JA - the hotrod garage gets some attention every day. I am cooking with a pair of 1.6s and SS-2s with passive XOs. I am using all redbook CDs because the Metric Halo DAC for high res files is in beta revision. Well made CDs aren't too shabby.
Awhile back I asked for and got lots of power amp suggestions, for a second reference and because my beloved and very familiar Classe DR-9s are still in the hospital. They may not recover at least in the foreseeable future. I bought a pair of Benchmark AHB-2 power amps in December and am very happy with them. Although primarily a professional brand, these amps are Absolute Sound and Stereophile class A. As a tool, they do the job I need. Dead flat, near zero distortion, wide bandwidth, phase coherent . . . stuff like that. Presently I am running them bridged for 390 watts into 4 ohms. Their on the fly changeover will allow me to compare various modes of bridged and straight and vertical bi-amping.
The measurement suite is coming together. One corner of my studio is dedicated. There is a pair of PowerPoints on adjacent walls 42" from the corner. A SS-1 smart sub is at the 3-way floor corner, At the 3-way ceiling corner there will be a triangular driver mounting baffle presenting 45° (±) angles to the ceiling, side walls and a 12" wide filler in the vertical corner. The area behind that filler is vented through the floor and the ceiling to de-pressurize the back of the driver under test as well as cool the subwoofer amp nestled into it. The crowing jewel is that this same rig in this corner faces my Jecklin Disk type recording mics which can record test signals from the driver under test or a performer in the same corner for playback through the PPs on the walls at his/her shoulders. Room waves are minimized by geometry and construction. The walls in this corner are outside / building walls topped with 1.5" felted foam insulation. The ceiling is normal drywall. The plywood floor has 3/8" ski-lodge rubber backed carpet squares. It's fairly neutral between reflective and absorptive. The shape of the room should minimize modes. It is an L at 15' wide on each leg. Those walls are sonically porous, made from acoustic tile behind the same 1.5" foam panels. When I get the tools to measure its performance, I hope to confirm my design intentions, which are the most neutral room I can conceive within this given space and my budget constraints. So far it has passed muster with some pretty experienced ears.
Over and out for now.
