Well, the pandemic has really made us all stay at home and appreciate what we have. It's a good time to really enjoy our systems and tweak. Maybe a month or so ago, I wrote about my rig, and received a few private messages asking for more details.
I took the time today to write some more, which is timely as I had just taken a pic with a new wide angle lens that allowed me to capture the gear AND more of the room in the same shot. It gives a much better impression of the listening experience as well as the benefits and challenges a listening space presents in sound playback. I previously didn't have a good wide angle lens to capture such a photo without a ton of distortion.
Anyway, here goes:
![[Image: img%5D]](https://i.imgur.com/RHhS9wS.jpg%5B/img%5D)
My listening space is rather small, so to give you a good idea of the room's setup I removed the coffee-table that sits between the system and the couch for the photo. You can see the toe-in of the Devialet Phantom Reactors as well as the orange pucks I've used to change the height / angle of how they project sound. The front of the Reactors is about 9 feet straight ahead to the couch. The Reactors are 7 feet apart. I've sometimes wondered what level of fidelity I would obtain with the larger Phantoms such as the Classic or Golds as they have separate midrange and tweeters, but their size and power output would simply be overkill for my space. And, of course, they'd cost more.
Anyway, to the right of the room is the raised area which has a plug-in fireplace. It came with the house, and is actually rather pleasant when I decide to use it. To the left is a full kitchen and dining area. So, you can see it's a less-than-ideal listening space compared to a traditional rectangular shaped listening room.
So, duo Devialet Phantom Reactor 900 were the beginning of this journey which started back in October-November 2019, just when the pandemic began to reach my part of the world. I had just moved from a big city to a small town where there are no quality audio retailers or manufacturers. The entire rig was bought online. A first for me.
When it came to music server duties, I already had an older model Apple MacPro tower running Audirvana, which was later replaced with a current model MacMini M1 and Roon. The sound from the Reactors was really very good. I was pretty giddy about the setup and how minimalistic it was, but I knew it could sound better.
Next came the miniDSP SHD-Studio for digital room correction (Dirac Live) and preamplifier duties. Game changer. The space already had decent dampening with the carpeting, couches and pillows. The SHD-Studio's implementation of Dirac Live corrects the sound curve and timing of the listening space. The resulting curve can be tweaked to one's content. There's the option to create multiple curves as well. The result is a much more open, non-fatiguing listening experience.
The next most dramatic sound improvement is the addition of the Mutec MC3+ USB. I wasn't planning to invest more money in the rig, but I came across several online discussions and reviews of the MC3+ USB, and so it caught my attention. Before committing to its purchase, I had an email conversation with Mutec in Germany as well as their distributor in my part of Canada. They were very open to chatting, provided technical details and advised on how to best insert the Mutec MC3+ USB into my system. And, the result is a remarkable subtleness. I've never had such a black noise floor. Music with poor recordings that have muddy passages are cleared up. The sound stage is wider and deeper; I can hear where performers are on the stage. On well-recorded music, the sound is so much more "present". The clarity is clean, with a lot of air between instruments. It's not at all analytical. Rather it has a feeling of all the good things about high-end analogue or tubes.
If you're still reading you may be interested in the connection chain of components:
Internet (ethernet) -> Silent Angel Bonn N8 Switch (ethernet) -> MacMini M1 Music Server / Roon Core (USB) -> Uptone USB Regen (USB) -> miniDSP SHD-Studio (Coaxial SPDIF out) -> Mutec MC-3+ USB (Toslink out) -> Devialet Phantom Reactor 900 (the two Phantom's are connected to each other via ethernet).
Cheers.
I took the time today to write some more, which is timely as I had just taken a pic with a new wide angle lens that allowed me to capture the gear AND more of the room in the same shot. It gives a much better impression of the listening experience as well as the benefits and challenges a listening space presents in sound playback. I previously didn't have a good wide angle lens to capture such a photo without a ton of distortion.
Anyway, here goes:
My listening space is rather small, so to give you a good idea of the room's setup I removed the coffee-table that sits between the system and the couch for the photo. You can see the toe-in of the Devialet Phantom Reactors as well as the orange pucks I've used to change the height / angle of how they project sound. The front of the Reactors is about 9 feet straight ahead to the couch. The Reactors are 7 feet apart. I've sometimes wondered what level of fidelity I would obtain with the larger Phantoms such as the Classic or Golds as they have separate midrange and tweeters, but their size and power output would simply be overkill for my space. And, of course, they'd cost more.
Anyway, to the right of the room is the raised area which has a plug-in fireplace. It came with the house, and is actually rather pleasant when I decide to use it. To the left is a full kitchen and dining area. So, you can see it's a less-than-ideal listening space compared to a traditional rectangular shaped listening room.
So, duo Devialet Phantom Reactor 900 were the beginning of this journey which started back in October-November 2019, just when the pandemic began to reach my part of the world. I had just moved from a big city to a small town where there are no quality audio retailers or manufacturers. The entire rig was bought online. A first for me.
When it came to music server duties, I already had an older model Apple MacPro tower running Audirvana, which was later replaced with a current model MacMini M1 and Roon. The sound from the Reactors was really very good. I was pretty giddy about the setup and how minimalistic it was, but I knew it could sound better.
Next came the miniDSP SHD-Studio for digital room correction (Dirac Live) and preamplifier duties. Game changer. The space already had decent dampening with the carpeting, couches and pillows. The SHD-Studio's implementation of Dirac Live corrects the sound curve and timing of the listening space. The resulting curve can be tweaked to one's content. There's the option to create multiple curves as well. The result is a much more open, non-fatiguing listening experience.
The next most dramatic sound improvement is the addition of the Mutec MC3+ USB. I wasn't planning to invest more money in the rig, but I came across several online discussions and reviews of the MC3+ USB, and so it caught my attention. Before committing to its purchase, I had an email conversation with Mutec in Germany as well as their distributor in my part of Canada. They were very open to chatting, provided technical details and advised on how to best insert the Mutec MC3+ USB into my system. And, the result is a remarkable subtleness. I've never had such a black noise floor. Music with poor recordings that have muddy passages are cleared up. The sound stage is wider and deeper; I can hear where performers are on the stage. On well-recorded music, the sound is so much more "present". The clarity is clean, with a lot of air between instruments. It's not at all analytical. Rather it has a feeling of all the good things about high-end analogue or tubes.
If you're still reading you may be interested in the connection chain of components:
Internet (ethernet) -> Silent Angel Bonn N8 Switch (ethernet) -> MacMini M1 Music Server / Roon Core (USB) -> Uptone USB Regen (USB) -> miniDSP SHD-Studio (Coaxial SPDIF out) -> Mutec MC-3+ USB (Toslink out) -> Devialet Phantom Reactor 900 (the two Phantom's are connected to each other via ethernet).
Cheers.
2 Channel Power / Signal Path: APC H15 → Mistral Audio W-3900 → Custom Roon Server → Silent Angel Bonn N8 → Silent Angel Forester F1 → miniDSP SHD Studio → Mutec MC-3+ USB → Devialet Phantom I 108dB
Headphone iFi Audio iDSD Signature → Grado GS1000i
Headphone iFi Audio iDSD Signature → Grado GS1000i
