The stereo.


Right side of room with Go board and C Jere metal sculpture.

Listening position. I don't have the iMac hooked up to the stereo.

Listening position, with bass trap in rear corner.






The components.


Oracle Delphi Mk i turntable, with Sumiko Premier FT-4 tonearm, Benz Micro Glider cartridge, and Audioquest Sorbothan mat.
Vintage but in perfect condition. Includes spiked feet, which rest on Sorbothane pucks. Prior to this table, I had a Rega Planar 3. I still have an extra Rega RB250 tonearm with Origin Live mods, that I will eventually setup on this table to see how it compares to the Sumiko tonearm.


Sumiko Premier FT-4 tonearm. Silicone damped.


Benz Micro Glider. The cable goes into a Sumiko Premier PIB-2 interface box, hidden under the table. This allows for the turntable suspension to move freely, without any pull from the cable.


Ortofon T-30 step-up transformer. This increases the output of the low-output Benz cartridge. The selector switch is very handy.



Turntable setup is wired with Audioquest Vampire interconnects. Two sets, half meter each.


Dynaco Mk iii mono block amplifiers. (Right channel pictured here) These were completely stripped and rebuilt by Craig over at NOSvalves.com. He uses his own design to make up for some flaws in the orginal design. The circuit board is his own, and he added an extra input tube, along with other features. Switchable between ultralinear and triode modes. I prefer triode, while Craig has ultralinear on his personal setup. Tubes are a mixed bag of vintage tubes - Telefunken diamonds, Mullard and International Service Master. Great tubes - but I will be getting matched quads and pair in the future.




Interconnects between amp and preamp are Transparent MusicLink Plus. Not as warm as other cables I have tried, but more detailed.


Speaker cables are bi-wired DIY HD-14. Basically, they are Home Depot orange outdoor extension cords. Widely praised on AudioAsylum.com, and for good reason.


The back of the Vandersteen speakers.


Vandersteen Model 2 speakers.


Rega Planet CD player.


Conrad Johnson PV-5 pre-amp. Tube driven with DIY vibration control fasteners on them.

PS Audio P300 Power Conditioner. The turntable, CD player and pre-amp are hooked up. It provides clean power to these units. Remarkable effective.


Nitty Gritty record cleaner. Essential.


DIY bass traps. I spent months researching and building three of these. Four feet tall, 16 inch diameter. Will be posting detailed construcion photos and instructions. They made a huge difference to the room acoustics. I used the Jon Risch design, and opted for the 'healthy' versions, using polyester batting, instead of fiberglass. The bass response is like night and day once I added these to the room. The soundstage opened up a bit too. Will be building more of these.


Some vinyl accessories - Onzow Zerodust stylus cleaner, Decca record brush, Oracle record clamp, and a bubble level. All essential.


I have since sold these, but had a lot of fun experimenting with these Richard Gray power conditioners: the 400 and Pole Pig. There is a large debate in the audio community about whether these work. In my experience, I don't know how they work, but they do. I got rid of them to simplify the system. May add them again in the future, but want to focus on upgrading the basics first.


The Dynaco amps when I first got them. The cages are in storage. I prefer to see the glow of the tubes.


The Dynaco's prior to cleaning and rebuild. The only things that stayed are the transformers (with closs wires), chassis, and tube sockets.