4 different gauges of under speced wire twisted together where needed. Although I do agree that certain wires make a difference, nobody would guess that these speakers are not wired directly and properly

2nd system on left of this first pic has changed to what is above with Dynaudio speakers.

It has been a long time since I updated this thread and lots of changes.

Very nice Brian!

Nice update Brian ! Although I must admit, my back aches looking at your TT so low in the rack !

Nice!


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Nice setup Brain

So what all changed?
The Counterpoint amp blew the warmup circuit and could not be replaced. It had to have a secondary manual switch wired in so I sold it to someone wanting to drive some MLs and knew what to do. I used the VAC-Stratos combo for a while.

Once I decided I wanted to get new speakers, I sold the Clearfields but miss them for what they were. That and a bunch of other gear I bought and sold financed the new Fynes. Prior to that I bought the Luxman 505UXII.

My wife picked up a package deal of gear and we sold off everything but an almost new Rega P3 so slowly getting back into vinyl. I got back over 40 of my old records I gave to my brother in the 80s in the exact condition as then. I bought a simple Spin Clean and they all sound fantastic.

I moved the VAC-Stratos-Dynaudio system to the Family Room.

Then last January, the Fyne Audio F502SPs showed up. Took some breaking in of both my ears and the drivers but they are awesome now.

After that, I replaced the Rotel 1072 with the 1572 and added some Nordost White Lightning XLRs.

I am using a mix of PS Audio AC3s, Cullen, Shunyata Power Cords

Speaker cables are currently older Tara Labs Prism Bi-Wire cables that replaced the Synergistic Research a few months ago.

This was a great step up for me and took a few years of saving to pull it off but both myself and my wife love the sound and looks.

I use an OPPO 93 between 3 setups, HT, Main, and the Rotel RX-1050 that drives the JM Labs in the Family room and some outdoor Athenas on the patio.