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Aural Enlightenment III - Especiale
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Aural Enlightenment III - Especiale, a Two-channel Audio System by Big Red Machine
Room Size
20' deep x 15' 5
System Overview
Goals of the room design: Quiet - don't let it escape, don't let it in. Family room directly above. Modes - try not to have compounding resonances Diffusion is king - trap only what is fundamentally required Anchor the speakers to the earth through the concrete - float the rest I don't want to see my rack Create an esoteric and tasteful 2 channel getaway
Music Preferences
Well recorded genres of all types welcomed (except rap and country).
Room Description
Dealt with all the limitations of a space that was large enough but unloved. Electrical panel, water main, heating ducts, gas line shut-offs, steel beams, support posts, window, existing walls to finished spaces, and the main living room directly above. Mood lighting is important to me so I have 3 modes: wall sconces and rear wall diffusion for very intimate sessions, spotlights for when you want to show off the speakers, and full floods for reading and cleaning and maintenance. I added a spotlight over the rack to help view the wiring area. No light fixtures penetrate the drywall above.
Acoustic Treatment
28 inch radius bass traps filled to the brim with rockwool and OC703. Floor to ceiling traps have mostly full panels inside them 14 inches deep and then partial pieces added where possible. Plenty of diffusion in the room on ceiling and walls. Art panels by Acoustimac and GIK cost me a bundle. I had an inspiration piece that I scaled to fit my back wall that is a series of polycylindrical diffusers. I purchased textured "copper" backsplash material in 4x8 foot sheets that is really plastic, cut them and placed them into wooden frames I built. I placed a rope light into the frames to backlight the copper. The ceiling is rock wool inside the floor joists, mass loaded vinyl on the joists with seams taped, iso-clips. hat channel with green integrity gasket, a layer of drywall, green glue, another layer of drywall. The walls are 5/8 drywall and not "attached" to the floor joists above.
Listening Impressions
Trapping the bass as heavily as I did has really helped tighten the resulting bass. This is my 4th audio room and I have prodigious bass response at last. Imaging is very good and the sound stage places instruments distinctly across the stage. I need to work on getting sound outside the speakers and diffusion can help with that.
Components
Digital Source
Bricasti M1
Analog Source
none
Other Sources
HAL MS-2 music server
Preamp
Ayre K5XE mp
Power Amp
Maker Audio NL14+
Speakers
Wilson Sasha I's
Subwoofer
Only blasphemers add subwoofers to full range speaker set-ups!
Speaker Cable
Cerious Technologies graphene Matrix - outstanding
Interconnects
JPS Labs Aluminata, High Fidelity Reveal, Jena Labs Symphony
Power Cables
Cerious Technologies Graphene Extremes and Matrix
Headphones
none
Racking
Adona with 3 inch maple shelves. Nordost Sort-kones under the dac, amp, and power conditioner.
Power Cond
PS Audio Power Plant Premier
Tuning and Tweaks
Various quantum units from Audio Magic, Kemp, Alan Maher, Schumann Resonator Chartres Mk2, Quantum Electroclear QRT-1