The Littlest System

[fiddlefye]

When we did renovations to the house after a lightning strike and fire a few years ago we decided to turn what had originally been a second floor summer sleeping porch into a four season room as an art studio for my wife. It is a really interesting space, 10' x 28' with 21 windows. Half of it stands on brick pillars over the driveway, the remainder runs over the back section of the kitchen across the back of the house and it is accessed through a bedroom. It really is a tough room to photograph due to the shape and the amount of stuff my wife has in there at any one given time! You can see the exterior of it on the left in the following photo:
DSC_1149 by fiddlefye, on Flickr
A studio needs some tunes, right? My wife didn't want anything big so initially I put together a system with an Advent 300 receiver, Sony five-disc CDP and a pair of Minimus 7W speakers. Then the tuner section in the Advent went wonky (Punker X has it) so I came up with something else from the stash - Nakamichi ST-7 tuner, Yamaha CA-1000 integrated with the CDP and speakers remaining the same. I've tried to talk my wife into some slightly bigger and better speakers as the CA-1000 is rather overkill, but to no avail. As long as she's happy I guess! With a bit of boost on the bass end the system really sounds pretty good, actually.
DSC_2224 by fiddlefye, on Flickr

 

[Audionut]

Looks like the house is the star in this thread, tons of character! Not a bad mini system too.

 

[Thermionics]

Neat little system, and fantastic house!

-D

 

[fiddlefye]

Probably the most under-utilized CA-1000 residing outside a closet, but at least it is being enjoyed. The ST-7 tuner is actually quite nice. I'm not in general a fan of digital tuners, but this one sounds very good and does a terrific job in terms of signal handling.

 

[Opa1]

You have a beautiful home. I didn't know the CA-1000 works in Class A for the first 15 watts. Bet that does sound nice.

 

[fiddlefye]

You have a beautiful home. I didn't know the CA-1000 works in Class A for the first 15 watts. Bet that does sound nice.

I've run it in Class A and it sounds wonderful if you've some reasonably efficient speakers and aren't expecting to fill a concert hall. In the present installation it is run strictly A-B as I doubt one would notice much difference and it would generate plenty of heat to no useful end. I think the CA-1000 is one of Yamaha's best efforts, ever. Very classy little amp. Back when I bought my very first stereo in the mid-70s it was what I wanted most of all. What I bought was a CA-400 as that was what I could afford. Nice to have one eventually anyway!

 

[SPL db]

The house is incredible! Not so cookie-cutter like the others on the block that I can see.

Oh, and the system is very nice as well.

 

[fiddlefye]

The house is incredible! Not so cookie-cutter like the others on the block that I can see.

Oh, and the system is very nice as well.

The house was built in 1911, a decade and some before any of the rest of the neighbourhood. I used to live a couple of blocks over and for many years drove by this place on my way home from rehearsals downtown. One day it came up for sale and that was that. The only way I'd ever move at this point is if I left town entirely.

 

[matteos]

That house is amazing!!

Are we going to see pics of your Denon DP80 soon?

 

[4-2-7]

I don't care about the audio, that house looks bad ass, I love all the brick work and front porch.

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

Love the house!