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Old 05-10-2017, 07:26 PM
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jimtranr jimtranr is offline
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Join Date: May 2011
Location: Corvallis, OR
Posts: 1,587
Default "...a game of inches..."

The next step in my "Stonehenge-the-Bedroom-System" project focused on the following question:

Would a change from this...



to this...



effect a perceptible improvement, if any, in what I hear at my bed-top listening position? If so, to what extent? And would the improvement warrant continuation to the next step, an attempt to reduce SBIR further by replacing the equipment cabinet with an open-frame "flexy" rack to present even less reflective surface, particularly from the rack's right side, to the close-aboard left speaker?

The change you see in the two photos was accomplished by lopping the top five inches off the cabinet (including the cabinet top) with a portable Skil saw.

That lowered the laptop (and its opened-out-during-playback reflective screen) about six inches. The chop job also allowed me to lower the left-corner 244 two-and-a-half inches so that it now hangs at the same height as the front wall's center Monster and right 244 and lowers it relative to the left Paradigm Studio 20 so the speaker "sees" a tad more of the 244's absorptive surface behind it.

I frankly didn't expect to hear much, if any, difference in the sonic presentation, since the laptop's open screen still presents a substantial reflective surface immediately behind the speaker.

Whoops, was I ever surprised. No, the bedroom wasn't transformed into the Concertgebouw as I listened to familiar rips and hi-rez downloads with the "five-inch tweak" in play. But more instrumental and spatial-cue detail became evident on the left side, "opening up" the overall presentation and rendering it a more coherent whole, both laterally and fore-and-aft, increasing the sensation of "step into the soundstage and touch someone" where the mixing engineer hasn't gone pan-pot crazy.

Well worth the sawing and sanding time...and an impossible-to-ignore incentive to get cracking on the open-frame rack.

Jim
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Jim


Bedroom: Aurender N150, TEAC UD-505 (AKM version), EMIA Cu Elmaformer passive line stage, conrad-johnson MF2500, Paradigm Studio 20 v5. Shunyata Delta D6, Altaira CG hub. Shunyata Alpha XC, Delta NR v2, Alpha USB, Alpha and Venom CGC/SGC. Wireworld Eclipse 8 interconnect & speaker cables. Stillpoints footers, Butcher Block Acoustics maple platforms. Stillpoints and GIK acoustic panels.

Home Office:Windows 11 PC/JRiver 31, TEAC UD-501, Luminous Audio Technology Axiom II Walker Mod passive, conrad-johnson Sonographe SA-250, Paradigm SE-1. Shunyata Hydra (Original Version), Venom 10 NR. Wireworld Eclipse 7 interconnects. Blue Jeans speaker cable.

Living-Dining Room: Windows 11 Laptop/JRiver 29, Oppo BD-83, TEAC UD-501 DAC, SOTA Sapphire TT, Graham Slee Era Gold V, Ortofon 2M Black, McIntosh MR-77, c-j Sonographe SC-25, c-j MF2500, Paradigm SE-3. Wireworld 8 IC, Blue Jeans SC. Shunyata Hydra 8 v.2, Shunyata Delta NR, Venom NR. GIK 244 bass & scatter-plate panels.

Last edited by jimtranr; 05-11-2017 at 01:24 PM. Reason: typo
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