BobM
New member
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- #1
Here's some pic's of the room and system.
Apogee Duetta Signature speakers - I have removed the crossovers from these, upgraded all the caps to Auricaps and Sonicaps and resistors to Mills, potted the inductors and put this all into an outboard box behind the speakers. The frames were stiffened also.
I have recently moved them forward (closer) 4" and the left one was shifted outward about 6". Huge improvement in space and dimentionality. These baby's need room to breathe, but this is about as much as I can do in my 19' x 15' space.
That's a REL Strtata III sub sitting next to the leftmose speaker, flipped upside down with a butcher block cutting board on top. Nipper is there to add a bit of weight and hold my Sennheiser HD600's. I have a self built Peter Millet Mini Max tubed headphone amp to power them.
Those wooden diffusers behind the speakers are a DIY job I copied based on some Shakti designs. They were made during the 5 days our power was out after Sandy. They really do help make that front wall disappear.
Here's the equipment rack. These are also DIY. MDF sand filled boxes (50lbs in each) supported on spiked Birch butcher block (a cut down Ikea butcher block table top actually) with birch cutting boards as the floating plinth in each box.
Audio Prism Mantissa preamp - Upgraded power supply and V-Cap OIMP and Sonicap Platinum coupling caps inside. NOS tubes too.
McCormack DNA 500 amp - necessary curreent to drive the Apogees
Ayre CX7e-MP CD player
DIY Hydra power conditioner clone feeding the amp and CD player
This is a VPI Aries Clone I had made for me by Hollywood Sound in Florida. I needed something smaller than a true Aries at the time, and the Scout wasn't introduced yet. Sounds so fine that I never felt the need to change it. This has a 1" Corian plinth and the VPI aluminum stand alone motor and VPI Classic ceramic platter and bearing. Using a Moerch DP6 tonearm (red dot) and Transfiguration Temper cartridge. The TT sits on another cutting board supported by a dozen squash balls (aka Ginko Cloud-like).
The TT feeds into a DIY Hagerman Piccolo step up with upgraded caps and resistors, including a few nude Vishays in key spots. I've tried several step up transformers but I really like what this little head amp does better than them. A bit punchier and just as transparent and natural.
That feeds into a Hagerman Trumpet phono stage. Also with upgraded caps and NOS tubes.
The TT speed is set by a DIY Mark Kelly designed controller. A very nice design that builds to sine wave in the digital domain, then converts 12V DC to AC and boosts it. Individual phase on the AC can be controlled and set exactly, which means the phase inverting apacitor in the motor is unnecessary. I've never seen this done in any other controller (that I know of), but because of it I doubt that it would be commercially viable.
Apogee Duetta Signature speakers - I have removed the crossovers from these, upgraded all the caps to Auricaps and Sonicaps and resistors to Mills, potted the inductors and put this all into an outboard box behind the speakers. The frames were stiffened also.
I have recently moved them forward (closer) 4" and the left one was shifted outward about 6". Huge improvement in space and dimentionality. These baby's need room to breathe, but this is about as much as I can do in my 19' x 15' space.
That's a REL Strtata III sub sitting next to the leftmose speaker, flipped upside down with a butcher block cutting board on top. Nipper is there to add a bit of weight and hold my Sennheiser HD600's. I have a self built Peter Millet Mini Max tubed headphone amp to power them.
Those wooden diffusers behind the speakers are a DIY job I copied based on some Shakti designs. They were made during the 5 days our power was out after Sandy. They really do help make that front wall disappear.
Here's the equipment rack. These are also DIY. MDF sand filled boxes (50lbs in each) supported on spiked Birch butcher block (a cut down Ikea butcher block table top actually) with birch cutting boards as the floating plinth in each box.
Audio Prism Mantissa preamp - Upgraded power supply and V-Cap OIMP and Sonicap Platinum coupling caps inside. NOS tubes too.
McCormack DNA 500 amp - necessary curreent to drive the Apogees
Ayre CX7e-MP CD player
DIY Hydra power conditioner clone feeding the amp and CD player
This is a VPI Aries Clone I had made for me by Hollywood Sound in Florida. I needed something smaller than a true Aries at the time, and the Scout wasn't introduced yet. Sounds so fine that I never felt the need to change it. This has a 1" Corian plinth and the VPI aluminum stand alone motor and VPI Classic ceramic platter and bearing. Using a Moerch DP6 tonearm (red dot) and Transfiguration Temper cartridge. The TT sits on another cutting board supported by a dozen squash balls (aka Ginko Cloud-like).
The TT feeds into a DIY Hagerman Piccolo step up with upgraded caps and resistors, including a few nude Vishays in key spots. I've tried several step up transformers but I really like what this little head amp does better than them. A bit punchier and just as transparent and natural.
That feeds into a Hagerman Trumpet phono stage. Also with upgraded caps and NOS tubes.
The TT speed is set by a DIY Mark Kelly designed controller. A very nice design that builds to sine wave in the digital domain, then converts 12V DC to AC and boosts it. Individual phase on the AC can be controlled and set exactly, which means the phase inverting apacitor in the motor is unnecessary. I've never seen this done in any other controller (that I know of), but because of it I doubt that it would be commercially viable.
