Room Size

13x15 living room connected to a kitchen and dining room

System Overview

Two Channel Audio Music System

Music Preferences

Bach, Handel, Mozart, Corelli, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, Clifford Brown, Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, contemporary big band (Gordon Goodwin, Airmen of Note)

Room Description

My listening room is also my living room. The stud/drywall built space has an eight-foot ceiling, wall-to-wall carpet, two overstuffed couches, a leather chair, a bookcase full of classics in leather bindings, another case full of CDs, lamps on lamp tables, long curtains, and art prints on the walls. I've had my audio system in larger rooms where it presented a better soundstage of large orchestral works. Where the current room/system shines is in the reproduction of chamber music and acoustic jazz.

Acoustic Treatment

The only treatment is the carpet and furniture.

Listening Impressions

Solo piano and guitar work well, as does well-recorded chamber music (Peter McGrath's work on harmonia mundi really shines). My speakers are too close together and too close to the wall to throw a convincing sonic picture of a full orchestra.

Components

Digital Source

NAD 516BEE CD player feeding the DAC through a TOSLINK optical cable

Signal Processors

Emotiva DC-1 DAC

Preamp

Emotiva DC-1 DAC

Power Amp

Electron Kinetics Eagle 2 with power supply capacitors upgraded to 200,000 pF total

Speakers

Vandersteen 2C with most recent drivers bolted to lead-filled steel stands spiked to subfloor

Interconnects

Blue Jeans Cable LC-1

Power Cables

KnuKonceptz Kord Kable 10-Gauge

Racking

VTI BLG