Home Theater Done Right: Millercarbon's System


Dual use, should probably be the title. Oh well. Finally posted my system. Someone’s always asking about how to do a dual use system. Well, here’s how its done.
Cinephile or audiophile, movies and music are the two things I have loved for as long as I can remember. I want my music to sound as good as possible, and I want my movies to look and sound as good as possible. Everything is a compromise and yet when it comes to these two the compromises are remarkably few. If any. At least that is what my system shows. Because it is a first-rate audiophile sound system, AND a top level home theater.
Whether music or movies an immersive experience is the goal. To lose yourself in the experience. To be carried away.
Studies show viewers consistently rate video quality higher when sound quality is high. Unfortunately the Home Theater industry has chosen to pursue quantity over quality. Which cannot ever work. No amount of surround speakers will ever make up for poor quality. Everyone knows this perfectly well. Being able to convince anyone otherwise is a testament to marketing.
But that’s not my main point here. Rather it is that everything matters. Seemingly minor little things like cryogenic treatment, HFT, ECT, Total Contact, fuses, cable elevators, etc when added together actually make so much difference it is almost impossible to build a truly good system without them.

Removing those tweaks from my system would lower it down to merely average.

Anyway, the system is posted. Enjoy the pics. I am not that good a photographer but Steve Clarke was busy. Tried to get the tubes go glow- how’d I do?

The system evolves. Here for reference are some pics from 16 years ago. https://www.theanalogdept.com/c_miller.htm
Comments welcome. Enjoy!


128x128millercarbon
The system on the right, looks way older and less fancy that the rest of the room, brings back some nostalgia. However, turntable (is it Technics?) is in a very unusual spot.
Right. Almost pure nostalgia- all working order but none connected.
That's a Pioneer TX-9100 tuner, bought new by me in about 1974. The Kenwood integrated has gone away but that tuner, between the looks and the memories its just too sweet to part with.The Technics SL-1700 is the reason I have the Miller Carbon. It sat in storage all through the 80's while I moved around after college. Then after building a really good CD based system Robert Harley said try records. So I pulled the Technics out of the box. Discovered the cantilever got bent. Straightened it out.  And sure enough, it killed CD. When a busted table beats your CD you know your CD is beat.Should probably sell both. They're worth more now than when new! But for now at least I will put up with the clutter... for the sake of the memories.
Thanks to the guys who motivated me to get off my audiophile a$$ and take some pics, The System in only 2 days has 505 views. 

That's a lot of views... to have no one ask about the tube glow shots. ;-)
I sort of did mc. Your amp is right under your screen. Hard to hide when a movie is on. I don't even want a dim pilot light near the screen as any extraneous light affects the picture. Of course my old JVC DLP projector only throws 1000 lumens. I might not be as sensitive with one of the new laser projectors (3000 lumens) But still I would not put any equipment other than speakers near the screen. A lot of equipment now has a "lights off" feature. A bit hard to do with tubes. 
I suppose I am lucky having had a chance to build my own house. I only use balanced amps now and they are on a shelf up against the ceiling in the work shop right under the speakers and subs. There is conduit running from the equipment rack which is to the left of the listening sofa down to the amps. The amps are class A so I constructed a cooling system (fans) that blows over the tops of the amps. The common 12 volt power supply also triggers the amps. It is operated by a switch next to the equipment cabinet. Initially I could hear the fans (no good) so I put a potentiometer on each fan to slow them down which worked. I did make one mistake. There are two Lenox heat pumps just outside that wall. They are pretty quiet but you can still hear them on quiet passages. Every once in a while I'll get annoyed and turn them off for a spell. 
Anyway if you have a basement you could do the same thing but then none of your stuff would be on display.
Home Theater done right means that your serious music listening system is in another room.

That is all......

Oz