My modest but very nice sounding system. As this is a living room and listening room, it combines both 2-channel and HT. The HT set-up is completely separated from 2 channel listening as the 2 channel Belles Aria Signature pre has an HT pass-thru. The Vandy Treo’s are driven by the Belles MB200’s, even in HT mode. My two subs are connected directly to the each of the Belles MB200 in stereo mode, thus no LFE. Vandersteen 2CE Sigs are my rear speakers. HT is not really ‘critical’ at all for me. My concentration is 99% 2 channel, and those components, especially the vinyl rig.
My rear speakers in HT. A bit of overkill, but sound great.
Elac Debut 2.0 Center
Center speaker
Belles Aria Signature Preamp
New 1/22. Very little info on this, but a wonderful preamp. Has broken in nicely.
Power Modules MB-200
Belles mono block amps. 200wpc of the wonderful David Belles sound.
Hagerman Trumpet MC
Tube Phono Pre with two CBS-Hytron 5814A in the au7’ sockets, and four Dynaco/Telefunken smooth plate ax7’s. Now powered by a SBooster power supply. Sweet.
Sbooster BOTW P&P ECO MKII 15-16V
Power supply for the Hagerman Trumpet phono pre
SOTA Sapphire sIII
Turntable
Jelco TK-850s MKII
Arm
Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC
Lo version of the Zephyr. .4mV output
Main cart
Soundsmith Zephyr III
Back-up #1
Goldring G-1042
Back-up #2
Grado Prestige Red w/8mz stylus
Back-up #3, boxed, unused
Ortofon 2M Mono
Mono cart
iFi Audio Zen Stream
Streamer only. Nice unit, great sound.
iFi Audio iPower
iPower X used to power my iFi Zen Stream
Denafrips Ares II
‘Ladder’ DAC
Audiolab 6000CDT
CD Transport. Very nice improvement over the Yamaha Blu-Ray I was using as a transport prior.
Nakamichi CR-1a
Tape deck
Yamaha RX-V781
AV receiver
AudioQuest Comet bi-wire
These were literally ‘thrown-in’ with my Treo purchase, which was quite a deal. Running them installed right now. Sound very nice.
Western Electric 10 awg bi-wire speaker cables. 1950’s NOS
Custom made for me. Had these hooked-up to my Vandersteen 2CE Sigs, and recently the Treo’s. ‘Sitting on the sidelines’ right now while I check out the AudioQuest Comet set.
Western Electric 10’ 22 awg interconnects. 1940’s NOS
Custom made for me. Belles Aria Sig preamp to Belles MB-200 mono blocks.
Audio Envy Studio Prestige
Interconnects - 3 sets
Phono Pre to Preamp
Nak Tape Deck to Preamp
Silnote Audio Morpheus Classic Reference
Interconnects
DAC to Preamp
Silnote Audio Morpheus Digital Reference
Digital cable
Blu-ray/CD player to DAC
XLO Electric UltraPlus
USB Cable. Steamer to DAC
Chord Electronics Ltd. Crimson Vee 3
Interconnects
AVR pre-out to Preamp
BIC America F-12 Subs
2 - Connected in stereo via Belles amp. Cheap but powerful subs. Ports stuffed with foam in order to work with the mains. All crossover and gain settings at the Subs.
Bellari Audio HA540 Headphone amp
I hardly ever use headphones really, but as my Belles Aria Signature preamp has no headphone amp/jack, I purchased this simple tube headphone amp for those rare times I do. Replaced the stock 12AX7 tube with a RAM EI smooth plate, made on Telefunfen machinery. Pretty good deal for a smooth plate very similar to a Telefunken. Doesn’t sound too bad really. This is the earlier version of this amp.
Brian, your speakers look great and must sound lovely. Congrats! Good to see the analog and LP’s. You’ve got a comfortable room vibe going on for sure. Cheers!
Agreed. As you can see, my room is naturally damped with rugs and furniture, so the little absorption I use works to tame a bit. This was a matter of a few days of trail and error, and listening. I also found that for me, diffusion was much more important. Not perfect by any means, but much better than without either.
My experience was starting with a 90%/10% absorbers/ diffusers ratio which killed all echoes but rendered the sound way too lifeless. The later addition of multiple diffusers bringing the square footage absorbers/diffusers to a 55%/45% ratio brought back all the liveliness and still produces no echoes. Point being diffusers do widen the soundstage but they do much more than that. The acoustic treatment road is a tough journey but highly recommended.
Yep, when I was playing around with some absorption and diffusion within my room, that made a pretty big difference in the soundstage. I learned real quick that a 'hole' in between the speakers is not a good idea.
Thank you very much. Yep, the Belles is special to me. I probably won’t hesitate to refurbish it when necessary. For a bi-polar amp design, it sure sounds more like a mosfet amp. David is amazing, and I’m proud to have one of his earlier efforts.
Hey Brian. Dropped by to check out your place. Looks very comfy! Great to see the Jelco 850 and Nobby springs in use. If I may: new speakers might be next.
I would have to hunt that info down. I know I looked at tons of them on various sites before finding that one, and purchasing it. Yes, the frame is partially welded but the front, back, and sides, actually bolt together.
Those are actually 3D architectural tiles I found, and use them (attached together) for diffusion. I painted those so they blended/disappeared a bit better over the fireplace opening. Can be taken off easy enough to use the fireplace as well, but, since I put the Belles on the hearth, that didn’t happen last year.
They work really well, and helped out the soundstage and imaging instead of being ‘sucked into’ the fireplace opening (which only has a mesh screen over it).
Hi rello, the rack is a non-audiophile rack that I purchased on-line through a home furnishing site. It is pretty well made actually, heavy, with a metal frame and wood shelves. It does the job I need it to do, and fits into my overall eclectic decor.
