Sublime Sound

PeterA

Well-Known Member
Dec 6, 2011
12,522
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The room is 16' X 15' X 7.5" with minimal treatment as it also serves as our formal living room

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Speaker positioning and listening location were optimized by Jim Smith with his RoomPlay service

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Another view of the room. Built in 1790s, suspended pine floors, plaster and lathe walls.

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Magico Mini 2, Pass Labs XA160.5, Transparent Audio Ref XL MM2 cables, custom Vibraplane/birch ply stand matches speaker aesthetics

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SME 30/12A, V-12 arm, AirTight Supreme cartridge all on a Vibraplane isolation platform preloaded with 136lbs of steel ballast plate. 400lbs of black steel on top shelf of rack.
Pass Labs XOno, XP-20 on Townshend Seismic Sink isolation platforms.
Very rigid and stable DIY 17 ply birch rack with cherry legs to match speaker aesthetics


I listen mostly to classical concertos, chamber and small group jazz and the occasional classic rock. Bach, Brahms and Beethoven, Chet Baker, Ray Brown, Shirley Horn, Johnny Hartman. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd.
 
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Johnny Vinyl

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 16, 2010
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Hi Peter!

I'm glad you put up a gallery of your system. It looks amazing and you have a beautiful home. I'm also glad to read you are a LZ and PF fan. :D
 

Johnny Vinyl

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MadFloyd

Member Sponsor
May 30, 2010
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What gorgeous photos - having been to Peter's home I can say that they do his room and system justice.

And sublime is a great adjective and totally fitting of Peter's system.
 

jfrech

VIP/Donor
Sep 3, 2012
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I visited Peter recently. His home is beautiful and the sound is killer good. Gotta love vinyl only systems. Peter has put a extreme amount of care into setup, tuning, vibration control and power delivery. Those Magico's sing in his room and really surprise you at the bottom end...you know, I didn't miss anything down low and the imaging is world class. Of course, the SME 30/12 makes a statement...hard to argue that it's not one of the 3 or 4 best tables anywhere at any price...
 

jazdoc

Member Sponsor
Aug 7, 2010
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What an amazing system and lovely setting to enjoy music. Well done!
 

treitz3

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Staff member
Dec 25, 2011
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Very nice, Peter. Very nice! ;)

Tom
 

aljordan

Well-Known Member
Jan 13, 2012
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Southern Maine, USA
www.alanjordan.org
Very nice pictures Peter. You've captured the room well. Has there ever been a day when you've had both the fire place and those amps going at the same time? If it helps extend your listening sessions, we can trade amplifiers during the heat of July and August!
 

audioarcher

Well-Known Member
May 6, 2012
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Seattle area
Nice pics. Thanks for sharing them with us.

I like the eq rack. Is it custom made? I am curious how the shelves and uprights were joined?
 

PeterA

Well-Known Member
Dec 6, 2011
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Nice pics. Thanks for sharing them with us.

I like the eq rack. Is it custom made? I am curious how the shelves and uprights were joined?

Thanks, audioarcher. Yes, I designed and built the rack myself. The goal was to build something very rigid as a support for the air-isolation platforms on which all of the equipment sits. It is designed specifically for these components and made to match the aesthetics of my Magico Mini2 speakers. The amp stands are similar. It is also as compact as I could make it so that it does not dominate the room.

The main rack is built up of 17-ply/inch birch plywood. Each shelf built up to 3.5" thick with a polyurethane finish, then hand sanded and rubbed with oil. The four legs are cherry, 2.5" square in section with notch cutouts to receive each shelf, which also has a cut out in each corner. The pieces are joined with marine epoxy. You can notice the front is recessed 1/2" and the sides are flush with the legs. There is a 3/16" reveal between each leg and the top shelf. The rack weighs about 150lbs. and is spiked to another leveled shelf on the floor to protect my soft pine floor boards. Two Lolli columns are directly under the rack in the basement to support the roughly 750lbs. There is no hand-detectable movement of the rack.

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jfrech

VIP/Donor
Sep 3, 2012
2,152
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Austin
Peter, very nice pictures. The lighting is perfect (I can even see that you missed a spot dusting :)

Just lucky or was this planned...curious the camera/flash/settings used...
 

PeterA

Well-Known Member
Dec 6, 2011
12,522
10,688
3,515
USA
I visited Peter recently. His home is beautiful and the sound is killer good. Gotta love vinyl only systems. Peter has put a extreme amount of care into setup, tuning, vibration control and power delivery. Those Magico's sing in his room and really surprise you at the bottom end...you know, I didn't miss anything down low and the imaging is world class. Of course, the SME 30/12 makes a statement...hard to argue that it's not one of the 3 or 4 best tables anywhere at any price...

Thank you jfrech and everyone for the kind comments. The system has given me and a few friends many hours of enjoyable listening. It is not a common pairing of components, but what really contributes to the sound of the system is my fairly recent understanding and appreciation of proper component isolation and the importance of the listener/speaker/room relationship.

On a whim, I bought my first Townshend Seismic Sink to place under my former SME Model 10. That led to the eventual purchase of many Sinks and three fully ballasted Vibraplane platforms under my amps and suspended SME 30/12.

Jim Smith visited and demonstrated for me the relationship between the listener, speaker and room. This was the single most cost effective change I have made, and it resulted in remarkably improved sonic performance and, more importantly, a big increase in listening enjoyment.
 

PeterA

Well-Known Member
Dec 6, 2011
12,522
10,688
3,515
USA
Peter, very nice pictures. The lighting is perfect (I can even see that you missed a spot dusting :)

Just lucky or was this planned...curious the camera/flash/settings used...

Thanks, I know next to nothing about photography. These photos were taken with my Nikon D50, 28-80 Nikor lense, built in flash on automatic setting. I do play with opening and closing the louvers over the windows for natural lighting. I would say it is just plain luck. I take many photos with my digital Nikon and then select the best to share.

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Another view looking at the listening couch. Note the absorption panel behind the center listening seat.

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The Victorian Oil Rig aesthetic of the SME 30/12A. The extended ballast plate allows the motor controller to benefit from the isolation.

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The different curves of the 9" and 12" traces on my MINT LP protractors for the SME arms. Note in top image how much flatter and nearer to the spindle the 12" arc is.
 
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PeterA

Well-Known Member
Dec 6, 2011
12,522
10,688
3,515
USA
Beautiful system. Looks great. And most importantly, you obviously enjoy listening to it. That's what matters.

Thank you. Yes, I do enjoy it tremendously. I just had a friend over for a couple of hours tonight and introduced him to some new music. We then experimented with SRA adjustment while listening to Beethoven's Violin Concerto with Heifetz/Munch at the BSO, our local concert hall. Amazing what a 1/4 degree change does to massed strings and the relationship between Heifetz and the rest of the orchestra. Gear in service to the music. Great fun. Pass the scotch.
 

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