Apogee Acoustics Apogee Fullrange Speaker pic
Apogee Diva Strikes back --- My original title pic
Apogee Acoustics Apogee Scintilla Speaker pic
Tube Research GT-400 pic
J.A. Michell GyroDec Turntable pic
room picture side wall Tweak pic
Room second side wall Tweak pic
Room Len diffusor Tweak pic
side walls auralex diffusors Tweak pic
Apogee Acoustics Stage Speaker pic
Tube Research Labs GT-800 Tube amp pic
All Apogees, Fullrange, Diva, Scintilla
It would be foolish to praise your own toys but I am a very satisfied listener having worked hard for 15 years to achieve this level of sound. In my pursuit of audio nirvana, I crave for everything: imaging, midrange sweetness, smooth treble, transparency, fast and accurate bass with full slam, dynamics, soundstage, and precision. The system has low distortion, huge soundstage, smooth integration of all drivers and transparency. No, it is not perfect, lest we get carried away, but this one does it all for me.
I like to enjoy music with ultimate sound quality. I want the singer or orchestra to be present holographically in my room, period. It took 14 years to build the ultimate system described below which does deliver that level of performance. I owe thanks to more than a dozen friends who provided invaluable advice and technical help. The basic principle in this ultra pure audio is to keep the signal path shortest and use the minimalist approach (in purist audio, less is more).
Speakers: Apogee Acoustics Fullrange ribbon speakers (original Apogee) modified with an idea conceived by myself: I combined the Fullrange woofer with Apogee Centaur Major's midrange/tweeter, driven by all custom-made 6db/octave passive crossover designed and built by myself, with inputs from my friends George Short and William Sill. This makes an ultimate loudspeaker that has been unsurpassed in performance by anything else that I have listened to. The midrange/tweeter enclosure built by my friend Chris Altman.
Preamp: Custom made and designed by my friend Charles Alexander and myself, based on the research papers published by Walt Jung and Charlie's 30 plus years experience in building most accurate regulated power supplies. The project took one year to design and one year to build. It replaced the $14k Lamm L2 Reference pre-amp, considered by many to be the state-of-the-art. The X-2 (the name we gave our pre-amp) easily walked over the Lamm in terms of resolution, flat response time, noise level, dynamics, and transparency.
CD Player: Sony DVP NS900V modified with two-level (with battery supply) mod done by my friend Paul Weitzel of Tube Research Labs. It replaced my $13k Meridian Refernce player.
Amplifier: Four monoblocks of Tube Research GT-400, designed and built by Paul Weitzel at Tube Research Lab in Quincy, Washington, driving the four channels. Moving them upstairs (each weighs 295 lbs) took heroic efforts. My previous amps inlcude Kells, Lamms, Jadis JA-500, Bryston, Parasound, Sunfire, Audio Valve, Llano, etc. Is there a better amp than this one? If yes, I do not know where it is.
Turntable: J.A. Michell Gyrodec, made in UK.... a modest but gutsy player.
Interconnects: All custom made by my friend Anthony Nguyen of Element Cables
Speaker Cables: All custom made by Anthony
Power Chords: All custom made by Anthony and Paul Weitzel
Media Room: Designed by myself and Aaron of David Weekly Homes. Built by David Weekly Homes.
Room Acoustics: Designed by myself with feedback from my friend Michael Kalellis.
The room is a specially designed for audio, with dimensions of 26 by 16 and a ceiling that starts at 12 feet but slants to 10 to the other side. The room has 11 dedicated power lines of 110 as well as 220 volts. I firmly believe in room acoustics and, therefore, continue to experiment and tweak it myself.
The room also includes a home theatre system (mostly used by my kids) that runs parallel to the audio-only system shown here, with the Divas serving as the front main speakers. The center and rear speakers are infinity. Video is projected through a Sharpe projector on a screen (rolled up in these pictures). Two Hsu Research VTF-3 Mark IIs subwoofers power up for home theater only. The subs are not connected to audio and do not need to because the Apogees generate enough bass.
Second System:
Musical Fidelity KWs monoblocks; (3000 WPC in 2 ohm) is driving the Scintilla system, with a second X-2 pre-amp, and another TRL moded Sony CD player. |
