Wish me luck...

[spiritofmusic]

Like Lloyd LL21 who I know is in the midst of installing his system in a new room, I'll be doing the same in the next couple of months
I've moved from a London apartment, a converted 27' X 22' X 13' loft, all concrete, glass, standing waves and never ending slap echo, to a more acoustically controlled bespoke roof loft space in my 1861 Victorian chapel, Kingspan acoustically treated ceiling and floor, no windows, symmetrical layout with gable eaves 18' X 38' X 10' max at midline apex descending down to 4' high at sidewalls
Other than reasonable acoustic isolation of floor and ceiling, I've gone all out on power, splitting audio space electrics from the rest of the chapel with a 16mm SWA cable to a dedicated consumer unit, wired into my Westwick 8kVA balanced transformer, and six Oyaide dedicated lines to Furutech US sockets. My last decision here is whether to run a dedicated copper ground rod to drop impedance towards zero Ohms
So my aim is to get a more acoustically sympathetic blank canvas with as quiet, unadulterated power as possible, and certainly I will achieve this
But I'll certainly be fretting as I unload my gear and set it all up, I had lived with my previous space for a good 18 years and did all my upgrading within it
Hopefully I can rely on more than just luck getting things right, but a WBF mass crossing of fingers wouldn't go amiss

 

[elescher]

Not familiar with that particular transformer or the how the manufacturer recommends you do the hook up, but I know that when I installed my Equitech balanced transformer it was mandatory that a dedicated ground be installed to benefit fully from the technology. Even when adequately grounded, if you test for continuity (from your outlets) it will ironically read as being an open circuit. I would recommend putting in the isolated ground regardless, but you should check with the manufacturer because it may be essential. Good luck!! I bet it will sound incredible when you're done.

 

[Ron Resnick]

I wish you the very best of luck, Marc! The loft has great potential and I know your plan will allow you to realize that potential!

 

[bonzo75]

Loads of valves and no windows? All the best

 

[spiritofmusic]

Ked, counter intuitive as it seems, the space is cooler without windows, I'm running air conditioning in time if necessary

 

[spiritofmusic]

Thanks for your kind words Ron
I'm certainly hoping reality matches theory

 

[spiritofmusic]

Elescher, my balanced transformer has a dedicated ground post to utilise a ground rod with, but this is not mandatory
In the UK, grounding at sub stations is pretty comprehensive most of the time, it's arguable whether grounding at individual properties is always needed

 

[Rodney Gold]

good luck .. i shall keep my fingers crossed that your space does what you want it to do to your sound.I run my whole setup off batteries to get the clean power.
A new space is a daunting task , especially if you have the leeway to configure it anywhich way.. you have to settle on a speaker/chair position and then tweak from there in many respects.. can take 5 days..or 5 years !!

 

[spiritofmusic]

Rodney, I'll split the difference at 2.5 years
Tbh, with the expense of creating the room, and recent cost on balanced power/dedicated lines, I'm pretty much out of upgrade budget for at least 18 months
This is going to force me to get the very best out of my new space with maybe minimal spend on in-room acoustic treatments like cost effective GIKs, and nothing else
Will be good for the soul and living in the moment

 

[microstrip]

You have a fantastic area. As you are moving, I suggest you keep the empty cartons to populate the room if needed to damp the empty room. When I moved I had to store for a while about 80 20x16x12" card boxes in my otherwise empty listening room - it created really good acoustics!

 

[bonzo75]

Marc, see Joel's place, with sloping roofs like yours, and the acoustics he implemented. He has a RT of 0.3s or so. Though I think that is more required for cinema theatres (0.4) and for concert halls it is much longer.

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...d-other-panels&p=370678&viewfull=1#post370678

 

[spiritofmusic]

Sure Ked, good advice
I have a tech up to snuff on room acoustics, who will do a ton of in room measuring, and take it from there
As it currently stands, there is a whole lot less slap echo compared to my London apartment, but still reasonable liveliness

 

[RBFC]

Sounds like it is a wonderful space. No doubt, with your attention to detail, it will be superior to the old space and provide you years of listening pleasure!

Lee

 

[bonzo75]

Techs do most things right but sometime try to measure up to a cinema hall or studio, which you will then need to tweak for music

 

[spiritofmusic]

Lee, that's my fervent hope
Tbh, I have zero budget to upgrade significantly, and I'll need to wrangle the space if there is a shortfall rather than buy my way out of it
I'm certainly hoping a symmetrical layout dedicated to just the system, with permanent structural acoustic treatments within the eaves and floor, and bulletproof power, will get me the kind of upstick in performance over my previous "challenging" apartment no simple component upgrade could
The £40k/$60k I've spent better had !
Ked, I just want to live with the room and current set of GIKs for a while before going any further, but any further acoustic treatments will be purely based on measurements and be as sympathetic to music listening as possible

 

[Barry2013]

Good luck Marc.
What a wonderful journey which I am sure will repay handsomely all your efforts.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Thanx Barry
I'm a melancholic by nature, so tend to wariness as a rule
You'll all know things have gone badly wrong when I start reviewing headphones

 

[LL21]

Good luck Spirit. Sounds like quite a great adventure, and i feel confident it will be incredibly rewarding. Just make sure you are all over every single detail with your contractors...

 

[christoph]

Hi Marc

I wish you all the best.
Did I miss the pictures somewhere?

 

[spiritofmusic]

Christolph, I will post pics in time
My gear in boxes, and the space in final stage of readiness
I'll post pics in Nov
Lloyd, I've done my best re contractors, have had to pay a lot of attention to acoustically isolating the loft from the main living space below with Kingspan and Rockwool, and I'm proud to probably have as effective a power solution as anyone else in the UK short of going all batteries like Rodney Gold