Here's Mine!

Everything Else Systems
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stereo.jpgNew house, (largely) new system:

PS Audio P5

Self-built music server, basically a somewhat modernized Caps v3 Zuma running Win 10 and Jriver.

DS DAC with Bridge II. At the moment I have it set up to run via USB with an AQ Jitterbug and Uptone Regen - Regen and server are powered by an HDPlex power supply. May go back to the Bridge though, will compare them to each other extensively in the coming weeks.

Hegel H160 amp. I do plan to integrate the new BHK pre into the system but i hafta figure out some issues re how to connect it up to our whole-house system to keep the spousal unit happy. In the meantime, the Hegel is very good indeed.

Vandersteen Treo Carbons + Rythmik servo sub. I do not have the sub integration/sound quite right yet… some room issues. May add a 2nd sub, we’ll see. or I may just say to hell with it and listen to music.

Pathos Aurium headphone amp, at the moment running it with Sennheiser HD650’s w/cardas cable and Denon AH-D7000’s. Sonarworks custom EQ for the Senns. (well worth it IMHO!)

NAD M4 tuner b/c my Magnum Dynalab is overseas.

Acoustech phono pre

The TT in the pic is a Micro Seiki BL51 that I bought when I was just out of college, must have been 1981 or 2. Rega arm. Also have a VPI that’s not in the photo. 98% of my listening is digital, but I may still upgrade the TT in this setup. Problem is I have a big sentimental attachment to the Micro.

Interconnects are Audioquest Colorado (XLR) and Shunyata Black Mamba or older PS Audio (for the tuner.) Speaker cable is AQ Rocket 88, double run. USB at the moment is Kimber and Paul Pang. Power cords are mainly older PS Audio plus one or two Shunyatas. (Paul - I am still waiting for newer, more flexible pc’s from you - I am in rebellion against cable stiffness and taxes. :))

Also have a modified KLH-Burwen TNE-7000A noise reducer for analog, just in case of noisy LP’s. You can see a big old Carver power amp in the rack - that’s left over from my wife’s old system, before she met me. Just sitting there for lack of a better place to store it.

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I also have the Vandersteen Treo Carbons. What spade connectors did you get for the speaker end of your cables? I am currently using banana adapters, and there don’t seem to be many high quality spades that are narrow enough to fit the Vandersteens.

How do you like your Rythmik servo sub? I have read a little bit about them, but reviews, or comparisons to other subs seem hard to find. I currently have a REL S/5 and a Vandersteen 2WQ. Of the two, I prefer the REL, but it is about twice as much as the Rythmik and does not have a servo controlled woofer. Anyone else who is familiar with Rythmik subs is welcome to chime in.

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Bstanwick,

I LOVE the Treos. Honestly the very first moment I fired them up, with the rack inbetween them and positioned very badly, my jaw just dropped. I bought the speaker cables at the same time and my dealer ordered them directly from Audioquest, which I believe makes a set of spades intended to fit Vandersteens. Yeah, it is tough to find suitable ones, which is a pain - maybe give Audioquest a call?

re the Rythmik. In terms of speed, impact, depth, etc I am very impressed. In my system in my room, I would have liked a slightly more robust PEQ option - it has one band of PEQ, and I am obviously fighting my room to some degree b/c there is a bit of a suckout that I can’t entirely get rid of. (WAF limits my placement options, as always.) Also I find their documentation and labelling to be a bit confusing, though Brian Ding is very reachable and very helpful if you have any questions. Bottom line, if I were buying again I would probably stick with rythmik but perhaps get two 12-inch subs instead of the one 15-inch. As it is I will probably end up just adding a second 15-inch at some point for a slightly more even response. It goes down to 14Hz very cleanly and I could probably blow the house apart with it, were I so inclined. :slight_smile: That said, if money and WAF and space were unlimited I would probably go with the vandersteen 5’s, which have integral DSP for the bass. I love the appearance of the Treos though, and from the low 30’s up they are truly golden, sonically.

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One last comment about the Rythmik - in my version at least the integral crossover is not defeatable, which i count as a minus. Keeps me from using a low-pass digital filter or external x-over. I run the Treos full-range, of course.

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Bob said One last comment about the Rythmik - in my version at least the integral crossover is not defeatable, which I count as a minus. Keeps me from using a low-pass digital filter or external x-over. I run the Treos full-range, of course.
Thanks for the heads up on the Rythmik low-pass filter.

From Rythmik tech support

 EXT/12 or AVR/12 is a 12dB/octave low pass filter with variable crossover, set by the crossover knob.

So the closet you can come to defeating the subs low-pass filter would be to use the EXT/12 or AVR/12 setting and set the NON-LFE crossover frequency to 120Hz.

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Bstanwick: You know, I just read your post and looked at the docs again and I think I may have been misunderstanding something all along - I am going to re-read my emails from Brian Ding and see. Stay tuned and thanks for your post - but yes, it is not entirely defeatable.

EDIT: OK, here are two quotes from Brian’s emails to me:

“LPF filter is 12db/oct, then plus the crossover knob controls the variable 12db/oct. So even though LPF labels as 50hz/24db, that switch only set half of the real 24db/oct set to 50hz. You need to adjust the crossover knob for the other half. Let me know if this makes sense.”

"The line-in goes through the same menu as the speaker level inputs. So all you have to do is change to 50hz/24 and then fine tune the crossover knobs to 50hz, or even lower to get the best integration. "

I had understood this to mean that there are two separate 12db/octave filters, one set at 50 or 80HZ, and the other variable up to 120. There is also however a switch that says AVR/12. So looking it all over, I am still not quite sure I am understanding it right. I can send him another note tomorrow.

EDIT: after looking over the docs and other emails from Brian, I am pretty sure my assumption was correct: There are two 12/db filters on top of each other. I don’t think either is defeatable, so bottom line, looks like you’ve got both in there at all times. I don’t know what the hell the AVR/12 filter does; perhaps that one does bypass the other 12 db/octave filter, but the docs don’t say what freq. it’s set to.