Turntable: Kuzma Stabi (Kuzma Stogie tonearm), Lyra Delos MC cartridge
Sutherland 20/20 phono preamp (fed by a K&K step-up transformer)
Audience interconnects
Goertz speaker cables
10ga shielded power cabling throughout
The audio half of the room is is powered off a dedicated 20 Amp breaker (first thing I did to the house!). I was lucky that I never sold my old Maggies. The 3.6Rs produced no bass at all by themselves in the new room (15.5' x 30').
This system represents a complete redesign of my previous system. In the past two years I’ve replaced just about everything but the turntable (new cartridge and step-up though). The timing of the new DirectStream release and upgrade was a bonus!
The new space would not accommodate what I was using as an equipment stand; so, I’m using a crappy old console to hold the non-turntable equipment. The 100+ pound butcher block table works great as a turntable stand. I look forward to the improvement in sound I’ll get from a more rigid equipment rack – suggestions welcome!
Box Furniture Co. I have one in Maple… Truly heirloom quality fit and finish, and I hate to say it but my system sounds much better on it that anything else I’ve used…
I ended up choosing a Mapleshade rack (liked the adjustability and the price).
I took the wood accent pieces off of the MGIIIAs, and placed the panels closer to the sidewalls (better bass!).
Found a guy who could repair my old Revox PR99 -- my Barclay-Crocker, as well as other prerecorded tapes are a revelation!
Picked up a PSA memory player to round out the system.
By the way, I've discovered that Magnepan's latest iteration of the ribbon tweeter has a much smoother response (less beamy and bright) than the ribbons that were originally on the 3.6Rs. I kept wondering why the right channel of my system was so much louder and brighter than the left -- turns out it was the difference between a 1990's ribbon and 2004-5 ribbon. So, if you have a pair of 3.6Rs, a cheap upgrade would be to swap in new ribbons. The newer ribbons completely changed the sound (for the better) of the 3.6Rs -- much better midrange to HF integration.
Looks great. A very interesting speaker combination to me. I owned the Tympani 4a’s so the size and configuration is about as close as I have ever seen.
With them, I set the mid/tweeter panels up first with tweeters on the inside. I created the classic triangle and sweet spot intersection and slowly adjust toe in to create a continuous sound filed, then I moved them forward and back until I found a smooth midrange response.
After that I marked the floor with painters tape and placed the bass panels on the outside of the midrange. It was a much slower process (1/4" at a time) to create a smooth bass in the room. The end up toed in slightly more than the mid/tweeter panels and almost tight together.
The good news is that although the room looks symmetrical, it is not. Even that window behind the speakers is off center by about a foot. Add in the patterned ceiling, the offset doors leading in an out of the room, the listening area being 3-4 ft narrower than where the speakers are and you have the makings of a decent sound room (even though I couldn’t use the long wall)!
Problem was, after a month or so of moving the speakers around, I just couldn’t get acceptable bass response – great imaging, but no bass. I like my Maggies with the tweeters to the outside. To my ears, in this room, I get a fairly large sweet spot, and a good sense of stage.
What gave me the idea to use my old 3As as bass panels was Magnepan’s own DWM, but it did take a while to realize that the bass crossover frequencies of the 3A and the 3.6Rs were different – couldn’t quite get the speakers to “blend” properly. I did a little research, and then redid the 3A crossovers.
With the tweeter/mid in the center between two bass panels, the speakers disappear, and I get a wider and deeper soundstage. And because the speakers are separate, I was able to optimize the placement of the 3As for the best bass response – close and perpendicular to the side walls.
