Room Size

4m(W) x 6m(L) x 3m(H)

System Overview

All-tube, cofortably sounding, very musical.

Music Preferences

Classical, Jazz, Hard Rock, Art Rock, Speed Metal

Room Description

My library room, doubles as a main listening room, and a spare bedroom (if you like sleeping surrounded with thousands of books).

Acoustic Treatment

Sadly, no room treatments aside from the paintings on the walls.

Listening Impressions

Nice and comfy with a touch of magic))) The main idea is to assemble not a perfectly neutral and precise audiophie system but one that doesn't irritate even with the worst recordings and lowest bitrates (I am not a snob, and from time to time I listen to ogg, mp3, ac3, etc. including some crazy anime songs and game soundtracks). All my tweaking and tube choices are aimed at amelioration of ear-splitting irritations while multiplying musicality. And yes, I don't seek neutrality, I want my system to sound magical, better than life - like some audiophile drugs to get high on every day and every night))) - in which I have succeded to a certain degree - my guests who start listening, don't want to leave)))

Media Storage

3xUSB hard drives (4Tb each). Piles and piles of discs. There is an expensive noiseless NAS with 2x6Tb hdds, but so far I feel too lasy to set it up, set up a home network and copy/organize all the music. It has been sitting on a shelf for half a year now(((

Other Comments

Bravely palnning to try some solid state. The first place contender is Vinnie Rossi LIO thingy. Don't know about the amp, but as a DAC with AVC and tube pre it is likely to stay))) Other noble contenders include PTP Audio Bloc20 and Firenze Audio Rosso 460B - both battery powered chip amps that reportedly sound like some esoteric tubes)))

Components

Digital Source

Apple Mac Mini

Signal Processors

Oppo BDP-105D

Preamp

Shindo Auriges L (Telefunken PCL86, Mazda 6X4)

Power Amp

Wavac MD-811 (Svetlana SV-572B, RCA 6V6, Brimar ECC82) VTL TT25 Tiny Triodes (Sylvania EL84, Brimar ECC81 YellowT)

Speakers

Audio Note AN-E SPe HE

Subwoofer

B&W PV1

Speaker Cable

Kimber 4AG

Interconnects

Kimber KCAG, Audio Note AN-Vx, Mundorf SGW-305

Power Cables

Custom made solid silver cables, VDH Mainsserver

Racking

No name aluminum+glass AV rack (filled with aquarium sand)

Power Cond

Chinese twin voltage mains stablizer (a DSP-controlled motor-driven toroidal autotransformer with stabilized 110V and 220V outlets).

Tuning and Tweaks

Nordost Pulsar Points several Shuman resonance generators