Nope, we are no longer on the top of a mountain overlooking Boulder and Denver. We are in a plain old Eichler-style home in Palo Alto. Eichler homes are modestly sized, mid-century modern homes with great architecture [imo] and low-grade materials. The open floor plan tends to result in lots of small bedrooms. One of our small bedrooms is dedicated as our small system room.
The SMALL SYSTEM:
Audio Note UK "AN-E SEC Signature" speakers
Audio Note UK "Kegon" 300B SET monoblock amplifiers
Audio Note UK "Soro Phono SE" integrated
Audio Note UK "M2 Line Balanced" linestage
EMM Labs "XDS1" CD / SACD player
Rix Rax equipment rack
As you can see, a 100% Audio Note system plus the XDS1 player. We don't call this the Audio Note room because AN speakers would also work just fine in the larger 13x18 room. In fact later today we are probably moving the Kegon amplifiers and M2 pre [or, not shown, M9 Phono preamplifier] to put them on the Acapella Cellini High speakers in that room.
This is a small room. it is 10 feet 9 inches by 9 feet 10 inches. Small. Very small.
We originally had the bookcase of CDs in here. But we wanted seating for two people, and Neli likes to use nice upholstered chairs, for longer listening possibilities. So, no. No bookcase.
Sounds quite good in here, though. It takes awhile, but after several minutes there is this sense of intimacy and the sharing of a secret with the musicians while the rest of the world outside the door runs around like chickens being chased by Sylvester Stallone.
The only problem with this room is ergonomics. If we let the CDs get out of control. Or start leaving powercords around. It gets crowded in here real quick [see photo].
The speakers [with crossovers in the stands underneath] are expensive-ish. $75K or so-ish. [Yeah. They sounds great on the similarly quite expensive Kegons in here. In such a small room, you really get to *hear* them up close and very personal].
We plan on migrating this to a Soro-driven system with $8K-ish Audio Note AN-E SPe HE high efficiency speakers [not that they are not all high-efficiency, these have the hemp drivers]. This would keep the system price in the $20K-30K-ish range. We had very good results with this smaller system in a large 15ft by 25ft room in Boulder. It is a good deal more visceral than the more expensive, much higher resolution AN system, but it was bouncy and alive and many more people could afford it and we really kind of got into it. It was really fun to listen to. For those times when perhaps you don't want an ultimate drug-like, mind-altering, life-changing listening experience [which is a real risk with the high-level Audio Note - don't say you weren't warned] - you just want to put on some tunes and enjoy the heck out of them.
The SMALL SYSTEM:
Audio Note UK "AN-E SEC Signature" speakers
Audio Note UK "Kegon" 300B SET monoblock amplifiers
Audio Note UK "Soro Phono SE" integrated
Audio Note UK "M2 Line Balanced" linestage
EMM Labs "XDS1" CD / SACD player
Rix Rax equipment rack
As you can see, a 100% Audio Note system plus the XDS1 player. We don't call this the Audio Note room because AN speakers would also work just fine in the larger 13x18 room. In fact later today we are probably moving the Kegon amplifiers and M2 pre [or, not shown, M9 Phono preamplifier] to put them on the Acapella Cellini High speakers in that room.
This is a small room. it is 10 feet 9 inches by 9 feet 10 inches. Small. Very small.
We originally had the bookcase of CDs in here. But we wanted seating for two people, and Neli likes to use nice upholstered chairs, for longer listening possibilities. So, no. No bookcase.
Sounds quite good in here, though. It takes awhile, but after several minutes there is this sense of intimacy and the sharing of a secret with the musicians while the rest of the world outside the door runs around like chickens being chased by Sylvester Stallone.
The only problem with this room is ergonomics. If we let the CDs get out of control. Or start leaving powercords around. It gets crowded in here real quick [see photo].
The speakers [with crossovers in the stands underneath] are expensive-ish. $75K or so-ish. [Yeah. They sounds great on the similarly quite expensive Kegons in here. In such a small room, you really get to *hear* them up close and very personal].
We plan on migrating this to a Soro-driven system with $8K-ish Audio Note AN-E SPe HE high efficiency speakers [not that they are not all high-efficiency, these have the hemp drivers]. This would keep the system price in the $20K-30K-ish range. We had very good results with this smaller system in a large 15ft by 25ft room in Boulder. It is a good deal more visceral than the more expensive, much higher resolution AN system, but it was bouncy and alive and many more people could afford it and we really kind of got into it. It was really fun to listen to. For those times when perhaps you don't want an ultimate drug-like, mind-altering, life-changing listening experience [which is a real risk with the high-level Audio Note - don't say you weren't warned] - you just want to put on some tunes and enjoy the heck out of them.