Systems

Living Room HiFi, a Two-channel Audio System by PSB Guy

(Untitled)
Room Size
10' by 19'
System Overview
A simple, budget-friendly but high quality system that is an elegant answer to my lack of space. No tuning or tweaks, it's a living room I have to share with my wife and cat. All sources are digital, I don't have the patience to do analog properly. Been there, done that. The Salkstreamer does digital simply and properly.
Music Preferences
Jazz, classic rock, blues, old punk, old country, folk, reggae, classical, lots of stuff...
Room Description
Small, carpeted living room. About 10' by 19' including the front foyer, 10' by 14' for the actual living room space.
Acoustic Treatment
5 "C"s: Couches, chairs, carpet, curtains, cats.
Listening Impressions
Sounds great to me.
Media Storage
I love the convenience of a music server, but I also love having physical media around. 1450+ CDs are stored on shelves in the upstairs office. They are ripped (using dBpoweramp) to FLAC format to the Salkstreamer and backed up to two 1TB ssd drives. A growing number of Hi-Res FLAC downloads in there for good measure.
Components
Digital Source
Salkstreamer music server and Sony LED TV feeding the ESS ES9018K2M in the Mission 778X. Salkstreamer is controlled by RompR on a Samsung Galaxy S23 smartphone.
Analog Source
Sometimes my wife plays the piano...
Power Amp
Mission 778X integrated amplifier, plugged directly into the wall power outlet.
Speakers
Salk SongBird QWT in black oak (red oak veneer, open grain, dyed black)
Subwoofer
No.
Speaker Cable
Blue Jeans Canare 4S11 with ultrasonically welded locking bananas.
Interconnects
All Blue Jeans: TOSlink S/PDIF, 1694A Coax, HDMI, Cat 5e.
Power Cables
Tripp Lite (14 AWG CSA/UL approved) on the amp. Nothing too special, just better quality, heavier, molded PVC power cables. Stock on everything else.
Headphones
AKG K245, plugged into the headphone output of the Mission 778X. Rarely used.
Racking
Canadian-made solid pine TV cabinet.
Power Cond
SurgeX SA-966 for everything except the amp.
Tuning and Tweaks
No.
Other Components
Sony XBR43X800E 43" LED TV, Cisco Explorer 9865HD PVR, Hitron CGN3 wifi modem, Blue Jeans HDMI, 1694A, TOSlink, Cat 5e cabling for the TV and Salkstreamer. Samsung Galaxy S23 smartphone for remote control of the Salkstreamer.