Topic: New toys & lot's of pictures!

[carlbeck]

Well my system is finally back up & running after a little hiatus. It is so good to hear music again. As you can see from the pics I still haven't finished the room but I do have heat & tunes so I am all set for a few weeks 

I am pretty impressed with the sound, it was tough to let go of my beloved BAT tube amp but these little Monarchy's have more slam & power with pure class A sweetness. The Modwright is incredible, Nick & I compared it to his Symp + pre & he told me to take mine home, he didn't want to fall in love with it  Nothing can be said about the VSA jr's that hasn't been said, they rock.

The new system consists of:

Onkyo DV-SP 1000- universal SACD, DVD, CD player
Benchmark DAC 1- convertor
ModWright SWL 9.0 beta pre-amp- custom pre-amp with external power supply, Tungsol tubes
Monarchy Audio SE-100 mono block amps- 100 wpc @ 8 ohms, pure class A, doubles down @ 4 ohms
VSA VR4jr's- first pair ever made, slightly tweaked from factory
Monster HTS 3500 MKII power conditioner
DH Labs interconnect's
Acoustic Zen Satori shotgun's

[Nick's Picks]

looking good Carl!
can't wait to hang some sheetrock in there.

[JasonSobel]

looks real nice.  I can't wait to hear what it sounds like

[janka]

Looks nice Carl. I'm looking forward to getting up there and giving it a listen.

[cshepherd]

Great Pics.  It reminds me of my last move.  Nothing in the house unpacked except the stereo.

Chris

[scervin]

Very nice!  Have you run analog out and compared the SP1000 to the DAC-1?  I've got the same player and always thought the SP1000 to sound damn good. 

sc

[carlbeck]

Very nice!  Have you run analog out and compared the SP1000 to the DAC-1?  I've got the same player and always thought the SP1000 to sound damn good. 

sc

Actually, I have been checking it out today for the first time. It is close but the Benchmark beats it with better dynamics. Overall though I have to say the Onkyo is VERY impressive as a standalone. I am listening to my SACD headhunters right now so I can't obviously use the Benchmark & it is very nice.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

Damn, that is a sweet room. 

[carlbeck]

Damn, that is a sweet room. 

Eventually it will be a sweet room & it is one of the major reasons I bought my house. It is a nice room, over the garage, far enough away from the house that if I want to be up late listening to music I don't have to worry about keeping the wife up. Someday, real soon it will be finished, then I may never leave 

[Mic D]

Looks nice, Carl. Very nice.

[bkirby]

Excellent Carl! I'm still working on my room, but it won't be quite as impressive as yours will be...

Brad

[carlbeck]

Thanks for all the kind words about the room. I am sure it will be nice when it is done but I have a long way to go before that. For those that are interested the room measures almost 16 feet across & is 25 feet deep. We have the speakers pushed WAY out into the room at the moment but once the sheetrock is in there this will all change. The best thing about having it over the garage is that I can do all the room treatments I want without upseting the wife. I want the room to look good when it is done but it will also have to sound good as well. The biggest issue will probably be that window I love so much behind the stereo but it isn't something I can't fix with some heavy curtains.

[carlbeck]

I made some cheapie amp stands last weekend. I bought a pair of butcher blocks from Home Depot that are 12X12X1.5" I stained them cherry & installed the speaker spiked from my VSA's. They came out pretty good & at least get the amps of the ground. the Monarchy's are very small & fit the stands like they were made for them.

[cwfen]

Very Nice! Are you going to do the double layer of drywall, a la Oade...? Somewhere there is a good thread on how Doug tricked out his listening area for his Reference System, and it has some good, easy to replicate tips... Have fun!

[carlbeck]

I have seen the double dry wall trick used in a few rooms. I honestly don't plan on doing it. It is going to be hard enough to do the room b/c of the location without doubling the amount of sheet rock we have to hump. My plan is to go as thick as possible with the rock & insulate the hell out of it. After that is done then I can do all the treatments I want. I guess I should check the Oade board for Doug's room just for giggles.