System building; a meditation

mikelavigne

Hi. I have bookmarked and PDF'd the article which details the build you did of your listening room in your barn and have re-read it many times. Amazing room and system -- to die for. I recall it's in the PNW where I am, and if you welcome visitors, count me in!

Your advice is excellent, so all I need now is more money and younger ears. Cheers.

My hi-fi journey commenced in the late-60’s, when almost all loudspeakers were pretty-severely colored (see below). Colored in the sense used by J.Gordon Holt---"vowel" colorations, especially noticeable on voices. If you don’t know what vc means, look in up in JGH’s book of hi-fi terminology.

At that time I had been exposed only to acoustic suspension sealed box speakers, the design that revolutionized loudspeakers when introduced in the late-50’s by Acoustic Research (in their AR-1). It wasn’t until I heard my fist ESL tweeter (the RTR used in the ESS TranStatic) that I experienced lack-of-coloration and transparency (the TranStatic also had transmissionline-loaded KEF midrange and bass drivers). In 1971 I then heard the Infinity Servo-Static 1 (ESL above 100Hz), and my expectations grew exponentially!

Next was the Magneplanar Tympani T-I in ’72 (demonstrated by Bill Johnson himself), which produced the first life-size vocal and instrumental scale (image size)---along with imaging (including image height) and depth---I had heard. I was also spoiled by the "openness" of dipole loudspeakers, which made box loudspeakers sound confined and constrained, producing images miniaturized and "squeezed out of" the enclosure.

Yet I unfortunately had still not heard the QUAD ESL. Incredibly, THAT loudspeaker---introduced in 1957---was an extremely coloration-free and transparent reproducer. If I had, I could have saved myself a lot of time and effort ;-) . Thankfully, the advances made in box loudspeaker design since the 1950’s-70’s have been remarkable, and there are now many low-coloration/high-transparency loudspeakers available. As the quality of vocal reproduction is my highest priority, I consider that a very big deal. And is why I still can’t stand horns---far too much vowel coloration for my liking. Even a little is unacceptable to me.

Everything else in a system---including the room---is in service to the loudspeaker.

This is not going to be very helpful as far as synergy goes and the what the magic solution may be. But here is how I pick my equipment. I research each component very carefully through multiple reviews and pick the one that has the best reviews in the range that fits my budget. And it has worked wonders for me. You can see my components in my house of stereo system and you will see exactly what I mean. Did I get lucky or did all that research really pay off? Bottom line I have never bought anything based on auditioning components and don't feel like I miss much. 

My brands:
VPI
Pro-ject
Puffin
Schiit
PS Audio
Prima Luna
Marantz
Parasound Halo
Rythmick
PBN audio
And these are the main components, not two of the same brand. Weird, right?

@baylinor- I think I follow suit in that each component is from a different manufacturer.
@bdp24- I learned to listen on the old Quad circa 1974, and though I eventually added ribbon tweeters (Decca, later, Sequerra) and a sub (Swedish as I recall, there weren’t as many in the pre-home theatre days), could not get it cohere. The midrange of the original Quad is unbeatable, but its limitations as an overall speaker are significant; my same 1974 pair (built I think in 1973) was restored and runs in a vintage system with a pair of restored Quad IIs using GEC KT 66s.
Oddly, despite my penchant for electrostatics (I had the Crosby- modded 63 next), I made the transition to horns or at least horn style with ease via the Avantgarde (which doesn’t use a compression driver and has a hybrid dynamic speaker bass module with plate amp-- not a "true" horn system in absolutist terms). But the midrange, direct wired to the Lamm ML2 is a thing of beauty. I supplement with 15 inch subs and DSP on a parallel system, and with the current crop of cartridges, have not had it better.
The Quad was and is quite forgiving, and will tolerate a certain amount of noise from associated components without flinching-stuff that the AvG SET system would show up as annoying.
If I have a point at all, it’s that it is not an unnatural transition- from stat to horn; the problem I foresee, if I go deep, is all the separate components that make up a true horn system combined with an intelligent selection of range and crossover units that don’t do violence to the signal.
My next journey is intended to explore antiquarian horns to see if multi-driver horns with SET and appropriate horn woofing sounds like real music to me. But that is my ’schtick," not necessary a path that I am urging anyone to follow.
I did write a piece about Quad and the original speaker shortly after the 60th anniversary; I think it is a speaker worth hearing, not only for how far we haven’t come in some ways, but how far we have. It’s a classic for what it does well- a seemingly transparent window on the sound from a distant perspective that is balanced if you sit in a fairly narrow sweet spot, will not play loud as in LOUD, but can convey dynamics effectively because it has a very dialed in immediacy within its range, loudness capabilities and scale. A double pair with all the associated paraphernalia would be much fun, though I have never done that.
There is always a "quest" in these stories, no?