System Overview

My stereo, which also pulls double duty as the left and right channel of my 5.1 home theater system.

Music Preferences

All!

Room Description

My living room. Unfortunately in my apartment this is about the only place to set up. Large windows to right of and behind listening position. Left opens to dining area and kitchen.

Acoustic Treatment

None. I do fight with my wife to keep the speakers pulled out :)

Listening Impressions

Soundstage is more coherent than you would expect. There is some room gain that has not yet been compensated for, but this has not been formally tested. Highly resolving. Very slightly leans toward warm, but largely neutral, applies to analog and digital.

Media Storage

Roon server in other room. Connected via RoPieee on Raspberry Pi 4. Streaming Tidal and Qobuz; 4 TB storage drive on server.

Components

Digital Source

Raspberry Pi 4B Roon endpoint (RoPieee) with TeraDak linear power supply connected via usb to Matrix Audio X-Sabre Pro MQA.

Analog Source

Pro-Ject Debut Carbon (the OG American version with AC motor) w/ Acryl It platter, Damp It feet, Ortofon 2M Blue stylus on 2M Red cart, and Music Hall Cruise Control 2.0 AC speed control. Don Sachs phono stage circa 2020 q3.

Other Sources

Onkyo TX-NR818 (using pre-out for front left and right to main preamp) powering Carnegie CSC-1 center channel and 2x Axiom QS8 v3 surround.

Preamp

Don Sachs line stage - circa 2020 q2. Shuguang WE6SN7 x4 and Sylvania 6BY5 rectifier.

Power Amp

VTA-70 - modified with new low mass gold plated copper RCA and speaker terminal jacks. Jupiter copper coupling caps. Mullard NoS 5AR4, NoS RCA 6SN7 x3 in driver board, Psvane KT88-T MkII premium x4 power tubes.

Speakers

Carnegie CST-1 - sold by GR Research. Transmission line + planar magnetic tweeters. Crossovers upgraded with full set of Sonicaps, all bypassed by Miflex copper. Lined with NoRez and stuffed with wool.

Subwoofer

Rythmik F12G servo sub with GR Research paper driver in piano black with dual inputs for preamp for stereo music and receiver when home theater running.

Speaker Cable

24 strand braided copper. Terminated with tube connectors.

Interconnects

Hapa Audio Breathe S between DAC and pre, pre and power, phono stage and pre. Quiescence S between turntable and phono stage.

Power Cables

Whatever insanity Tyson installed on this amp 2 owners ago and Don Sachs’ upgraded option for the Pre and Phono.

Headphones

Sennheiser HD598 running on Pre Box S2 Digital with linear power supply for computer / Dragonfly Cobalt and Sennheiser IE80 for more portable pursuits.

Tuning and Tweaks

Phono cart aligned with MoFi GeoDisc. Ultrasonic and vacuum vinyl cleaning with CleanerVinyl Easy6 and Nitty Gritty. Milty Zerostat 3.0.

Other Components

LG OLEDCX77PUA (calibrated with profiled X-Rite iDisplay Pro Plus), Panasonic DP-BD820 4K Blu-ray, AppleTV 4K, Nintendo Switch.