Luke's (Saru) 2-channel system
 

Figured I'd start a system thread of my own, now that I'm dipping my toes back into the audiophilia game. As my current listening space is in the process of being cleaned up and transitioned from a small room as dual-purpose (home office + 2-channel room) to more of a parlor space for sitting, reading, and dedicated listening, I'll hold off on pictures until the rearrangement is complete. However, this room is roughly 12' wide by 15' long with my audio gear + speakers/sub along the 12' side at the front of the room. I had a dedicated 20-amp line installed behind the audio gear with three receptacles. The floor is hardwood, and I've got a small shag carpet in the middle of the room to help with floor reflection. Bass traps are in the front corners and acoustic panels are at the first reflection points for both speakers, both products by GIK Acoustics. Three windows at the front of the room behind the audio setup, currently outfitted with blinds but I plan to replace these with some heavy curtains that can better handle the glass reflections. The door leading into this room from the entryway at side of room has a large glass panel centrally inset; I plan to install a heavy curtain above the door that can be drawn when it's music time to cut down on the glass reflections at this location as well. Aside from that, the room is fairly ordinary, just a little small.

Onto the gear! The main electronics are housed in a black BDI cabinet:

• Power conditioner: Furman IT-Reference 15i, powered by Shunyata Venom-3 cord direct to dedicated 20A line on wall. Standing on a set of Stillpoint Ultra Minis.
• Network streamer: Sonore ultraRendu, powered by Uptone Audio LPS-1, plugged into the Furman 15i. Both sitting on some inexpensive sorbothane feet. Input is slightly-better-than-generic-but-not-audiophile-grade Ethernet cable run from my network switch (more on that later). Output is WW Starlight USB A-to-B running out to my DAC.
• DAC: Schiit Yggdrasil ("Less Is More", plus Unison USB), powered by Wireworld Electra 7 cord plugged into the Furman 15i. Standing on a set of Stillpoint Ultra Minis. Output will soon be WW Silver Eclipse 8 XLR's out to the pre-amp (currently Audioquest Mackenzie XLR). Note: The Yggy is out in California for the new upgrades, so right now I'm using my trusty Gungnir Multibit with Gen5 USB.
• Pre-amplier: McIntosh C2600 tube pre. Bought it a few years ago on my initial attempt to move to separates (which ultimately fell through -- it wasn't the right time), but I've rarely used it. Powered by Wireworld Silver Electra 7 cord plugged into the Furman 15i. Output will soon be WW Silver Eclipse 8 XLR's out to the amp. Note: while I'm waiting for the amp, I'm actually using my good ol' MAC6700 receiver as an integrated; this unit is going toward the incoming amp as trade.
• Amplifier: Moon by Simaudio 760A stereo amplifier. Yes, I've decided to start a transition to the Moon Evolution series! It'll probably be a year or so before I make a similar jump with the pre-amp, but in the meantime I'll get to enjoy an interesting (I hope!) combination with the C2600/760A pair. When this is in place, it will be powered by Wireworld Silver Electra 8 cord plugged into either the Furman 15i or directly to the 20A dedicated line, I haven't decided. Output is Audioquest Castle Rock speaker cables to my floorstanders.
• Speakers: Sonus Faber Olympica III. Not much to say here, I love 'em and I'll probably hold onto 'em until a move to the next house can justify buying bigger-and-badder speakers.
• Subwoofer: REL S/3 SHO, powered by Shunyata Venom-3 cord direct to dedicated 20A line. I have a single sub, and the plan was to move to dual subs but REL went and discontinued this model while my audio journey was on hiatus. Unsure if I want to try to scare up a mate for it in the used market or move it off to another system and buy a new pair of something different. Not my priority but it's a to-do item on my list.
• Turntable: Marantz TT-15S1. I'm not big on vinyl yet but I wanted to give it a more serious attempt after selling my entry-level Music Hall turntable to my brother a while back. The motor is plugged into the Furman (may change this to the general room's 15A outlets though), and the grounds and RCA output all go to the pre-amp.

I'm also listing out my upstream network gear here, as they're in the same room as the other gear and they do have an impact on listening via streaming and stored files, which is 99% of my listening activity.

• Power conditioner: Furman Power-Station 8, powered direct to wall with general 15A outlet.
• Router: Eero Pro 6 mesh router, powered by OEM wall wart to Furman PS-8. I used to plug the old Eero router into my HDPlex 200W LPS but the new router has a USB-C input... maybe I can find a USB-C to XLR cable that'll allow me to connect it to the HDPlex. Anyway, I have Verizon FiOS, so the Ethernet from Verizon's ONT comes straight into the wall and into this Eero, which is also connected to the network switch via generic Cat6.
• Network switch: Consumer-grade TP-Link switch. Nothing too fancy here, though I have it powered by the HDPlex 200W LPS, which is plugged into the Furman PS-8. Currently this handles all wired network traffic in my house, all of which use generic Cat6 Ethernet cables.
• Roon server: Intel NUC 7th-gen (I think), installed into a fanless case with built-in heatsinks. Runs Roon OS and holds my entire library of Redbook and Hi-Res FLAC files. Sole purpose of this device is to run Roon server. Also powered by the HDPlex 200W LPS and output via generic Cat6 Ethernet.

And that's it for now! My new Wireworld cables will be arriving this week from Masterlu, so I'll start burning those in soon. Schiit should be receiving my Yggy for upgrades tomorrow, hopefully they'll turn that around quickly. And my Moon amp is awaiting construction in Canada right now, so my dealer said they expect to ship it in a couple weeks. My hope is to have my computer desk and much of the accrued clutter up and out of this room by then so that I can fully appreciate all the new upgrades :D

In a later post, I'll list out some of the future upgrades that I have in mind, and perhaps you all can offer some advice as to next steps.

:ttiwwp:


Seriously now, you're building a nice and well thought through system! :thumbsup:

Thanks! It's definitely a work in progress, but I'm glad to find that I had put in the foundation for good upgrades before I had to hit pause on all this.

I will absolutely take some good pics when my room looks a little less like a hot mess.

:icon_jump:

Big changes today for my primary system! The 760A amplifier that I ordered last month from my Simaudio dealer is (hopefully) scheduled to arrive at the shop this afternoon. They'd told me over the phone yesterday that it had shipped last week and might possibly arrive that day, so I packed up my trusty ol' MAC6700 (which I offered up as trade toward the 760A) and hauled it up to the dealer since I was running errands in the area anyway... it didn't arrive in the UPS shipment but I went ahead and completed the purchase and trade transaction anyway since I was not at all interested in lugging the 6700 back inside my house overnight and then back out to the car next day. So, now I'm all paid up and just waiting for the call that my new amp has arrived!

And then, by sheer luck, I had happened upon a used 740P preamp on USAM over the weekend for a *very* attractive price. I ended up purchasing that unit (and sold my C2600 to cover that cost entirely), and it's scheduled to arrive at my doorstep today. As long as there aren't surprise shipping delays, then I will have made the leap from my modest McIntosh integrated to a lovely 740P/760A Moon Evolution pair in 24 hours!

Only problem is, since I dropped off the 6700 yesterday, I have no music to listen to today while I work! It's so quiet.... :(

Nice Simaudio combo. I know someone who have that combo with a pair of ProAc K6 and love them.
Do you buy the 2 tone??

Looking forward to seeing photos of the completed project.
Take your time. Treating the room is very important.

No, I went with all-silver for the Moon faceplates. Was considering the two-tone but the demo room was outfitted with all-silver on the high-end setup and I fell in love with the look. Which was another reason I had to jump on the used 740P deal, as it was also in silver.

Speaking of which, the 740P and 760A are in the system now! Everything's working just fine and I'm back to whistling while I work, so to speak. One thing I noticed as I loaded these into my BDI cabinet is, these units are simply too gorgeous to tuck into a cabinet where they are partially obscured with a tinted glass door! Now considering a modest stand upgrade from VTI or similar... in terms of sound quality, it's too early to fully appreciate the upgrade (the brand new 760A needs all its burn-in time), but I can immediately sense better imaging, wider soundstage, and even finer detail amongst individual instruments than when I upgraded interconnects and power cables last month. And that's with my room still a cluttered mess while I'm (more slowly than I'd like) organizing, cleaning, and moving my office stuff upstairs to the newly-appointed office space. I seriously can't wait to get the computer desk and bookshelves out, that'll probably have an enormous impact on the sound quality as well!

The "Big Clean" project continues, and I've made some great progress... my home office has now been moved up to the 2nd floor and the bookshelves (and all their books) that lined the walls of the listening space have been relocated as well. I've still got a fair amount of clutter in the room to go through, but there's a lot more space than there was before... fingers crossed that it translates to better room acoustics in the end!

I had a surprise acquisition this week -- happened upon a gently used Aries G1 for a "don't pass this up" price, so I snatched that up and it just arrived this morning. Plugged into the system in place of my ultraRendu... sounding great so far, even if the unit is obviously too cold from transit for any serious listening. I believe this unit had barely been used, so I think it still needs its break-in period as well. I've also got a used Venom V14 NR cord on the way, so that should improve the Aries G1 further still, and at some point I'll probably get this thing up on some Stillpoints, too.

I'll be continuing the clean-out this week and weekend, then I'll start looking into furnishing and putting up the bay window curtains. On the gear front, the next item on my wishlist is the EtherREGEN. With a bit more work and a little luck, I'll be all done with the listening parlor just in time for the holiday season!

What a nice system you’re putting together, Luke. We do need pictures though[emoji41]