The best I can do for now: M Jarve's system

How times have changed...

Here is a pic of my system shortly before I joined AK back in '04. Then here is one taken a couple nights ago. Our little Mikey is all grown up!
 

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My interest was piqued when I saw those speakers in your latest system. Very early Infinity like, but I didn't recognize them. Then I read your signature script and saw "diy qls-3 clone". Wow - really like the looks of those. Is there a thread on those somewhere on AK or elsewhere? I'd like to know/see the details.

Nice rig!
 
My interest was piqued when I saw those speakers in your latest system. Very early Infinity like, but I didn't recognize them. Then I read your signature script and saw "diy qls-3 clone". Wow - really like the looks of those. Is there a thread on those somewhere on AK or elsewhere? I'd like to know/see the details.

Nice rig!

The answer to everything, including "what the heck were you thinking!?"
 
Nice to see you posting again Mike, love the HK monoblocks! :thumbsup:

Thanks indeed. It's been too long, but the truth of the matter is that over the past 2-3 years or so I can count on my fingers the number of times I've even powered up my system. I would be surprised if I've put more than twenty hours on it in the last 24 months.

To put my current setup into context, right now it's installed in one of the empty 3rd-floor bedrooms at MarkB's place, as my mom's house is just too crowded to have something large like this set up properly right now. Hopefully, once she's recovered from another broken leg (the second fracture in less than a year), we can tidy up the basement again and I can set it back up in it's old little corner.

All current components are listed in my signature line, but I do have some other stuff in the wings. My Yamaha PX-2 turntable is on long-term loan to the Falkowski collection, and I've had little need for my Sony ST-5950SD tuner, because, as I noted above, I don't listen casually these days, so there is no need for a source of unlimited duration.

The room is approximately 10x10x8 feet, with the front and rear walls perpendicular to the floor for about 4.5 feet, then becoming diagonal with the slope of the roof till they meet the ceiling (as you can see to some extent in the photo), with a door near one corner (leading to a hall) and one right behind the prime listening position (leading to a large closet). The walls are plaster, and the floor, as you can see, is wood, though the night the picture was taken, Mark and I laid down a carpet remnant, which improved the sound to no end (it's a very lively room). Previously, I had small carpet pads (you can see a couple to either side of the picture, and placed behind the speakers) placed around the room to try and improve the sound but with very limited success.

The speakers are out from the wall behind them by about 20-inches, and are about 26-inches from either side wall, and they're toed-in ~8º. The listening position is about 8-feet from the speakers.

With the new carpet installed, imaging is very good, bordering on "spooky", and the tonal qualities are decent, though there is room for for improvement that should be able to be realized with more tweaking of position. For instance, treble seem to be rolled off a bit compared to what I know the speakers are capable of, and bass could be a bit tighter; prior to installing the carpet, mids were a bit overwhelming, while bass was both reticent and boomy, though treble was okay, and due to all the hard surfaces, imaging sucked. However, I didn't play around much with positioning that night, as I just wanted to enjoy the music and company of Mark. There will be time for ironing out the kinks later.

Occasionally, I switch in an Audionics of Oregon CC-2 power amp, which positively sings with these speakers. This does not surprise me in the least, as the design of the CC-2 was inspired by Matti Otalla, the same Finlander who inspired (deigned?) the hk775. I intend to do a more through write up about the CC-2 some day (and possibly even one of my olde-style "Inside and Out" pictorials), but suffice it to say it's on my short list of really excellent amps.

Though I have not done so since the carpet has been installed, I also have used my Yaqin MC-10L II a couple times. The tube integrated works very admirably with the Infintitys, though cannot, of course, compete with any of my sand amps for sustained high output (dynamic output is a different matter- the Yaqin can really pretend to have double or treble the power for quick transients). However, the output tubes are pretty tired old Mullards (EL34), and I know it's capable of better performance with new tubes. That said, even without the carpet, it provided the most fluid midrange and best imaging of any of the amps I've use in that room.

Cabling currently is Black Rhodium Prelude interconnects between the CDP and Musical Fidelity pre; from the preamp to the first set of 775's is a set of Monster M850i; connecting the set set of 775's to the first are Radio Shack/AVIO 1-meter cables; the iPhone, when used as a source, is connected with a Monster Cable 1/8" stere -> RCA cable; speaker cable for the high-portion is my long-time reference IXOS Gamma (~11-ga) terminated on one end with WBT spades and the other with WBT banana's, about 8-feet in length; lows are making do with double-jacketed Carol 12-ga extension cord wire. Previously I had been using a set of DIY four-9's silver wire interconnects between the pre amp and first set of hk's (terminated with Xhadow RCAs), but they developed an intermittent connection, and I've been too lazy to fix them (though I should some day). Additionally I had been using a set of Zu Audio Geode speaker wires (for the highs), but they too developed a bad connection, and thus ditto. The only other things of note cable-wise is that the power cable for the preamp is of Echowars descent- very heavy duty jacketed 12-ga cable with Wattgate plugs, and one set of the hk's (the ones powering the woofer) feature upgraded 16-ga power cables with Hubble plugs.

So that should get us up to speed on the current iteration of my system.
 
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