Room Size

16' 3.5" L x 11' 8" W x 7' 7.5" H

System Overview

budget minded system: Energy RC-10 speakers with ports plugged - Panasonic SA-XR55 class D receiver & DAC - Sony DVP-NC 875V DVD changer - Monster Cable 10 gauge speaker cables

Music Preferences

instrumentals, hip-hop (positive REAL hip hop and not gangsta hip-opposite), bachelor pad, world beat, dub, ska, swing, big band, new wave, new romantic, funk, disco, oldies, surf instrumentals, classical (especially overtures & ballet) hawaiian, calypso, percussion & novelty with a little bit of blues & electronic & whatever gets my toe tappin' i can't go for heavy metal, industrial, country, pop sludge, opera, most jazz, showtunes, folk or Celtic much at all

Room Description

The room size and dimensions were one of the main reasons I moved here from a maybe 9 feet square room with cement floors, low carpet, a big picture window behind my system and a big wooden divider behind me. That room had terrible acoustics, this one is much warmer sounding, but will get bass traps eventually.

Acoustic Treatment

In the future, i plan on putting 4 sheets of rockwool on the side walls and and in back of the system with possible 2-3 sheets of mattress liner for HF diffusion too LEDE style. 16' 3.5" L x 11' 8" W x 7' 7.5" H (because this system keeps deleting the dimensions every time I update something else, for my own records)

Listening Impressions

Right now, the system is a little bit too analytical. It has awesome detail and very fast and punchy bass, but the RC10 speakers I just upgraded to are much more revealing than my previous NHT superzeros, Mission M71s & Celestion Ditton 100s. I can now clearly hear differences between my razor sharp imaging Panasonic receiver's DAC and my more forgiving and warm sony that I couldn't hear in a similar sized room with the NHTs. I'm planning to upgrade to a Schiit Gungnir DAC & TBI Millenia MG3 amp for higher resolution and hopefully a more liquid sound. I want to keep the level of detail I'm getting with the Panasonic's onboard DAC I prefer now.

Media Storage

I use compilation CDs of WAVs for critical listening and storage as I don't ike loading a CD for 1 or 2 songs, but also have made several 320kbs mp3 compilations for long play, even if the 3+ second pauses in between tracks is annoying. The original motivation for getting a DAC was so that I could use room EQ software, but I don't want to use a noisy PC, so I'll process all of my WAVs in my PC and save them, and the originals, on a Western Digital WD TV Live Hub Media Center eventually replacing my entire system.

Other Comments

I'm going to upgrade to a Schiit Gungnir DAC soon as well as a TBI Millenia MG3 class D amp as well as room correction in the future to get a more liquid high end sound as well as the most I can from my speakers for a true giant killing semi-high end system. I'm stretching my budget for the Gungnir so I'll never feel the need to upgrade my digital sound again unless I win the lottery or something.

Components

Digital Source

Sony DVP-NC 875V DVD changer & Panasonic SA-XR55 DAC

Analog Source

I have a vintage belt drive turntable and 100s of records, but no phono pre-amp at the moment

Other Sources

Cube C30 media player Sandisk Clip+ media player Sony TC5-DM portable cassette recorder

Signal Processors

Paradigm electronic crossover I no longer use

Power Amp

Panasonic SA-XR 55 receiver

Speakers

Energy RC10 5 1/4" kevlar woofers with aluminum phase plugs and 1" aluminum dome tweeters that I got on closeout for under $250! My best hifi purchase ever.

Subwoofer

I have 4x Hifonics subs in sealed boxes and a 500w class D plate I'll never use at home. I just listen to my minis as/is. I also have a 10" Goldwood sub in a sealed wedge collecting dust.

Speaker Cable

Monster Cable 10 gauge with gold plated banas soldered on the receiver end and bare wire or what's left of the gold pins into the RC-10s which don't accept bananas until I get 4x spade lugs.

Interconnects

generic cables

Headphones

AKG K44s vintage JVC semi-open Cowon earbuds

Racking

generic TV stand someone tossed out I traded up to from a similar one I bought for the coaster wheels.

Power Cond

a cheap multi-outlet power cord with surge protection and filtration

Tuning and Tweaks

for now, 4 cinder blocks at 24" high is a nice enough set of speaker stands that cost me less than $8

Other Components

Shure PZM mics on a binaural dummy head, Samson large diaphragm condenser mic, Art DualPre AD/DA preamp for PC use, Art 9v phantom power supply for portable recording, Behringer Mackie clone mini-mixer with one channel's phantom power shot, Gemini 2x CD & mixer rig, Panasonic VCR with my other sony VCR just biting the dust last week, a USELESS Creative Labs Audigy Gold soundcard that those bastids broke the drivers for so it no longer works and sued the hacker who offered replacements. I DESPISE creative! They also were lying bastids regarding 2 different media players in the past!