DC's listening room/system

Roscoe65 said:
Hi Don,

Slightly off topic but what were the changes going from the GR Research speakers to the Harbeth?
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Hi Roscoe, the changes were overall kind of subtle - I hold he GRs in high regard - but the Harbeths are, well, Harbeths. It's the mid-range timbre, the polite but present and clear and articulate high-end, and perhaps a bit "more" bass, though the GRs are prodigious in their bass, and well-controlled, too. But the size allows the C7s to reach a little deeper, and my room size/shape is favorable. I think they do big-scale, highly complex music (think Mahler) better, particularly at slightly lower volumes. The GRs could, at times, seem a little (a little) lacking in air and space, but it was there. The C7s seem to do that just a little better.

When I purged my "collection" of several sets of bookshelf speakers, all went but the GRs - they're still here in the downstairs system and sound great. Had I not had $3k burning a hole in my pocket at the time, and suffering "Harbeth Fever" (I blame others on this forum, haha), I could have probably lived with them. But I guess technically I still am. :)
 
mred said:
That's fantastic 👍
You have made a wise move in my book, good power line to your system is very wise indeed and now you can build on it.
My last two homes were build with dedicated electrical sservice for my audio,
This house I purchased is a little younger than yours but no dedicated line yet... I do mean yet, but it's been 5 years.
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Thanks. I've wanted to do this for so long - we've only been here for 17 years :D - it feels good to finally have it done. I don't have a ton of "faith" in the overall quality of the neighborhood power grid, but at least now if I decide to go bananas with power conditioners and cables, at least they'll have a fighting chance.
 
Wntrmute2 said:
Nice Don. But you still need nice clean records to go with your nice clean electricity. Buy the Degritter. Best money I've spent on my audio rig.
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You know, I have three perfectly good record cleaner machines, thankyouverymuch.
 
Congratulations Don. Being the owner of an old house that used knob and tube, and snakes of 2 conductor wiring in flexible metal conduit (going to ancient outlets in only 3 rooms, and overhead hanging light fixtures in 7 of our 8 rooms, the cellar and attic) I can completely appreciate your need for a better solution. I gutted our entire first floor and rewired as I renovated throughout the 80s and 90s. I still have the many old screw-in light socket adapters we were forced to use in our early years here - just as people did in the early decades of the 20th century.

Plugging modern polarized plugs into the few old 2-prong outlets was both a challenge and frustration.
 
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Fran604g said:
Congratulations Don. Being the owner of an old house that used knob and tube, and snakes of 2 conductor wiring in flexible metal conduit (going to ancient outlets in only 3 rooms, and overhead hanging light fixtures in 7 of our 8 rooms, the cellar and attic) I can completely appreciate your need for a better solution. I gutted our entire first floor and rewired as I renovated throughout the 80s and 90s. I still have the many old screw-in light socket adapters we were forced to use in our early years here - just as people did in the early decades of the 20th century.

Plugging modern polarized plugs into the few old 2-prong outlets was both a challenge and frustration.
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Thanks, I'm overall happy with the end result, and am overlooking (and will continue to do so) any routing quirks.

Our renovations here have been more restorative in nature - all "historic" like - so very little "to the studs" endeavors have been made. I've retrofitted 2-prong outlets in to all of the old two-wire locations. It's less convenient, but at lease it's back to code, and does make one think twice about plugging in a window air conditioner or space heater when you have to hunt around for a little three-prong adapter that you should never, ever use.
 
Yes! It's a Shunyata Denali 2000/T (designed to be an amplifier-grade conditioner that doesn’t limit instantaneous current), and coupled with an (obscene, if you ask me) Anaconda Zitron HC cable - a nice combo. I don't want it to sound better - it's much cheaper that way - but indeed (or alas) it does sound better. Much better. Like, wow. Dammit.

Jury is still out on what direction I want to take with the front-end components - they're currently powered by a PS Audio Power Plant Premier on loan from a local friend, but I'm not certain that's the direction I want to go with that end of the system. When I got it a few weeks ago, there was a noticeable improvement, though, and all this after upgrading the electrical circuit to the room/system.

And a month or so before I borrowed the regenerator, I bought a modest quantity of Pangea AC14SEMkII "Cardas Copper" power cables and replaced all the "stock" power cables in the system basically all at once. It was a not-subtle change, and for the better. Since then I've added a Shunyata Venom HC for the amp and a PS Audio AC3 (I think, maybe an AC12) on the preamp. Those were more subtle changes, but improvements each one.

It was after the power cable upgrades and regenerator trial above that I decided that I wanted something dedicated for the amplifier, and there's a pretty narrow selection of products designed for that. I was reading through numerous Shunyata threads on another forum (sorry) and one user mentioned to another user that he had one of these that he wasn't using anymore and it might be available, but nothing after that. As the posts were several months old, I didn't hold out too much optimism. But after several private messages, a deal was made (cable too), and here we are. :)

So far (so far...), I haven't taken what sounds like a step back yet, but I'm basically only beginning to climb the ladder. It's easy when there's nowhere to go but up.

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Possibly some re-arranging of cables to come?
 
After 24 hours or so in the system, and actually a lot of listening during that time (I kind of gave myself today off), I'm astonished at the difference that one "power conditioning" device made. And only on one component. And a pretty good component at that.

The best way I can describe it is that it's smoother, much smoother, like smoooooooooooother. There's an otherwise-indescribable cohesiveness to the actual sound - more lifelike and realistic - like a purer waveform, or quieter background to the actual music waveforms coming out of the speakers. It's not "blacker blacks" - it's different than that, though maybe that's a by-product of whatever it is I think I'm hearing.

Some (many) users (other forums/threads, etc.) report changes to the soundstage, improved imaging, and stuff like that, but I'm not necessarily noticing those changes here. It's more basic than that, but more basic in a good way, like the changes/improvements are happening further back (earlier) in the audio chain, which I think makes sense. Perhaps in those other instances there were power anomalies that prevented their gear from realizing its best soundstage and/or imaging, and the power conditioner allowed that (or those) component(s) to realize that change. I'm not getting that here, but instead am simply hearing what I was already hearing but better, cleaner, purer, and perhaps more tangible.

Huh...
 
Are you sure you didn't move that little Muse harp at the same time you plugged in your power conditioner? That's probably what's responsible for the improvement!
 
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What a wonderful setup. I admire how all-in you've gone with everything, just taking it as far as it can go because why not? I admit to having pangs of "let's change all the cables!" over here but really I just need new speaker cables and to go 'shopping' in my storage unit for my better power cords.

A power conditioning device is responsible for my biggest "I really don't want this to make a difference, oh, dammit, it made a difference" and unlike the quality Shunyata gear that you're rolling with....its..... suspect? Synergistic Research Powercell, which unlike what you have is just rolling in the scent of gullible audiophile goofiness but dammit if it didn't make things better, smooooooother, more transparent blah blah blah all that stuff. So its still in the system, though I doubt that I'd buy it now... I had a much higher threshold of spending on my stereo back about 7 years ago....and was single.
 
JohnVF said:
What a wonderful setup. I admire how all-in you've gone with everything, just taking it as far as it can go because why not? I admit to having pangs of "let's change all the cables!" over here but really I just need new speaker cables and to go 'shopping' in my storage unit for my better power cords.

A power conditioning device is responsible for my biggest "I really don't want this to make a difference, oh, dammit, it made a difference" and unlike the quality Shunyata gear that you're rolling with....its..... suspect? Synergistic Research Powercell, which unlike what you have is just rolling in the scent of gullible audiophile goofiness but dammit if it didn't make things better, smooooooother, more transparent blah blah blah all that stuff. So its still in the system, though I doubt that I'd buy it now... I had a much higher threshold of spending on my stereo back about 7 years ago....and was single.
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Thanks, enjoying it all, just a different set of lenses to look through now. I'm really not trying to be too "audiophile" here, just trying some gear tweaks after a lot of music listening. But if I ever start a thread harping on the virtues of one power cable over another based on listening to "Hotel California" 68 times in a row, please somebody come poison my coffee immediately.
 
The PS Audio PPP made such a difference in my system that I am contemplating a move up to a Used P10 or another PPP. That and a Power Director 4.7 have really made more of a difference for me than I would like to admit. Power here on Long Island is dirty and high at 125V! so the PPP is a must have. That Shunyata is marvelous.
 
S0und Dragon said:
The PS Audio PPP made such a difference in my system that I am contemplating a move up to a Used P10 or another PPP. That and a Power Director 4.7 have really made more of a difference for me than I would like to admit. Power here on Long Island is dirty and high at 125V! so the PPP is a must have. That Shunyata is marvelous.
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Our power here isn't bad, but neither is it great, and often runs hot ~123v. The PPP made a subtle, but distinct difference (improvement) when inserted, but this Denali was a little more dramatic. I've been watching prices on PSA P5s and P10s, but I think I may save my shekels for the Denali 6000 for the front end of the system, and a few "better" cables.

It's funny because I was actually thinking more of a speaker upgrade than power conditioner(s) (not that I'm dissatisfied with the Harbeths - love 'em), but this is like a whole system upgrade. (And now a lot less money for the speakers that were blipping the radar...)
 
DC said:
You know, I have three perfectly good record cleaner machines, thankyouverymuch.
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Four, if you include the dishwasher. Six if you leave 'em out for the kittehs to cleans.

Once this stupid virus thingy goes away and we get a chance to make some mutual visits, I should bring my KEF LS50s over to your place. I'd be interested to see how they do in your room. I only use them on my desktop system with a lower-powered tube amp, and it's plenty good enough for this space. I've occasionally put them in my main system but it's just more room clutter when I do that.

For the stats, though, you'll have to make the pilgrimage down here. They're a bit much to take on the road. 😁 But I've really been surprised by these Spires in many ways. I've found that they seem to hold up much better at low volumes than any other speaker I've had--in other words, not a lot of the music "falls away" at low volumes like it did with my other systems. And to my ears, the panels are so uncolored that the timbre seems to be the most "true" of any system I've owned.
 
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DC said:
Our power here isn't bad, but neither is it great, and often runs hot ~123v. The PPP made a subtle, but distinct difference (improvement) when inserted, but this Denali was a little more dramatic. I've been watching prices on PSA P5s and P10s, but I think I may save my shekels for the Denali 6000 for the front end of the system, and a few "better" cables.

It's funny because I was actually thinking more of a speaker upgrade than power conditioner(s) (not that I'm dissatisfied with the Harbeths - love 'em), but this is like a whole system upgrade. (And now a lot less money for the speakers that were blipping the radar...)
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If I may ask, what other speakers were you considering?
 
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