Sojourner's Room

Hello all,

Sojourner, an experienced Tunee, has just joined the Techno-Zone. He'll be great to have on board, and as you can see from the pics below, has his act together. He's now about to take his room and system to the next level, too.




















































Welcome Sojourner

Hi there Sojourner!

Welcome...

Great system you got there -- and got an idea from looking at the pix. Sonic noticed that you are top tuning your Marantzs with a piece of MW and a downrod (from what I can see), with the MW piece resting on the top of the amp casing. I thought till now that the vibrations had to go up the central rod and ground thru uprights supporting the canopy. But what you've done shows me another way -- and a useful one since I am running out of threaded rods.

I'll try this and report in on the results.








Also how is your system configured? You have 6 speakers in all with 6 monoblocks, one DVD player but where's the crossovers? What's that box at the bottom of the rack?

Sonic

Thanks Drewster,
Hello Tuneland and Zonees,
Well I've got the Tuning bug again after a few years and some life adventures. Haven't done anything to my system for a few years except listen and enjoy. It's been turned on nonstop for about five years ???!!! The amps don't have on-off switches anymore.
Here is a detailed list of the room. I love lists. Always give a better idea of what we're talking about.
SOJOURNER'S SYSTEM February 2011
Room 13' wide by 11.5' deep, side walls 6' 8”, ceiling peak 7' 8” front to rear
Door, left back wall, with window and wood slat blind
Window (1), centered in back wall, with wood slat blind
Side walls open in rear, 4' on left, 28” on right
Birch Paneling 1/4”, walls and ceiling
Oak Hardwood Floor
Lights (2), ceiling hung front and rear
Leather Loveseat at listening position
Classic 60 Speakers (2), Birch Plywood with Redwood Edges, nearfield position
SW10 Subwoofers (2), Birch Plywood with Redwood Edges, front corners
Tuning Boards (4), under 60's and SW10's
Studio 5 Speakers (2), Birch Plywood with Redwood Edges, surround rear (installed but not hooked up)
Sony 34” KD-34XBR2 CRT Tube TV
Magnavox MDV 453 DVD Player
Marantz AV600 Preamplifier/Tuner
Marantz MA-700 Mono Amplifiers (6) (six installed only four hooked up)
Bare Essence Speaker Cable Type 3, fronts, wall hung on Magic Wood
Bare Essence Speaker Cable Type 4, subs, wall hung on Magic Wood
Picasso Interconnects, wall hung on Magic Wood
MGD Power Cord Type1 and Type 2, wall hung on Magic Wood
Dedicated 20 amp circuits (3)
Tuning Rack (3), Birch Plywood with Redwood Edges, 4 boards in front, 6 boards in sides
MCC: Mini Corner Controllers (4), Cherry Boards
MEC: Mini Echo Controllers (, Cherry Boards
Ceiling PZC (1), Cherry Board
FS PZC: Floor Standing PZCs (2), Cherry Boards
SS: Sound Shutters (22)

Hello Sonic,
The bottom box is the AV600 which does the crossovers. The two top amps have never been hooked up for rear channels, for movies only,which I don't miss too much. Stereo just sounds great in this room even for movies. Do miss my big sub for LFE channel, which I don't have with the AV600.
The components are all on MTDs and Magic wood with springs on top. I haven't done any tuning with rods, YET!!! So I'm already making a list of to do, changes, and additions. Have ordered four platforms for speakers and am rearing to go. Hopefully nice and slow like Michael says.
So here's what I'm thinking so far:
TO BE ADDED OR CHANGED
Bamboo Rug ?
Change Magic Wood pieces to baked and poly coated pieces
Rebuild front rack, add balance shelf, 5 shelves in each
Put all components on one circuit
Parasound Halo P7 Preamp, swap out AV600
Crossover ?
Hsu Research High End Electronic Crossover, Linkwitz-Riley high/low pass 91 Hz, 24 db per octave
Paradigm X-30
Oppo BDP-95 Blue Ray Player, add or swap out MDV 453
Tunable Table Tops, ? On Preamp and Player?
Move surround amps to rear on tuning boards
Tuning Rack (2), Birch Plywood with Redwood Edges, 2 boards each, in rear
Rebuild side racks, add balance shelves
Canopy's for MA700 transformers, outside chassis
Platforms (4), Birch Ply with ? Frame, under 60's and SW10's
Bag End Infrasub-18, surround LFE channel, behind loveseat
Panasonic Viera TC-P55VT30 55” Plasma TV, front wall mount
New Loveseat, leather and wood, less dampening and mass
Tunable Table Top ? On Preamp ? on Player?
Spring Poles ? On Preamp? on Player?
Canopy's ?
Tunable Wall Panel ?

That ought to keep me busy for a while.

I've never been happy with the TV sticking out in the room and the over stuffed love seat. And I want better movies, Blu-Ray, bigger screen, my LFE back. So have already started tweeking and gathering and will post my doings as I go along. Am open and desire any suggestions or ideas. I need all the help I can get!!!

Nice to be back, Bless you all, Lee

What a great week I've had. Been going back and reading the old posts on TuneLand. Such an incredible amount of information and wisdom, and incredible systems. And Michael, you are one of the most beautiful human beings I've ever met. Where are all the rest of you guys these days?

I got a batch of Magic wood baked and finished. Letting it cure for a while. Got the Parasound P7 and made up power cable using Bare Essence. Will probably rebuild the center rack next weekend and insert it. Hoping in the end it will at least sound as good as what I'm hearing now. It's about the same weight as the AV600 and should be more simple, no tuner, no processing.

Been listening to Pink Floyd Echoes. After all this time with no tweaking of my system, still it is blowing me away. My bass is so awesome. I LOVE MY ROOM!!! And, I've got back my old enthusiasm for the Tune and Tuning. Hope to see some of you past Tunees come back also.

Interesting thing I noticed the other day with the MTDs under the speakers. I alway put the two in front thinking because that was the heavier end it would be best, but noticed every body else putting them one in front and two in back. Made the switch and already seems to give more dimension and depth. Going to go slow and one step at a time the best I can.

Hi there Sojourner

Wondering what you've done with the amps -- you said you don't use rods but springs. After your comment Sonic looked again at your system pix and I see a MW peice over the top of the amps and on the surface of the wood what I thought was a knob to turn a tuning rod looks like a Harmonic Spring. How does this work to tune the amp?

Sonic

Hey Sonic,
I think you got it. What is missing are the two top shelves which formed the clamp between:
bottom shelf-
3 MW pieces under MTDs-
3 MTDs-
amp-
MW slat, bridging front to back-
harmonic spring-
to top shelf.
That configuration will be changing soon, I'm not sure exactly how yet but I will report. Still mostly listening at this point.
Lee

Hi Sojourner

Thanks for that. You'll also I have been learning from the way you set up the Shutters.

Sonic

Hi Sojourner

Thanks for that. You'll also have noticed that I been learning Tune skills from the way you set up the Shutters.

Sonic

Hi Lee

I'm having fun with your toys. Knee deep in saw dust at this point. It's been a good week for sanding.



nice to see you back