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Reviewer's Bio
Scott Faller
Your Very Own Joe Audiophile
Well, it has been a while since I've updated my bio and as usual, my systems and rooms have changed. Since my last update, the last of my three kids have moved on to start their lives and in turn I find myself with one more dedicated listening room. Damn the bad luck. When I picked up that extra room, my lovely wife and I decided to go ahead and remodel it at the same time. The smallest of the rooms that I used to call the Grape room got remodeled and is now our home office. Of course there is a system in that room. The room vacated by my youngest also got painted and has a system in it. This room doubles as a small entertainment/bedroom for the nieces and nephews when they come over. We now call this the Green Room. In the latter half of my bio, I'll get into my preferences in sound and a bit of my history but since I'm talking about my listening rooms, let me go ahead and explain why I've got so many and what each of them has for systems.
Since we're empty nesters, I've got the somewhat unique opportunity to set up four separate rooms just for audio, not including the Home Theater. This is especially critical when it comes to writing about speakers. As most everybody knows, not all speakers work well in all rooms. Example; put a large pair of floor standers in a small room and you are asking for trouble. The bass will over run you because of the acoustics of the room. Put that same pair of speakers in a medium or large room and they will likely work just fine. In turn, all three of my rooms get progressively bigger. From my smallest room at 792 cubic feet, to the middle room at 1776 cubic feet, to the big room at 4320 cubic feet or even the Home Theater at 2304 cubic feet and I've got a number of different rooms that I can run a piece of gear or pair of speakers through to see how it interacts in a given sized room.
Unlike the typical writer who usually only has one dedicated listening room, I've got the rather unique opportunity to really experiment with a piece of gear to find out where it performs at its best. In turn, I've given you diagrams and links to pictures of my rooms so you can see exactly what they look like.
So let's start with my largest room or what I call the Blue Room
This is my main reference room. In it, I've got what I consider my most revealing and most musically accurate equipment. This is a list of the gear that resides there.
Digital Source - MHDT Havana USB DAC, non-oversampling, WE396A tube
Turntable - Opera LP-5
Tonearm - Dynavector DV-507 MkII
Cartridges - Yamamoto YC-03s LOMC, VdH modified Spectral LOMC, Cartridge Man Music Maker, Dynavector 20XH, Soundsmith modified Dynavector 20XH
Phonostage - Graham Slee Reflex era Gold
Head Amp - Graham Slee Elevator, Signet (Audio Technica) Step Up Transformer with variable loading
Preamp - Modified Korato KVP-20 (tubed)
Active Crossover - First Watt B5 Prototype, Modified Pioneer SF-850, Modified Audio Research EC-3 (tubed)
Speakers -Lowther PM2A in an open baffle 150Hz and up (my own design), 15" Altec 416 Alnico in a 5.5cf vented enclosure 150Hz and down
Amplification - Welborne Labs 300B DRD (Lowthers), AKSA 55 Nirvana+ (Altec)
Power Conditioning - Balanced Power Technologies 2.1 signature, Dedicated 20 amp circuit
Cabling - various silver plated copper with Teflon dielectric home brew, Audio Note silver, Clarity Labs silver, Kaplan Cable and BPT power cords.
This particular room is very audio friendly. This room is in my basement. The head and back wall (and floor) are concrete. On the floor, I have standard large area rugs. The ceilings are acoustical lay in. Fortunately, because of the room dimensions, I don't have huge nodes and nulls as many people do in smaller rooms. In turn, my acoustic treatments are at a minimum. I just use a couple of panels at the first reflection points.
The next room is what I lovingly refer to as the Redrum.
This room sees a lot of action, as it seems to be a very 'typically' sized listening room. In it, I've got very good, yet very affordable equipment. This room probably sees the most changes as far as gear goes. For the most part I use higher power gear in this room but I also have a low power rig that I'll setup in here too.
Sources - Bolder Modified Squeezebox 3 with an aftermarket power supply, MHDT Paradisea tubed DAC, AR ES-1 turntable with Grace 707 tonearm and the Grace F9e cartridge.
Preamp - Modified Korato KVP-10 dual mono with phonostage (tubed)
Speakers - Modified Klipsch Cornwall affectionately known as the KornZilla's
Amplification - Handmade Audio 2A3 with TJ Meshplates
Power Conditioning - DeZorel LFA-1, Dedicated 20 amp circuit
Cabling - various silver plated copper with Teflon dielectric home brew, Kaplan power cords.
Misc. - i-Fi Audiophile Chair
This room is also in my basement, just off the Blue Room. Here, the long side and back walls are concrete as is the floor. Again, I use a large area rug on the floor. The ceiling in this room is drywall. The headwall is covered in cork. The cork doesn't do much for absorption in the lower frequencies but it does help a wee bit with the highs. In turn, I use several 2x4 acoustic panels, one on the back wall behind my head, on the side walls at the first reflection points and also perpendicular to my ears at the listening position. In the corners of the head wall, I use large fake trees to help diffuse some of the bass buildups. That is a very effective and good looking treatment. This room sounds quite good and is relatively gear friendly.
And then there is the i-Fi Chair. Wholly CRAP is this thing a blast. I strongly suggest you read my article on it at this link.
The smallest of my rooms is what I call the Green Room.
This room is a bit more tricky to set gear up in. Since it's so small, the speaker to room interaction is absolutely critical. Too large of speaker and the bass will over run everything. Not enough acoustic treatments and the room becomes bright and phasey. Too many treatments and the room becomes as dead as a recording booth.
For this room, I've found the perfect system….VINTAGE!
Turntable - Dual 1229 with a Shure V-15 MkIII cartridge
Amplification - HH Scott 299C or 299A (I have a couple)
Speakers - Large Advents with the fried egg tweeters (in luscious walnut) or a pair of JBL 4410 Studio Monitors (again in walnut)
Power Conditioning - DeZorel LFA-1
Cabling - various cheap stuff, including zip chord….eeek! run away!
The last room seldom gets used for reviewing but on occasion, a piece may find its way there. One thing is for sure, this room is just plain 'ole fun to listen to music in. It serves to remind me that although we've made strides on certain audio fronts, none of them have been that large. If you have ever heard a system like this (or remember yours from the days of yore), you know exactly what I'm talking about.
The Office System
Digital Source - Pop Pulse USB to SPDIF converter feeding the MHDT Labs Constantine DAC
Amplification - JoLida 102B (factory modified)
Speakers - Aperion Audio 632LRs
Power Conditioning - DeZorel LFA-1
Cabling - various cheap stuff, including zip chord
Believe it or not, this room sees tons of time. I work out of my house on a fairly regular basis and when I do, this system is on continually.
This is my Home Theater and Surround Sound System
Here we have a fairly typically sized HT room. This is the gear associated with this room;
Sources - Oppo DV983H upsampling universal player 1080p, Stock Squeezebox 3 (digital feed to Integra Pre/Pro)
Preamp/Processor - Integra 9-8
Amplifiers - JoLida 1501 and 1703 tube hybrids
Speakers - Aperion Audio (matched), 624c center, 6T floorstanders left and right front, 633t left and right rear
Sub-woofer - Aperion Audio Bravus 12" 500 watt
Television - Samsung 63" Plasma
Cable - DirecTV HD receiver
Power Conditioning - DIY balanced power conditioner with individual filtered outlets.
Cabling - various silver plated copper with Teflon dielectric home brew, Volex power cords, Monster HDMI, Monster component.
This room I don't use any treatments since it is our main family room. We've got a fair amount of furnishings (not shown) to help diffuse and absorb.
Extras
Of course, I've got a fair amount of additional gear like CD players, amplifiers (tubed and solid state), cables and whatnot which allows me to mix and match until I find the best synergy between components that I have in for review.
My Preferences
Simply put, I like tubes. Not just any old tube will do, but I prefer single ended triodes and high efficiency speakers. For me, it's my Zen, my way of seeing deeply into the nature of things, my audio truth, if there is such a thing. The single, wide range Lowther PM2T driver mated to a quality SET (with a sub filling in the lowest
three octaves) is to my ears, is as near to audio perfection as it gets. Add a good tubed pre, a decent turntable and a tubed output DAC and I'm one happy camper.
If I can't have fleapowered amps, I enjoy nearly any tubed amplification as long as it is clean. I don't care for that classic "tubey" sound that some seem to take pleasure in. I don't particularly care for the sound of negative feedback either. My SET's don't use any and I've modified my other tube amps so that I can switch it off.
When it comes to analog vs. digital, well, I like them both. I love the convenience of my computer based music server with the Squeezebox or a direct USB fed DAC as the interface. I personally think that sometime in the very near future, CD players will go by way of the 8 track tape (I said players, not CD's, they will take a bit longer to die). Ultimately though, my analog rig simply sounds better than a CD or digital feed from the server.
I also enjoy front loaded horns like my Klipsch KornZillas, the big Altec Model 19's or my Altec A-7's. Heck, I even get a nut off listening to Altec Bolero's. There is nothing quite like the sound of a good horn. Unfortunately, not many manufacturers are making true horns anymore. Most of them are ProAudio gear and they don't sound very good at all.
I do enjoy a quality, traditional box speaker providing the crossovers don't get in the way of the music and the drivers are matched well. I prefer them to be clean sounding with no crossover handoff issues. When it comes to crossovers, for me, the simpler the better. The more passive parts you put in a crossover, the more it sucks the life the sound.
When it comes to music, I'm all over the place. You could walk in and find me listening to Stravinsky and then I could follow that up with some Nine Inch Nails or even some Toby Keith. I guess that just means I'm a music lover. My wife and I attend a lot of concerts. On average, I'd say we see a show about twice a month or so. These shows can vary from hard Rock, to acoustic Jazz, Classical and we'll even through in a play or Broadway show to round out the mix.
I'm lucky enough to have a large selection of vinyl and CD's. When it comes to reference recordings, there may be a few that I use to check bass, timbre of an instrument or projection of a soundstage but my real reference music all boils down to what turns me on at the time. If the review gear allows me to get lost in the music that is spinning at that moment, that's all that matters. Remember, at the root of this hobby is the music. Too many people forget that and get wrapped up in the minutia. To steal a quote, "It's about the music stupid."
I'm still a die hard DIYer at heart. I haven't had much time to play with things like I used to but I'm determined to make that change. As time allows, I'll be sprinkling in a few projects you guys can play with. Nothing is better in audio than to build something yourself and have it sound great and save a few bucks in the process.
My articles tend to be pretty lengthy, sort of like this bio. Hopefully in all those words, I've been able to give you enough detail so you can estimate how a particular piece of gear may sound to you. Be sure to take heed of my preferences. Like everybody, I have very specific biases when it comes to audio reproduction.
Oh, and don't worry, you'll never see me use the word palpable …... oh crap, I just did.
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