Ron's Speaker, Turntable, Power and Room Treatment Upgrades

[KeithR]

Keith, I appreciate that question. But I already have thought of that and I have it covered.

Just outside of the listening room will be a sign:

"PLEASE CHECK ALL CLOTHES AT THE DOOR"

Luckily being in SoCal, shorts and flip flops is the norm

Steve Williams put in a dedicated HVAC when he purchased the big ARCs, that's why I asked.

 

[Steve Williams]

Luckily being in SoCal, shorts and flip flops is the norm

Steve Williams put in a dedicated HVAC when he purchased the big ARCs, that's why I asked.

I did and Dave Gordon from ARC warned me about that. In summertime the heat was unbearable until I installed a dedicated HVAC for just my listening too. I did the same BTW for my present listening room

 

[Ron Resnick]

microstrip, I understand -- thank you.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Because I believe that anything worth doing is worth over-doing I have once again asked the structural engineer to revisit the possibility of extending by five feet out onto my outdoor deck the back wall of the listening room. This time, the structural beams would stay in place (so the room would look a little weird from the inside, with beams "floating" across the room near the back wall) but I think having four or five feet behind the listening position would be good.

The grounding consultant visited the house yesterday and is putting together an estimate to use chemically-encased ground rods to lower the impedance to ground to 10 ohms or less.

My current thinking on speakers is MartinLogan Neoliths or Rockport Arrakis (and probably the Neoliths). (No change in electronics would be required for either product.)

My current thinking on cartridges remains a confused mess (Koestu Rosewood Signature Platinum, Koetsu Blue Lace (boron), Air Tight PC-1 Supreme or My Sonic Lab Ultra Eminent EX, or the new top-of-the-line versions of the Air Tight and the MSL). But Peter A. and Jack D. kindly and patiently have been helping me figure it out!

 

[LL21]

I have once again asked the structural engineer to revisit the possibility of extending by five feet out onto my outdoor deck the back wall of the listening room. This time, the structural beams would stay in place (so the room would look a little weird from the inside, with beams "floating" across the room near the back wall) but I think having four or five feet behind the listening position would be good.

The grounding consultant visited the house yesterday and is putting together an estimate to use chemically-encased ground rods to lower the impedance to ground to 10 ohms or less.

Good luck with that...the nice thing is you can hopefully easily justify doing the extension because it adds value to the real estate! Its an investment!!! It just so happens to make the hobby just that much more fun to enjoy...

 

[Ron Resnick]

the nice thing is you can hopefully easily justify doing the extension because it adds value to the real estate! Its an investment!!!

I wish I could use that as a justification to proceed but the current walls are walls of glass (good for views and light). The replacement walls would be plain, opaque sheetrock, and the extension would look weird and incongruous against the clean lines and glass walls at the back of the house on the deck.

But thank you very much for trying!

 

[LL21]

I wish I could use that as a justification to proceed but the current walls are walls of glass (good for views and light). The replacement walls would be plain, opaque sheetrock, and the extension would look weird and incongruous against the clean lines and glass walls at the back of the house on the deck.

But thank you very much for trying!

And you cant do the extension with glass? if you look, there are some 100% transparent diffusers you can buy if you are concerned about the glass...there are some serious SOTA systems that use them. Or you could try something like these...

http://www.rpginc.com/lighting_diffusiveWalls.cfm

 

[BruceD]

The grounding consultant visited the house yesterday and is putting together an estimate to use chemically-encased ground rods to lower the impedance to ground to 10 ohms or less.

Yoh Ron , Sounds like having "fun" creating the ultimate sound room --Kudos

re Mc Carts--You should add the Miyajama Madake to your list--it outperformed the Shindo SPU and Ortofon A90 for me

also the House/System Grounding-- have you considered this---

BruceD

 

[Ron Resnick]

Dear Bruce,

Thank you for posting the diagram! Except for floating the ground on the phono pre-amp I believe your suggestion is exactly what we will be doing -- star-grounding everything to a true earth ground.

Thank you for the cartridge suggestion. (More options?!?! : ) I believe Touraj of Vertere has the Miyajama Madake on his reference demo set-up.

However, because (i) I am no longer much of a DIYer, and (ii) the dry soil in Southern CA makes it difficult to get good conductivity, I have engaged Lyncole, a specialist grounding company, to prepare a bid to do the exterior earth ground part -- with multiple, chemically-encased ground rods to get the resistance to ground either below 10 ohms or, if I double the number if ground rods, to below 5 ohms.

If anyone has any view on whether a resistance to ground of 10 ohms or less is sufficient, or if a lower resistance of 5 ohms to ground makes a big difference, please let me know!

 

[amirm]

Ron, do you have balanced connection between your equipment or unbalanced?

 

[Ron Resnick]

The phono interconnect into the Io phono preamp is balanced (XLR). The interconnects between the phono preamp and the amplifiers are single-ended (RCA).

 

[JackD201]

Exposed beams on the rear extension? No problemo Ron That's a great place to mount ceiling bass traps or Helmholtz resonators should you need more of them. Cover them up with acoustic fabric like those of Guilford and presto! Nice, tidy AND usefull.

 

[jn229]

Yoh Ron , Sounds like having "fun" creating the ultimate sound room --Kudos

re Mc Carts--You should add the Miyajama Madake to your list--it outperformed the Shindo SPU and Ortofon A90 for me

also the House/System Grounding-- have you considered this---

BruceD

BruceD: My water main is 1" copper piping and this is where I ground my system. Is there a difference between a water main and an independent earth ground?

 

[Ron Resnick]

front wall of listening room

rear wall of listening room

The entire two-story rear wall of the listening room is what I am evaluating pushing out by 4 or 5 feet onto my deck.

left side of listening room (opening to hallway and kitchen)

right side of listening room (opening to equipment room)

front wall and right corner of equipment room adjacent to listening room

 

[Ron Resnick]

piles of unopened boxes of LPs awaiting repair of listening room and resurrection of stereo

 

[Ron Resnick]

The digging of the 200' long and 3' deep trench (at the base of the retaining wall holding up my little pool and deck) to contain chemical-encased ground rods to achieve a resistance to ground of less than 10 ohms has begun.

 

[LL21]

great photos! this will be a lot of fun to watch evolve...if you can, please keep posting as things progress.

 

[LL21]

and good luck! Construction is always a bit of a ride. Hopefully, it is a good one.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Thank you, Lloyd! Now that I finally figured out how Photobucket works I can post photos as things progress.

 

[ddk]

The digging of the 200' long and 3' deep trench (at the base of the retaining wall holding up my little pool and deck) to contain chemical-encased ground rods to achieve a resistance to ground of less than 10 ohms has begun.

Are you going with San-Earth?

david