My Listening Room

[jadis]

Just sharing pics my dedicated listening room built in 1992, area is about 18 feet wide x 23 feet long with a 10' ceiling. I had the four walls and ceiling 'blast-sprayed' by an acoustic contractor who did movie theatres in the 80s, and had 2"x3" wood slats nailed on the walls for 'diffusion' purposes. At the back of my listening chair are DIY 'RPG' wood panels and the floor is carpeted wall to wall.

Pre-amp below the turntable is the Jadis JPL line stage and phono stage is an ARC PH3 (All tubes are Mullard NOS 12AX7 and 12AU7 long plates) Digital is a Theta Pro Gen II DAC with a Philips/Magnavox transport which seldom sees action these days.

The VPI HWMKII with the ET2 tonearm and the Koetsu Black:

The ARC VS-110 power amp:

The blue glow from the SED KT88 tubes:

The old Koetsu Black on the left, and about 2 years ago, the Rosewood Signature replaced it:

Bigger images of the room. Speakers are Magnepan 2.7QRs, had them 'pulled in' about 9' from the front wall for my best compromise in terms of imaging, bass response, depth of image and tonal balance.

Thanks for viewing.

 

[mullard88]

Looking at these pictures now, I am glad your architect was kind enough not to mess up this room with his interior designs.

 

[flez007]

Very nice setup Jadis, I am a big Jadis fan and usually return to them regreting how I sold previous Jadis gear. I have some friends down here with Magnepan speakers who installed a large spkr coil just after the speaker binding post terminal to easy the load, have you tried those?

 

[Steve williams]

nicely done Jadis

 

[JackD201]

One of the most holographic systems I've had the good fortune of hearing. As a longtime, former Maggie owner, I can easily say nobody I have ever met has made his maggies disappear like Jadis has. Image scale is likewise top notch.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Sweet! What are those little wooden boxes on the ARC amp?

John

 

[garylkoh]

Very nice, Jadis - from another longtime Maggie owner.

 

[microstrip]

Congratulations - your system has two very interesting characteristics : in every category you have a best buy in price to quality ratio and, considering the opinions I am reading, is very synergistic.

I know very well the JPL, ET2 and Koestu Red - still keep them, although I promised I should part with stored equipment, as I have bought replacements, and have owned similar amps from ARC and the Maggies.

I can imagine that the ARC VS110 is an ideal bridge between the JPL and the 2.7R, keeping the magic bloom and full of life sound of the Jadis and giving energy and transient energy to the Maggies.

This is a system where it is very difficult to suggest a change. Enjoy!

 

[jadis]

Looking at these pictures now, I am glad your architect was kind enough not to mess up this room with his interior designs.

Hi mullard88,

Actually he did. LOL He showed me the 'design layout' draft that quite horrified me at first. Because he had four huge sofa chairs designed to sit in the middle of the room, with like 4 people facing each other engaged in something like a tea party reminiscent of Mao or Deng receiving some world leaders in the Great Hall of the People. LOL I had to strongly persuade him that nothing is to be placed in the middle part of the room because they will house the most important things of the room, the speakers and the amp. LOL Good thing he was easy to convince. LOL

 

[jadis]

Very nice setup Jadis, I am a big Jadis fan and usually return to them regreting how I sold previous Jadis gear. I have some friends down here with Magnepan speakers who installed a large spkr coil just after the speaker binding post terminal to easy the load, have you tried those?

Thanks, Flez. I love Jadis enough to use it as my handle in a local forum and here. Sometimes I miss my Jadis JA200, but given its volatile temperament, it would have just added on to my 'stress'. LOL No, I have not tried putting a speaker coil after the binding post, that seems interesting. But normally, I do not make any technical tweaks as I am not much of a 'techie' and an quite averse to equipment failures which may be due to my inexperience in these things.

 

[jadis]

nicely done Jadis

Thanks, Steve.

 

[jadis]

One of the most holographic systems I've had the good fortune of hearing. As a longtime, former Maggie owner, I can easily say nobody I have ever met has made his maggies disappear like Jadis has. Image scale is likewise top notch.

Thanks buddy. Ever since I head the small Spica TC50s disappear like no other I had heard (in a friend's setup), I developed this 'audio fetish' that from that time on, my speakers are gonna have to do just that. The Celestion 600s, Thiel CS3.5s, and B&W 801MKIIIs were able to achieve that somehow, but none of them surpassed the transparency of this pair of Maggies. And most of them I had spent so much time tweaking the placement for this effect. It's gratifying for me to have done this to my own satisfaction.

 

[jadis]

Sweet! What are those little wooden boxes on the ARC amp?

John

Hi John,

Those are the VPI 'Magic Bricks'. I read about them on the TAS pages in the 80s and brought a few home from my SF Bay Area trip them. Needless to say, my baggage weight instantly zoomed up. LOL The VPI Bricks were supposed to be put on anything with transformers, either reducing vibrations or sucking out something. Gotta give a hand to Harry Weisfield for inventing tweaks like these.

 

[jadis]

Very nice, Jadis - from another longtime Maggie owner.

Thanks, Gary.

 

[jadis]

Congratulations - your system has two very interesting characteristics : in every category you have a best buy in price to quality ratio and, considering the opinions I am reading, is very synergistic.

I know very well the JPL, ET2 and Koestu Red - still keep them, although I promised I should part with stored equipment, as I have bought replacements, and have owned similar amps from ARC and the Maggies.

I can imagine that the ARC VS110 is an ideal bridge between the JPL and the 2.7R, keeping the magic bloom and full of life sound of the Jadis and giving energy and transient energy to the Maggies.

This is a system where it is very difficult to suggest a change. Enjoy!

Hi Microstrip,

Thanks for the kind words. You are right, when I was putting up my audio system early on, I was lucky to have a 'mentor' who would preach 'value for money' in the hobby, and of course, 'synergy'. I bought a Sumo Polaris amp and a Counterpoint SA 7.1 full function preamp from him and I was happy. As I moved up the ladder I kept this philosophy in tow until hell broke loose, so to speak, when the offers came from a dealer of Jadis (JA200 amps) and B&W 800s. Those kinda broke the house rules, LOL but I must say I enjoyed them when they were there. Because of the reliability problems of the JA 200, I downsized to an ARC 110 and further downsized my speakers to a pair of Maggies. With some tweaking, I told myself I was able to get quite close to their predecessors' performance. I believe there is a little bit of everthing in this system, while not possessing the ultimate in some audio parameters, there is some kind of magic as you say in the final listening, and in the end that is what counts best, in my books. Thanks again for your thoughts.

 

[Dimfer]

can I invite myself in on my next trip?

 

[jadis]

can I invite myself in on my next trip?

For sure, dimfer. Just say the word.

 

[Ki Choi]

Hi Jadis:

Very nice set up. 2.7Rs in an audio store in Cleveland, OH were one of the most memorable store demos I have ever experienced about twenty years ago. I am very impressed at your room treatments and selection of no-nonsence gear.

I've been struggling to make my 20.1s sing for more than a year. I must have moved them 50 times... Other than your ceiling height (mine is only 8'), I have similarly dimensioned room and want to ask you few questions:

1)What is the distance from the edges of the Maggies to the side walls?
2) What is the distance between your inner legs?
3)What is the distance from listening position to the center of the two speakers?
4)What is the distance from your ears to the wall behind you?

thanks,
Ki

 

[jadis]

Hi Jadis:

Very nice set up. 2.7Rs in an audio store in Cleveland, OH were one of the most memorable store demos I have ever experienced about twenty years ago. I am very impressed at your room treatments and selection of no-nonsence gear.

I've been struggling to make my 20.1s sing for more than a year. I must have moved them 50 times... Other than your ceiling height (mine is only 8'), I have similarly dimensioned room and want to ask you few questions:

1)What is the distance from the edges of the Maggies to the side walls?
2) What is the distance between your inner legs?
3)What is the distance from listening position to the center of the two speakers?
4)What is the distance from your ears to the wall behind you?

thanks,
Ki

Hi Ki,

Thanks for your comments.

Here are the measurements:

1. 31"
2. 9 feet
3. 10 feet
4. 20"

I should say my positioning of the speakers vis-a-vis the room is a bit unorthodox. I've seen few systems placed that way but I have heard a few systems when placed this way just connected with the way I want the music to be presented in the sound field around and behind the speakers. One such system was in a Maggie dealer in HK back in the late 80s. They placed the Tympani IV A maybe 10 or 12 feet away from the front wall (the wall at the back of the speakers) and the distance between the inner feet of the speakers was something like 15 feet. It was a very large room. I was seated maybe 12 or 13 feet away from the speakers and I was simply stunned by the imaging it produced. I could almost 'see' the musicians playing there, it was quite eerie. They were playing a DMP CD of John Tropea called 'NY Cats Direct'. I used to move my Maggies around a lot during the first 6 months after my purchase but when I finally got it right, I didn't touch them for the next 12 years.

 

[Ki Choi]

Thanks for your response, Jadis.

I know what you mean by "seeing" the musicians playing... I was at MikeL's place last night and "saw" Oscar Peterson on his piano... It was spooky.

I've been using one of the Chesky Record's Jazz sampler imaging tracks. Dr. Bruce Edgar of the horn fame had sent me a CD-R with repeated recording of the track he uses that really helped me dial in the positions of the Maggies. One of the information on the track is the voice that should be coming from "beyond the speaker" that I can't get it correctly at current position and room condition. One of the issues is that if I place my speakers edges to be less than 35" away from the side walls, the beyond the Left (or Right) speaker announcement on the track is heard upfront in close to the center position due to the room interaction... Also not having symetical background on other positions, I could never get the beyond the speaker imaging to work.

It's good thing that these Maggies are relatively easy to move around. More fun in moving them. Thanks for giving me a hope that I could get the holographic imaging I am seeking with these Maggies someday...