My Final System Build in Words & Pictures

A few years ago, after 25 years with the same system, I embarked on the journey of building what will be my last stereo system.  When Covid hit, with all that time at home, I cycled through a lot of equipment.  Mostly buying used and selling on after deciding what worked and what didn't.  It's a shame we can't keep everything as there's so much to love about different pieces of stereo gear.  But the system is finished and for those who are interested, here it is.  At age 68, this is my last build.  I am well aware the room is a bit small but even so, the sound is beautiful.  I hope to build one final house and there will be a bigger entertainment room at that time.

Being somewhat of a hands on person, I have tried to build what I could as opposed to buying.  That process started with two 8 foot sets of speaker cables.  I used the CHeLA OCC Cable from VH Audio, and sourced the Spade connectors, shrink tube and braided sleave from AV Outlet.

 

I elected to power the system with a pair of HEGEL H30 mono blocks.  The term mono is a bit of a misnomer as these amps have the option of running in mono mode at 1125 watts or in Stereo mode at 450 watts x 2 per amp.  I am currently using them in stereo mode and bi-amping my speakers using one amp as LL and the other amp as RR.  Hence the 2 pairs of speaker cables.  The amps were sourced from EVEREST AUDIO INC. in Regina Saskatchewan.  I have dealt with Neil Gelowitz at Everest for a few years and have found his service and expertise to be invaluable.  Thanks Neil.

I also have a set of Silversmith Fidelium cables which I like very much.  Will be interested to switch then in and go over to mono mode.  Will there be a noticeable sound difference?  We will see.  I have about 4 different configurations that I can choose.  Should be fun. 

Wanting to mount the amps on some sort of anti vibration platform, and finding the price of pre made systems to be ridiculous (IMHO), I was intrigued by the old school design of using sand as a medium for vibration control.  My platforms are build from 3/4" MDF with a bit of bracing and each filled with 100 pounds of dry sand.  The top panel is free floating.  Material sourced from Home Depot for a total cost of $75 per platform.

I chose the PrimaLuna EVO 400 Pre Amp, sourced from Daniel Kuburovski  at VINYL SOUND in Toronto, Ontario.  Great price and speedy delivery.

I then chose the Esoteric K-01XD SACD unit.  This was sourced from ELEMENT ACCOUSTICS in Richmond, British Columbia.  My rep, Allen Li, worked with me over several months.  We started with a K-03 unit that had a minor operational defect.  Both Allen and the American Esoteric importer were superb in their customer service and attention to my concerns.  In the end I upgraded to the K-01 and couldn't be happier.  A lot of moving parts to arrive at the final unit and all handled by Allen.  In the end, the K-01 landed at 25% below suggested list.  

My TT is a Rega P8 with Apheta 3 cartridge, sourced from Karl Motz at Classic Sound in Chilliwack British Columbia.  I also purchase a pair of REL S/812 Subs from Karl.  Once again, great attention to customer needs and a price that beat all other retailers by a good amount.  Thank you Karl.

I matched the Rega with a Parasound JC3+ preamp sourced from Parts Connection in Burlington, Ontario.  

I spent a lot of time considering power options and was leaning towards the P20 Powerplant from PS Audio.  My concern was the upper limit on 20 amps, which is arguably sufficient, but I landed on the Equitech 5RQ step down transformer.  In the same ball park cost as the P20, the 5RQ takes 240 volt power, directly at the wall outlet, and steps it down to fully balanced 120 volt, feeding two dedicated 20 amp outlets + 7 additional duplex outlets, two of which are filtered.  The 5RQ delivers a constant 40 amp draw capability.  The only problem with the 5RQ is the weight.  At 175 pounds, you only want to move it once.  Luckily I ran a dedicated 10 AWG wire to the wall outlet some time ago so switching over to 240V was simply a matter of installing a duplex 30 Amp breaker in my main panel and changing the wall outlet.  This system uses two 120V hot wires + the ground.  No neutral wire is used.

As Equitech does not have a Canadian distributor, I dealt directly with Terry Brent, National Sales Director.  Terry was very keen to see his product in a Canadian home and did everything possible to make the sale happen.  Thanks again Terry.  It was a pleasure working with you.

 

Now I needed to reconfigure my front end equipment as my existing stereo rack was too small.  Again, the prices online for shelving systems are crazy (IMHO).  So I built my own.  Starting with 96" x 30" x 1.75" solid maple butcherblock, sourced from Global Industrial at a price that was unbeatable, I ripped the blanks down to the desired dimensions of 44" x 20".  Then I bored 1 5/16" holes in the four corners.

The supports between the three shelves were made of 8" x 1" Black Nipple Pipe with 1" Couplings on each end.  These were pre assembled and Powder Coated Black by IMPACT COATINGS in Edmonton, Alberta.  Thanks Wendy Miller for getting my parts completed the same week when I know you were working on a three week waiting time.  Assembling the rack in place was required due the the weight.  The finished rack weighs about 200 pounds and I needing to get the 5RQ in placed from the beginning.

The total cost for my new rack was $1300 CDN. 

The final component were the speakers.  These are a pair of SoundLab Majestic 745 panels.  The time from order to delivery was about 5 months and both Connie & Roger West were terrific to deal with.  Connie kept me informed of the build progress and sent me photos my my own speakers being build.  

The bulk of my cables were sourced from Morrow Audio.  Again, a great company to deal with.  I purchased everything during their biggest sale of the year (Black Friday) when they were offering 65% off list.  It was way ahead of the time I needed them so they agreed to complete the discounted sale and delayed the build to suit my schedule.  Nice Folks.

My Power Cables are Puritan Ultimate, sourced from Stuart MacKenzie at MacKenzie HiFi in England.  A long way to go for cables but he beat my local retailer by 17%.  I like to shop local but refuse to pay for the privilege.  

So there it is.  I'm sure I have I left something or someone out.  Here's the finished product.

 

Hope some of you enjoy reading this as much as I have enjoyed posting it.

 

And just one more thing.  This one is just for you @thyname 🤣