Four Days With Masterlu

[jdandy]

I just returned home last night from a four day visit with Ivan and his family in Cape Cod. Ivan, Donna, Richard, and Shanna made me feel welcomed and comfortable. It was an enjoyable trip. Ivan asked me for my help to assemble the HRS MXR Signature four shelf rack, and the Clearaudio Innovation turntable, Clearaudio Universal arm, and Clearaudio daVinci moving coil cartridge. The trip was planned, and I arrived at Boston Logan airport Tuesday afternoon. In the same first class manner that Ivan does everything, he had a limo pick me up at the airport and drive me the hour and a half to his home on the coast. It was cold and windy in Boston, so I was very happy to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Tuesday evening was a time to relax, enjoy the company of the family, eat a nice meal, and get my first opportunity to see the completed home theater and two channel rooms. I can tell you that as enjoyable as all the photos are to look at here on AA, they do not touch the beauty or atmosphere both rooms present upon entering. The ambiance of each room has its own totally unique character. It is immediately evident that no stone was left unturned with respect to fit, finish, and quality.

The home theater can only be described as a first pitch home run hit over the center field wall. The 120 inch Stewart Studiotek screen appears to be floating off the front wall, and the effect is a real bonus when viewing movies, as the picture seems to be floating in the air. Although the room is filled with XRT2K's, XCS2K center, built in XR27 surrounds and HT3F rear McIntosh speakers, unless the lighting is brought up you don't notice any of them, but you certainly know they are there when the movies roll. The Sony VPH-G90U three gun CRT projector is the cream of the crop. I have never experience better video than the Sony G90 delivers. When that 120" screen comes to life with the projected video it suspends reality and puts you directly in the movie. It truly is astonishing. Of course, the ten MC1.2Kw amps and two MC501 amps powering the theater's speakers, plus two monster JL Audio Gotham subs in the rear of the theater, contribute in a huge way to that suspension of reality, and total immersion into a movie. You are not left uncomfortable, either. The Fortress seating, with electric adjusting recline and foot rests ensures the movie viewing experience is a comfortably pampered event. Tuesday evening Ivan played some demo Blu-ray clips from different movies in the home theater, but we didn't watch a full length movie, The A-Team, until Thursday evening. I was thoroughly engrossed to say the least, and the new MX150 with Room Perfect performed beautifully.

Tuesday evening was also my first experience with hearing the MC2301 amplifiers and the Sonus Faber Stradivari speakers together. Stepping into the two channel room presents an audio aficionado with a dream come true. The room, although not as large as I had imagined, is perfectly sized for intimate and ultimate two channel listening. The two Fortress black leather recliners are so comfortable and when coupled with the absolute silence of the room, with its sealed entrance door and ASC acoustic panels and bass traps, the listening experience easily creates an audio experience that is literally as good as it gets. Of course there is no ignoring the floor to ceiling, wall to wall custom built rack that is stocked to the gills with McIntosh amps, preamps, processors, power conditioners, video players, and audio source components. It is an extraordinary sight to behold and a McIntosh enthusiast's delight. Since the gear rack in the two channel room also includes all of the electronics for the home theater, when only listening to the two channel system the gear associated with the two channel system is all that is energized but this does not in any way diminish the visual impact that this exciting gear presentation commands.

There is no denying the limitless beauty of the Sonus Faber Stradivari's sitting in this room, standing at attention just inside the door like sentry guards to audio nirvana. There is also no denying the goose bumps that rise on your shoulders and neck when the Stradivari's come to life. I have heard others say that the Strads and the MC2301 amplifiers are a match made in heaven. I can now personally testify that this is the gospel truth. The music that seamlessly flows from the Stradivari's and MC2301's is beyond any criticism I can think of. Music simply appears between your seat and the speakers, filling the sound stage in front of you as though an artist's presence had been summoned to the room for this performance. The Strads blend seamlessly with the two JL Audio Fathom f113 subwoofers in the rear of the room, with no sensation that any audio is coming from anywhere except the front. It is astonishing.

Wednesday was a marathon work day for Ivan and me. After a nice breakfast presented by Donna and Shanna, it was time to begin assembly of the HRS MXR Signature rack, followed by the assembly of the Clearaudio Innovation turntable, installation of the arm board, arm and daVinci moving coil cartridge, and the necessary arm and cartridge setup, followed with the installation of the Asthetix Rhea phono stage preamplifier and associated gear.

The HRS MXR rack arrives with its two side panels packed individually in custom plywood boxes with carrying handles on both ends that look like they might contain a dozen M-16 rifles in each box. The boxes were heavy. The billet aluminum and granite shelves were packed separate, as was the shelf support parts and hardware. Ivan and I unpacked each box and laid out all the parts before beginning assembly. It was immediately apparent that the HRS Signature rack was definitely in a class far above anything else I have ever seen. This rack is manufactured using premium materials, designed and crafted to an extremely high level of precision and finished at the Rolls Royce level of quality. It took Ivan and me about four hours to unpack and assemble the HRS rack. On several occasions we commented that we were happy not to be doing the assembly by ourself. The CNC milling on the shelf supports and the locations of treaded holes where supports attached are so accurate that there was never a single time that the parts did not fit like custom made lamb skin gloves. Every part fit perfectly, every screw could be hand twisted without effort, and the rack practically aligned itself as the individaul parts went together. Once assembled with the isolation shelves installed the rack was less that one degree out of level front to back and side to side before any adjustments were made to the solid milled stainless steel feet. Ivan's German made digital level made short work of dialing in a perfectly level surface for the turntable to be installed on. One look at the upgraded piano black finish of the HRS MXR Signature rack's side panels tells you this is a finish that takes great skill and plenty of time to produce. It is beyond the finish on a Baldwin grand piano. Spectacular is the only word that gets near the rack's premium finish. The HRS MXR rack is proudly manufactured in the USA.

Wednesday afternoon about 2:00 PM I began the Clearaudio Innovation assembly. Ivan left me to the work. This allowed me to focus on carefully assembling the turntable parts. The German engineering precision and manufacturing excellence of this turntable is evident from every angle. The tolerance of the bearing shaft hub that is supported by the ceramic bearing on which the stainless steel sub-platter and Delrin platter centers is such close tolerance that the bearing hub would not insert into the Delrin platter without having to be chilled in the freezer for about 20 minutes. This trick was essential to getting the Delrin platter to slid down the bearing hub to its resting place on top of the stainless steel sub platter. Once this was completed and the arm board installed I moved to the installation of the Clearaudio Universal arm. This is an impressive piece of German engineering. It is a unique and beautiful tonearm. It's installation was straight forward without complications. Ivan purchased all the necessary tools to make the final adjustments for the arm board position, cartridge alignment, and tracking force adjustments, so using the Clearaudio Alignment tool and the Clearaudio digital stylus force gauge allowed me to make these critical tonearm adjustments without a hitch. Once the Clearaudio daVinci moving coil cartridge was mounted on the tonearm and overhang was accurately set I rechecked all the measurement using the alignment tool, and once satisfied that everything was in place it was time to dial in the tracking force. The Clearaudio daVinci requires 2.8 grams of tracking force. The counter weight that was factory installed had to be swapped for a lighter counter weight to achieve the 2.8 gram tracking force and was made simple with the inclusion of three different Clearaudio counter weights.

Ivan also purchased the Clearaudio Strobe disk, which made short work of perfectly adjusting and verifying the accuracy of the platter RPM's, and an Outer Ring LP Stabilizer. Once Ivan made all the connections to the new Asthetix Rhea tube phono stage preamplifier, PS Audio Power Plant Premier, and Richard Gray Power Plant conditioner, we were ready to play some vinyl. It only took a few moments to set up the Asthetix Rhea for cartridge loading, and we were ready to go.

Upon first energizing the phono preamp and the two channel gear I was awe struck at the complete silence. There was not even the faintest buzz or hum to be heard, just blissful silence. Ivan went to his brand new vinyl collection and selected Paul McCartney's Band On The Run LP. It was time to put these marvelous analog components to the ultimate test. I lowered the daVinci stylus onto the lead-in groove and the audio began. Ivan, Richard and I were present for the Innovation inauguration. I believe it is safe to say all three of us were slack jawed at what we heard. Zero background noise, perfectly rendered and authoritative bass, rich, vibrant vocals as smooth as silk, and guitars, drums and cymbals that were crisp, lifelike, and revealed convincing dynamics. We were all looking at each other with Cheshire cat grins. Yes indeed, this was awesome analog sound. Ivan swapped Paul McCartney for Diana Krall - Live in Paris on 180 gram vinyl. Wow, wow, and wow again. This analog rig, even right out of the box and squeaky new, was making some excellent music. The Clearaudio Innovation turntable is flawless in its performance and totally silent. The Clearaudio daVinci moving coil cartridge is a premium jewel with its ceramic coated aluminum body, 24 karat gold wound coils, eight magnets, and a boron cantilever barely thicker than a human eyebrow hair. With less than two hours on this cartridge it sounds wondrous and open, leaving me marveled at it's clean frequency range from top to bottom, dynamics that are effortless, and resolution like I have never heard produced while listening to vinyl. It will only get better from this point.

Wednesday was a busy, productive, and immensely satisfying day. I never stepped outside the house, not that I wanted to, especially after Richard reported that it was 7 degrees outside with a wind chill of -10 degrees. That's way below this Florida boy's 40 degree cut off rule. Fortunately for me, Ivan's home was a cozy 74 degrees, and the floors were warm. Why would I ever want to go outside?

Thursday was a fun day, too. After breakfast, Ivan and I went down to the game room, and he turned on the Batman pinball machine to play a game. What a wild pinball machine. Richard told me he holds the all time high points. Then we got to the business of assembling the three section Salamander rack that will house the Bryston system that will drive the Sonus Faber Amati Annivesario speakers. Let me tell you, it was much easier and faster assembling the Salamander rack than the HRS rack, not to mention my back wasn't killing me when we were finished. Next, Ivan began unpacking the Magnum Dynalab MD-105T tuner, the Bryston BP-26 preamp and separate power supply, the BCD-1 CD player, and BDA-1 DAC. The Bryston gear is very attractive and subtle in its beauty. The two Bryston 28B SST2 amplifiers were delivered with the wrong size face plates so there are no amps yet while Bryston builds two new 17 inch 28B SST2 amps. The two SF Amati's were boxed in order to remain clean while Tom the carpenter completes the cabinets in the bar and kitchen areas. Ivan doesn't want the speakers to get dusty and I can't blame him for that.

After the Salamander rack was built with the gear unpacked and loaded on the shelves we moved to the two channel room to roll tubes in the two MC2301 amplifiers. Ivan spent a few minutes in the catwalk room disconnecting the Wireworld Platinum Eclipse speaker cables, Gold Eclipse interconnects, and Silver Electra power cords before the amps could be pulled out the front of the rack. It wasn't long before each of the MC2301's were loaded with eight Gold Lion KT88's and two Gold Lion 12AT7 tubes. It was a beautiful sight to behold. The McIntosh MC2301 is an amazing amplifier and so beautiful to lay eyes upon. Its dimensions make the amplifier quite formidable to handle and exciting to see. It took Richard, Ivan and me to lift the amps back on top of the stack of two other MC1.2Kw amps, then Ivan manhandled them by walking them back into their positions. You don't just toss these amplifiers around like a smaller cousin might get handled.

With both MC2301's sporting a full compliment of Gold Lion tubes, it was time to test their new found glory. After a short warm up Ivan spun Diana Krall on the new Clearaudio Innovation turntable. Since we had been listening to that same record with the stock tubes it was a perfect starting place for the comparison. I immediately noticed an improved sense of dynamic range and a greater depth to the sound stage. As we played more music, including CD's, SACD's and the MS750 server through the MDA1000 it became crystal clear that a very nice improvement in sound had transpired with the introduction of the Gold Lion valves. The silence seemed blacker, the sound stage and individual musician's positions on the stage grew clearer with a new sense of separation. Bass definition developed tighter control when notes were played or stopped. The midrange literally flowed so smoothly from the Stradevari's it was as though there were no speakers in the room, only musicians and singers. The Gold Lion performance jump was unmistakable.

With the chores, if you can really call them that, behind us we spent some more time just listening before Ivan and Richard dismissed themselves to attend to some website duties and I was left in the two channel room to enjoy the fruits of our labor. What a fun afternoon that was. For a short while I was Master and Commander of the Masterlu system. Imagine my big smile.

A few words have to be said with respect to the catwalk room. A person may think he understands who Ivan is by looking at and enjoying his home theater and two channel room creations, but until you have had the opportunity to look at the details and critical work invested in the wiring and powering of these two systems from the catwalk view you will not fully understand Ivan's commitment to this hobby. The sheer number of power cables, audio cables, control cables, data cables, remote control repeater cables, wireless connectivity, temperature control and monitoring, fan control, power conditioning and reserve power storage systems would totally overwhelm that average bear, yet every cable is neatly run, ty-rapped and secured. All excess cable lengths are snugly looped, ty-rapped and carefully stored in secure positions. The catwalk room is a perfect example of how to organize, manage, and execute the wiring of a complex and complicated sound system. The catwalk is where you discover the depth of Ivan's attention to organization and detail. It is remarkable.

Ivan uses the Universal Remote Control MX6000 in the home theater, and he has covered every base imaginable with the programing and amazing screen graphics he has programmed. I am sure I cannot cover everything the remote is capable of controlling but from what was demonstrated to me there is nothing that Ivan might wish to control from the home theater that cannot be controlled from the MX6000.

All fun things eventually must come to an end and so it was with my visit with Ivan. Sharing time and space with him and his wonderful family was a joy. Donna, Shanna, and Richard are easy to hang out with, conversations were warm and friendly, and I was made to feel like I was part of the family. I can't thank each of them enough for making my stay so enjoyable and memorable.

[hkval]

WOW!! They make you feel like you are part of the family because you are part of the family. This is a fantastic read and will require being read a few more times. I almost feel as if I was there. This was event that "Was Meant To Be".
I can't wait to get up tomorrow morning and read this several more times.
Thank You Dan,
Howard

[AudioNut]

What a trip, what an experience in ultimate audio, what a wonderful description of everything that you did and all that you saw and enjoyed. What a superb tour through the wonderful world of Ivan's Castle on the Cape and the audio and video wonders that reside therein.

Congratulations to you Dan for your extraordinary ability to use the English language for the enjoyment of everyone who reads your excellent descriptive prose.

Everyone who reads this extremely enjoyable post will share in the excitement that you obviously feel reflecting back on your incredible experience.

Now, Dan, will you please get back to work on Santa's Helpers in the other thread?

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by jprice

[B]
Now, Dan, will you please get back to work on Santa's Helpers in the other thread?

Julian.......Thank you for your kind words, but honestly I am beginning to think you may have a second hobby with a higher priority.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by hkval

WOW!! They make you feel like you are part of the family because you are part of the family. This is a fantastic read and will require being read a few more times. I almost feel as if I was there. This was event that "Was Meant To Be".
I can't wait to get up tomorrow morning and read this several more times.
Thank You Dan,
Howard

Howard.......What a nice compliment. Thank you. I had a great time at Ivan's home, and enjoyed everyone's company every minute.

[AudioNut]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Julian.......Thank you for your kind words, but honestly I am beginning to think you may have a second hobby with a higher priority.

When you are too old to do anything but look - you do want to look!

[Masterlu]

Dan, first and foremost a hearty thank you for making the 1500 mile journey north to assist me in assembling my analog rig. What we accomplished in a few days was simply remarkable.

Each day rewarded us with new found audio bliss. This post shall long remain as a testament to your extraordinary writing skills, not to mention your audio prowess. I must say in all sincerity, I never expected to read a post like this.

Dan, thanks again for assisting me especially so close to the Holiday's.

I'm proud to call you my friend.

Ivan

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

Dan, first and foremost a hearty thank you for making the 1500 mile journey north to assist me in assembling my analog rig. What we accomplished in a few days was simply remarkable.

Each day rewarded us with new found audio bliss. This post shall long remain as a testament to your extraordinary writing skills, not to mention your audio prowess. I must say in all sincerity, I never expected to read a post like this.

Dan, thanks again for assisting me especially so close to the Holiday's.

I'm proud to call you my friend.

Ivan

Ivan.......It was my pleasure. Ditto on the friendship.

[KMC45]

That's a nice read.

[MasterLuJr]

Dan,
It was great getting to spend time with you. I really enjoyed our conversations especially about the grocery store, "Well I've never" Thank you for taking the time to come up and lend a helping hand.