Birth of the HiFi room

[Cap1]

April 25, 2017

About a month before we moved in to our new house, I finally had a dedicated space just for music in about 30 years.




Music Hall 2.1 Turntable

Music Hall 25.1 CD Player

Oppo Sonica DAC (Used as a line stage)

Adcom GFA 5500 Amp

Martin Logan ESL Speakers




A little history:

Sometime in about 1987-1988 my collage roommate bought a HiFi VCR and thought it would be cool if I would bring my NAD pre, Hafler amp and Boston Acoustic speakers into the living room to hookup to his video contraption. The Hafler amp actually had a hookup for four speakers and had some kind of delay thing on the second set of speakers so that there was a crude form of surround sound going on. The turntable went into storage. The long slow slide to the dark side of home theater had begun.

Back to 2017




The excitement was very short lived. The first time the tone arm was lowered the most horrific sound came from the speakers. I thought it would be an easy fix, the speakers must be out of phase. Switched out the speaker cables but there was no change in the sound. Switched everything off and slowly realized that the long awaited room that would be dedicated to HiFi music just happened to be the worst sounding room in the history of HiFi. Harsh, echo bass less mess with no soundstage to speak of.

 

[Cap1]

To make it bearable. We still have not moved into the house at this point so I did not have to worry about the wife factor yet. Added a Rotel RA-60 (for the preamp) and RCD-1072 from storage.




Moved speakers to other side of room and added DIY acoustic panels. Much better sound but still a bit harsh sounding and still had very little bass.

 

[Cap1]

By January 2018 the ability of the Martin Logans to produce even respectable bass was solved.



An SVS PB-12 was added. The MLs are so bad below 100hz that the sub had to be placed between the amp and preamp and crossed over at 120hz. The electronics where stripped down to the Music Hall TT, the Sonica used as a line stage, Rotel 1072 and the Adcom 5500 amp.

 

[Cap1]

The wife went to work on the aesthetics.

 

[Nightwisher]

Sweet!

 

[mark warren]

vey nice! I bet it sounds good in there!

 

[TaddNOhio]

AWESOME! congrats on a nice room and system. Enjoy

 

[Rome]

Mighty fine!

Rome

 

[guiller]

Nice!

 

[Cap1]

Thanks all.


March 2018 added an audio rack, sound absorbing curtains, plants and two dogs to improve the room acoustically

 

[Dave_1962]

Nice

 

[Cap1]

After almost a year we had become very satisfied with the sound but using the Oppo Sonica as a line stage meant there was not enough gain from the Rotel RQ-970bx phono stage to really get up to listen levels. Digital sources where ok but with vinyl the volume on the Oppo was always turned all the way up. So, we started researching pre-amps.


The criterial set forth was

1. Had to be a tube amp

2. Had to be under $1,000

3. Had to have great sound for the money

The Schiit Freya seem to be the perfect fit. So we place the order. It was back ordered but only for a week. Every week I checked back and every week it was still on back order. As the weeks turned into month I canceled the order.

Next in line was the Woo Audio WA2 headphone amp/preamp. It was a bit over the budget but I could sell my WA-6 to off set the price. As I was placing my order I notice in a picture that the RCA jacks for the line out were replace by plastic plugs. A Quick call to Woo Audio confirmed that the pre-amp option had be discounted for longtime ago. There was no plan C. Starting over I googled “tube pre-amp” and got this:





Ok everyone can stop laughing now. For $128.25 + $60 for shipping and the “The 2018 edition 12AX7 Marantz M7” was on its way. Next, I Googled “Marantz M7” because I did not know what a M7 was. That search did get me interested in vintage audio.

 

[E-Stat]

I have one suggestion since this is a dedicated space - pull the speakers out from the front wall to ~ one third of the room's length. Listening position at the other third.

Dipoles like to breathe and that location minimizes room modes. I measured the response for the bottom three octaves to fine tune the position of mine.

 

[Cap1]

Thanks E-Stat. I did pull them out another 6 inches or so the other night. The problem is the room is very small and the listening position is against the back wall. Most likely this speaker/sub combo will end up in our “media room” which is much larger area with the listening position out in the room. Currently with the sub handling everything below 100hz and using the eq in the sub the response is flat except for a roll off at the top end, which at my age I can’t hear anyways.

 

[Cap1]

.
I was bit surprised to actually receive a box in 7 days containing “The 2018 edition 12AX7 Marantz M7” going forward know as the M7. Even more surprised that the M7 was very well packed. The unit itself is very hefty and very well built. I inserted the tubes grabbed the fire extinguisher and ran off to hooked the thing up.



The wife got to do the A/B testing while I swapped the cables (the extinguisher was not needed.) She picked correct 100% between the M7 and the passage line stage. And preferred just the line stage. I did get to listen after she got tired of the A/B thing. The first thing I notice is that the M7 was dead silent and did change the sonic presentation very noticeably. The laser sharp images where softer and larger and the over sound was much softer. Over the next few weeks the M7 came in and out of the setup many times. But each time it was left in longer until finally stayed in. Needless to say, I am very happy with it. It could be the emperor new closes syndrome but I think it is a bargain. Not sure what it has to do with a Marantz M7 though. Also, I did replace the plastic knobs.

 

[71Challenger]

very nice. seems the pooches like it too...

 

[Cap1]

Yes they enjoy it too much

 

[imral3]

March 2018 added an audio rack, sound absorbing curtains, plants and two dogs to improve the room acoustically

And I thought the SVS would suffice without the addition of two more "woofers"!

 

[Cap1]

At least the SVS does not chew up remotes.

 

[Cap1]

Since the cheap preamp worked out so well I took the spare change that I saved and ordered one of these:





Unlike the preamp which is dead silent this unit does have a hum. Not sure if it is a grounding issue, the Rotel RQ-970bx that it replaced did not have any issues, or if it is the unit itself. Anyways with music playing the hum is not noticeable. I did not A/B test the unit to the Rotel and there was not any “wow” factor. The unit does seem to be well built except for the cheesy plastic volume knob. The light up power button seems out of place and the inputs on the front panel seems a bit silly. For now, it will stay in the main system until I can do some A/B test.