New Place New Setup

[substance]

This is my 3.0ch setup in this small apartment. Hoping to move into a house next year and build a dedicated theater.





Display:

Sony XBR-77A9G

Video Source Components:

Oppo UDP-203 - 4K UltraHD player
Apple TV 4K 128GB (2022) - 4K streamer
Roku Ultra (2022) - 4K streamer
Kaleidescape Encore and Premiere Systems with CoStar integration
Kaleidescape Strato C - 4K player
Kaleidescape Terra - 72TB server
Kaleidescape M300 - 1080p player (Region A/1)
Kaleidescape M700 - 320 disc server/1080p player (Region B/2)
Kaleidescape DV700 (x3)- 320x3 disc server
Kaleidescape Premiere 3U - 72TB server

Video Processing and Decoding:

Lumagen Radiance Pro 5348-LAN with Kaleidescape CoStar

Audio Source Components:

Pro-Ject RPM 9.2 Evo II + Speed Box S + Ground-It Deluxe III - Turntable
Control4 Core 5 - Tidal Hi-Fi
Oppo UDP-203 - CD/HDCD/SACD player

Audio Processing/Pre-Amp/Power-Amp:

McIntosh MX121 - Home Theater controller
McIntosh MC207 - 7ch Power amp

Loudspeakers:

Martin Logan Theos - Front Left & Right
Martin Logan Stage X - Center

Power:

Audioquest Niagara 7000
Audioquest PowerQuest 3
Sbooster BOTW 15V Linear power supplies with Ultra MkII upgrades (3x) for LCR speakers
Sbooster BOTW 18V Linear power supply with Ultra MkII upgrade for the TT DC motor
Keces Audio P6 Dual output linear power supply for Kaleidescape Strato C & Premiere M300
Keces Audio P8 Single output linear power supply for Radiance Pro 5348
iFi iPower2 power supply for Roku Ultra

Cables and Interconnects:

Audioquest Columbia XLR interconnects
Audioquest Rocket 88 Bi-Amp speaker cables
Tributaries UHDM 48GPS HDMI cables
Tributaries UHDP 18GBPS HDMI cables
Audioquest Vodka Ethernet cable
Audioquest Tornado High Current cables
Audioquest Blizzard Source component cables
Audioquest Coffee digital coax cable
Ghent Audio - Audioquest NRG-2 DC power cables
Audioquest Leopard Phono cable
Audioquest Edison 20 wall outlet

Network:

Ubiquiti Unifi Dream Machine Pro
Ubiquiti USW Aggregation
Ubiquiti USW Enterprise 8 Poe

Cabinet:

Salamander Design Corsica 237 (Custom painted in gloss white)

Control:

Control4 Core 5 controller
Control4 T4 Series 10” tabletop touchscreen
Josh.Ai Micro

Server:

Synology DS1522+ - 10TB HDD, 2x1TB SSD cache, 10Gbe card

[Waboman]

I'm digging the Mac/Logans combo meal. Well done.

[slimdude]

Your apartment and home theater is beautiful, it's nice and clean. With the kind of A/V equipment that you have, you definitely need a house, so you can play it as loud as you want, without getting any potential complaints from your neighbors about your sound system. I know what its like living in apartment with a home theater like yours. You can't enjoy it the way you want to, you'll have to listen to it at a moderate to a low volume. I've been there.

[substance]

Originally Posted by Waboman

I'm digging the Mac/Logans combo meal. Well done.

Line source, bipolar Electrostats are easy to tame in a small room with very little influence from side walls, ceiling and the floor. I wish I had a full front wall still. This Mac is the most compromised one in their lineup. Ideally, Mac amps with autoformers are better match with the impedence swings of the electrostatic panels. (Or tubes for even better At the volumes I am listening in this apartment, MC207 does fine though.

[substance]

Originally Posted by slimdude

Your apartment and home theater is beautiful, it's nice and clean. With the kind of A/V equipment that you have, you definitely need a house, so you can play it as loud as you want, without getting any potential complaints from your neighbors about your sound system. I know what its like living in apartment with a home theater like yours. You can't enjoy it the way you want to, you'll have to listen to it at a moderate to a low volume. I've been there.

We moved from Boston to South Los Angeles two months ago. The plan was to get to know the area and buy a house next year. It’s still going to be a challenge to squeeze out a dedicated home theater room. Houses here are not very big or at least the ones we can afford

The needles on the VU meters hover between 02. And 2 watts on the Mac amp when I listen to music at moderate volumes here. So far no complaints from the neighbors. I originally had 2.0ch only with phantom center in mind for this place. Then I figured with an actual center speaker I can run the center a little hotter to boost dialogs for late night viewings while keeping overall volume low.

[slimdude]

Originally Posted by substance

We moved from Boston to South Los Angeles two months ago. The plan was to get to know the area and buy a house next year. It’s still going to be a challenge to squeeze out a dedicated home theater room. Houses here are not very big or at least the ones we can afford

The needles on the VU meters hover between 02. And 2 watts on the Mac amp when I listen to music at moderate volumes here. So far no complaints from the neighbors. I originally had 2.0ch only with phantom center in mind for this place. Then I figured with an actual center speaker I can run the center a little hotter to boost dialogs for late night viewings while keeping overall volume low.

Awesome

[bguzman]

Originally Posted by substance

We moved from Boston to South Los Angeles two months ago. The plan was to get to know the area and buy a house next year. It’s still going to be a challenge to squeeze out a dedicated home theater room. Houses here are not very big or at least the ones we can afford

The needles on the VU meters hover between 02. And 2 watts on the Mac amp when I listen to music at moderate volumes here. So far no complaints from the neighbors. I originally had 2.0ch only with phantom center in mind for this place. Then I figured with an actual center speaker I can run the center a little hotter to boost dialogs for late night viewings while keeping overall volume low.

Very nice setup there substance. Seeing as how I spotted some LD equipment are you the very same substance from lddb.com fame?

[substance]

Originally Posted by bguzman

Very nice setup there substance. Seeing as how I spotted some LD equipment are you the very same substance from lddb.com fame?

Yes that's me. I haven't been active here for a few years now. The equipment list above is for whatever I could fit in this apartment. I have the rest stored in a storage nearby. I have a McIntosh MLD-7020, Theta Voyager, Pioneer LD-S2 and a few others for other LD players stored away.

[bguzman]

Originally Posted by substance

Yes that's me. I haven't been active here for a few years now. The equipment list above is for whatever I could fit in this apartment. I have the rest stored in a storage nearby. I have a McIntosh MLD-7020, Theta Voyager, Pioneer LD-S2 and a few others for other LD players stored away.

That's a very nice list you have there. Let me know if you ever need to make some space.

[nonametofame]

Very clean setup and equipment list. Nice to even see an HD-DVD player out there!
I have the ML Motion series in my apartment, but was considering the electrostats at one point.
Almost every video I've seen or forum I've read suggests that placement is critical. I used to own some Def Tech bipolars and experienced the limitations of not having enough space to work with. Ideally, I would want a dedicated room to be able to have ML stats pulled away from all walls. Maybe some day. For now, we make due with what we have.

[substance]

Originally Posted by nonametofame

Very clean setup and equipment list. Nice to even see an HD-DVD player out there!
I have the ML Motion series in my apartment, but was considering the electrostats at one point.
Almost every video I've seen or forum I've read suggests that placement is critical. I used to own some Def Tech bipolars and experienced the limitations of not having enough space to work with. Ideally, I would want a dedicated room to be able to have ML stats pulled away from all walls. Maybe some day. For now, we make due with what we have.

It’s the front wall and amplification that is very critical. Bi-poles have the sound waves in the front and back of the driver/stator out of phase which cancels the side wall interactions for the most part. I used motions for the side/rears when I had a bigger place before. They sound great. I think you would still benefit from electrostats even in less than ideal placements.

HD had way better titles in the beginning. The format war helped Blu-rays gain momentum. Now there is no competitor to 4K UHD (other than streaming), Sony didn’t even care to put a 4K UHD drive in the PS4. I think I have a few HD discs that didn’t get a Blu-ray release still. I have over 400 HD-DVDs and don’t know how many of them are still playable. Most Warner releases suffer rot (manufacturing defect)

[SarahS]

Beautiful setup but no wonder you have an apartment you have a 100k system! :P

[nonametofame]

Originally Posted by substance

It’s the front wall and amplification that is very critical. Bi-poles have the sound waves in the front and back of the driver/stator out of phase which cancels the side wall interactions for the most part. I used motions for the side/rears when I had a bigger place before. They sound great. I think you would still benefit from electrostats even in less than ideal placements.

HD had way better titles in the beginning. The format war helped Blu-rays gain momentum. Now there is no competitor to 4K UHD (other than streaming), Sony didn’t even care to put a 4K UHD drive in the PS4. I think I have a few HD discs that didn’t get a Blu-ray release still. I have over 400 HD-DVDs and don’t know how many of them are still playable. Most Warner releases suffer rot (manufacturing defect)

Thank you for the advice. I actually just purchased a pair of ESL X's, and this will be my first pair of electrostats. I've been too curious for too long, and I love what the Motion speakers do for home theatre. The ESL X's will be for a dedicated 2 channel setup and paired with a Parasound amp. I hope that combination along with careful placement will allow me to enjoy the benefits.

[substance]

Originally Posted by nonametofame

Thank you for the advice. I actually just purchased a pair of ESL X's, and this will be my first pair of electrostats. I've been too curious for too long, and I love what the Motion speakers do for home theatre. The ESL X's will be for a dedicated 2 channel setup and paired with a Parasound amp. I hope that combination along with careful placement will allow me to enjoy the benefits.

Parasounds mate well with electrostats. ML models in the past 10 years or so have been tilted backwards. This coincides with ML making speakers less than 6 feet tall. They are literally tilted back so that these new speakers sound great when the listener is standing. Your first tweak should be setting them back to 90 degree angle

[substance]

Originally Posted by SarahS

Beautiful setup but no wonder you have an apartment you have a 100k system! :P

If I was a single man, I wouldn’t have much furniture either. For example, I don’t have rear speakers because they weren’t wife approved

[nonametofame]

Originally Posted by substance

Parasounds mate well with electrostats. ML models in the past 10 years or so have been tilted backwards. This coincides with ML making speakers less than 6 feet tall. They are literally tilted back so that these new speakers sound great when the listener is standing. Your first tweak should be setting them back to 90 degree angle

Wow, that's the first time I've heard that tweak. I'll definitely give it a try this week. I have them squeezed into my bedroom now and they do sound great, but feel would benefit from a little EQing. Bass response is quite beefy, but placement doesn't allow it to sound tight, and controlled. I plan to integrate a REL sub, so it should be easy to blend.

When I had the speakers in the living room when first set up, I pulled them out about 4 feet from the rear wall and 6ft apart form each other, they really disappeared in the room with an incredible soundstage.

[substance]

Originally Posted by nonametofame

Wow, that's the first time I've heard that tweak. I'll definitely give it a try this week. I have them squeezed into my bedroom now and they do sound great, but feel would benefit from a little EQing. Bass response is quite beefy, but placement doesn't allow it to sound tight, and controlled. I plan to integrate a REL sub, so it should be easy to blend.

When I had the speakers in the living room when first set up, I pulled them out about 4 feet from the rear wall and 6ft apart form each other, they really disappeared in the room with an incredible soundstage.

I don’t currently have any subwoofers involved in this apartment but previously used multiple subwoofers in my setup. I experimented with various methods to blend the subs with the electrostats. At one point I used Pass Labs VXR1 active crossovers (still have this somewhere in the storage). Long story short, I ended up settling on running the main speakers full range and use high level inputs on the subwoofers. No matter the case, there are issues in the mid bass where the stator meets the woofer on these hybrid designs. The newer larger models have active DSP and much lower xover points which might help in the expense of more distortion on the stator.

[AmishParadise]

Beautiful setup. Very clean. I especially love the M-L's. Sweet Salamander cabinet as well. Curious. Looks like the display is mounted to the Salamader cabinet as shown below. Or is it free standing perhaps?

[substance]

Originally Posted by AmishParadise

Beautiful setup. Very clean. I especially love the M-L's. Sweet Salamander cabinet as well. Curious. Looks like the display is mounted to the Salamader cabinet as shown below. Or is it free standing perhaps?

Indeed the display bracket is the one in the picture you attached. It attaches to the back of the cabinet. I don’t have the rear fans but the bottom fans. They kick in when the inside temp reaches 82F. Also have the led light kit from Salamander.

[AmishParadise]

Originally Posted by substance

Indeed the display bracket is the one in the picture you attached. It attaches to the back of the cabinet. I don’t have the rear fans but the bottom fans. They kick in when the inside temp reaches 82F. Also have the led light kit from Salamander.

Nice. Very nice!