As you know by now, SMAC will be hosting two rooms at AKFest 09. :banana:

Please use this thread to post any equipment you'd like to bring to complete systems for the two rooms.

To begin simply list anything you could bring and then we'll narrow down the choices to come up with some sort of system synergy. We can certainly have more than two systems.

In fact, if you bring something and volunteer to staff the room you can certainly setup an entirely separate system for your time in the room. Personally I think this would be a total hassle but, hey, it's really your room. Plus I like the idea of each system in each room being a GROUP effort.

It would be nice to have a fairly constant system in one of the rooms - that we could maybe alternate sources with. This would give folks a clear picture of what SMAC can do as a group. It would also limit the confusion of setting up equipment during volunteer shift changes and enable guests to revisit the room and come back to something similar each time.

But again, I'm open to ideas.

The categories are (as if you didn't know already):

Turntables/Cartridges
Rega P9 with Benz MC3 cart - Wojciech
Music Hall MMF5 - Drybasement
Denon DP-57M Turntable - fdwaller

Phono Stages
Bottlehead Seduction - DryBasement
Octal Hagerman Cornet - djnagle
Musical Surroundings Phenomena w/ battery pack - olson_jr
Jolida JD9 - jmathers

CD/SACD Players
Marantz SA8001 - dmax99
Jolida JD100 - dmax99
Musical Fidelity A5 CDP - olson_jr
Harmon/Kardon CDR2 CD Player/recorder - fdwaller

Tuners
Sansui TU 217 - jmathers
Yamaha CT7000 (Terry Dewick updates) - Dan M.

Preamps
Juicy Music Blueberry - dmax99
DIY Pre - Terry C.
Audible Illusions M3A - jmathers

Amplifiers
Diytube ST35 (Push-pull EL84 in triode mode; approx. 9W/Ch) - Ashok
John Hogan 300B - djnagle
NOS Valves VRD monoblocks - dmax99
NOS Valves Stereo Amp - NOSValves

Integrated Amps
Musical Fidelity A5 Integrated - olson_jr
Musical Fidelity A308 Integrated - olson_jr
Primaluna Prologue 2 6550 tubed Integrated - olson_jr
Pioneer Elite receiver - fdwaller
Luxman LV-105u Hybrid tube/solid state integrated amp - fdwaller

Speakers
Hawthorne Audio Performance Grade Silver Iris (15" Co-ax; 95 dB/W/m) - Ashok
AVI ADM9.1 powered speakers with DAC and preamp (for computer system?) - Mike Reed
Totem Rainmakers w/ stands - olson_jr
DCM-10 Speakers - fdwaller
Pinnacle Classic Gold Tower Speakers - fdwaller

Other (things like tapedecks, DACs, tube buffers, computer music servers, etc.)
DAC-Keces DA131.1 (Co-ax and optical inputs, bit depth up to 24 bits, up to 192kHz sampling frequency)-Ashok
Mac Mini (for computer system?) - Mike Reed
Kenwood KX-7030 3-head cassette deck - fdwaller

Cables
Blue Heaven speaker cables and ICs - olson_jr
Kimber 8TC and 4TC speaker cables - olson_jr
Kimber Hero ICs - olson_jr
Linn K400 speaker cables - olson_jr
DH Labs T8 speaker cables - olson_jr
PNF 8' biwire spades - dlwask
Zu Julians 6' spades - w/6" jumpers - dlwask
AQ diamondback 3' interconnects RCA - dlwask
Jena Labs Trio 3' interconnects 3' XLR - dlwask
Two Furman power strips - Mike Reed

Racks/Stands
Salamander Synergy Rack - dlwask
Quadraspire speaker stands - Mike Reed
DIY speaker stands 28" high - Terry C.
Equip Rack - dbear

Please also visit the AKFest SMAC Rooms Volunteers thread to volunteer to staff these rooms.

Jeff

Amplifier: Diytube ST35 (Push-pull EL84 in triode mode; approx. 9W/Ch)

Speakers: Hawthorne Audio Performance Grade Silver Iris (15" Co-ax; 95 dB/W/m)

DAC: Keces DA131.1 (Co-ax and optical inputs, bit depth up to 24 bits, up to 192kHz sampling frequency).

I could bring my Bottlehead Seduction phono stage.

I'd like to bring my John Hogan 300B, my Octal Hagarman phono pre, and, if I get it done by then, 807 PP amp. I don't really care if they are used in a system, I just want to show them off. Cheers.

I can bring:
NOS Valves VRD Monos

JM Blueberry Pre

Marantz Sa 8001 SACD player

Jolida JD100 CD player

Jeff,

I could bring a Musical Surroundings Phonomena with Battery Pack that should be adjustable to match any cartridges gain or loading needed, Musical Fidelity A5 CDP and A5 Integrated, Musical Fidelity A308 Integrated, Primaluna Prologue 2 6550 tubed IA, a pair of Totem Rainmakers with stands, various Blue Heaven speaker and IC's, Kimber 8TC and 4TC speaker and Hero IC's, Linn K400 and DH Labs T8 speaker cables, etc.

Might be a good idea to come up with a suitable rack, mine is pretty crappy.

Might be a good idea to come up with a suitable rack, mine is pretty crappy.

Yep, I completely forgot that we'll need some sort of rack for equipment. And speaker stands for some of the speakers. And cabling. Thanks.:thmbsp:

Jeff

Don't forget power cables/power strips.

Any remotes for any devices.

Cd's and Lp's.

Don't forget power cables/power strips.

Any remotes for any devices.

Cd's and Lp's.

Yep, you're right. More forgotten stuff. Nice to have some experienced AK Fest-goers here amongst us. Thanks.

Jeff

It's time to decide on what will go where folks. Any ideas?

Jeff

Looks like each room can have one s/s and one tube setup. And it looks like there's four pairs of speakers to accomodate the 4 systems. Each room can have it's own tt, phono pre and cd player.

Or, we could have one room as an all s/s setup while the other room is all tube including using dmax's Jolida as the cd source.

This should be interesting.

Nice looking list we have here folks!

It would be nice to have each room able to accomodate CD/LP playback.

I have the following which I can bring:\

Pinnacle Clasic Gold Tower Speakers
Pioneer Elite receiver
Luxman LV-105u Hybrid tube/solid state integrated amp
Denon DP-57M Turntable
Kenwood KX-7030 3-head cassette deck
DCM-10 Speakers
Harmon/Kardon CDR2 CD Player/recorder

I have the following which I can bring:\

Pinnacle Clasic Gold Tower Speakers
Pioneer Elite receiver
Luxman LV-105u Hybrid tube/solid state integrated amp
Denon DP-57M Turntable
Kenwood KX-7030 3-head cassette deck
DCM-10 Speakers
Harmon/Kardon CDR2 CD Player/recorder

Thanks. Added to the list.

Jeff

Well, as far as speakers....I'd like to hear and have in the rooms every speaker listed here, except for the DCM10s (sorry fdwaller no offense meant).

The Pinnacles and the Hawthornes should be efficient enough to run with any of the listed tube amps, plus some flea powered ones if any happen to appear.

The Totems may require a little more ummmmpf to get them to sound their best, so maybe solid state would work better. (Please correct me if I'm wrong).

And it may be nice to put the AVIs in the same room for a little compare and contrast.

So I vote for 4 sets - the Hawthornes and Pinnacles in one room; the AVIs and the Totems in another. Sort of a big speaker, little speaker thang. I'm open to harsh criticsm and lambasting of course:D Mixing little and big in each room may also work.

Jeff

Given that

there are two SMAC rooms
two days
no breaks except at the end of the day


Would it make sense to come up with 4 systems? The basic rule could be that there will be a whole-sale system change at the end of the day.

During the day, it will be up to the volunteer to decide if a cable or a source or whatever needs to be changed. Please feel free to critique the idea.

Each system would consist of

Turntable
Tuner
A digital source
A computer source
DAC
Phono Preamp
Preamp
Amp or Integrated
Speakers
??

I could bring a NEC CD-rom drive that I would love to compare to a conventional CD transport.

SMAC brothers,

Anyone know or remember how big these rooms are?

The Rainmakers work well with a 35 watt tube amp in a 12X11X8 room but would most likely require more juice in a larger room.

I just picked up a used pair of PSB Image 6T's (which I have not even had a chance to listen to yet) but they are supposedly pretty efficient, and with three bass drivers, might might fill a bigger room better than the Rainmakers. Esp with R&R music.

Not sure about doing a wholesale change Sat night, how would I be able to compare my listening notes with the Sunday SMAC hosts if we change everything??

My $0.02...

*Floorstander room / monitor room - makes for easy set up changes
*A NOS Valves amp in each room
*AI pre in one room / Juicy Music pre in the other
*Could us a MF integrated in each room for SS option
*MF A5 CDP in one room / Marantz SA8001 in the other
*The Rega P9/Benz and Jolida JD9 in Room 2...cause thats the room I'm in :)

Cables and accessories will most likely will float between rooms, and lets not forget enough music to spin for 2 hours.

SMAC brothers,

Anyone know or remember how big these rooms are?

The Rainmakers work well with a 35 watt tube amp in a 12X11X8 room but would most likely require more juice in a larger room.

I just picked up a used pair of PSB Image 6T's (which I have not even had a chance to listen to yet) but they are supposedly pretty efficient, and with three bass drivers, might might fill a bigger room better than the Rainmakers. Esp with R&R music.

Not sure about doing a wholesale change Sat night, how would I be able to compare my listening notes with the Sunday SMAC hosts if we change everything??

Rooms I believe are roughly 13x16x8.

Well, now you got me really interested. I'd like to hear both the Rainmakers and the PSBs:D I suppose if it was one or the other I'd rather have the PSBs since they are a tad more amp friendly and would have better low freq extension.

I agree on the wholesale change out. Not to say, no changes at all but I'd rather have a couple sets of speakers available just to play with to optimize the system. Also, there should be no law against a volunteer changing speakers in the middle of the day. Hate to put someone in a room for two hours who despises the sound of a certain pair of speakers. Two sets would make this possible.

Just a thought..

Jeff

My $0.02...

*Floorstander room / monitor room - makes for easy set up changes
*A NOS Valves amp in each room
*AI pre in one room / Juicy Music pre in the other
*Could us a MF integrated in each room for SS option
*MF A5 CDP in one room / Marantz SA8001 in the other
*The Rega P9/Benz and Jolida JD9 in Room 2...cause thats the room I'm in :)

Cables and accessories will most likely will float between rooms, and lets not forget enough music to spin for 2 hours.

This sounds pretty reasonable. I like the idea of having an integrated amp in each room for backup to the tube amps.

While I like the idea to have an SACD player available, I'd like to see the Jolida JD100 in one room and the MF A5 CDP in another since both have tubes. Of course, I'm may be letting my bias show here on that Marantz player:D

I'm also trying to prevent any ONE person from having to bring huge amounts of gear. So try to keep this in mind when choosing what gear we want in the rooms.

Jeff

I could bring a NEC CD-rom drive that I would love to compare to a conventional CD transport.

Bring it Ski:thmbsp:

Jeff

If we are using the SS MF integrateds as back ups, I will probably only schelp the A308 over. Keeps me from having to dismantle one system.

The end of a day (beginning of the next) seemed like a clean breaking point for easily swapping equipment. During the day, if a lot of people are moving in and out, it may not be very practical to swap equipment around. I think that was my only concern.

I have absolutely no problem with letting the volunteer decide the system composition.

My choices:

Room 1:
Turntable: P9 with Benz
Phono Pre: JD9
CDP: MF A5
Pre: Audible Illusions
Amps: Hogan 300B, NOS Valves VRD Monoblocks
Integrated: MF A308
Speakers: Hawthorne, Pinnacle

Room 2:
Turntable: MMF5
Phono Pre: Octal Cornet
CDP: Marantz SA8001
Pre: Blueberry
Amps: NOS Valves Stereo Amp
Integrated: Luxman LV-105u
Speakers: PSB 6T, AVI ADM9.1

The end of a day (beginning of the next) seemed like a clean breaking point for easily swapping equipment. During the day, if a lot of people are moving in and out, it may not be very practical to swap equipment around. I think that was my only concern.

I have absolutely no problem with letting the volunteer decide the system composition.

My choices:

Room 1:
Turntable: P9 with Benz
Phono Pre: JD9
CDP: MF A5
Pre: Audible Illusions
Amps: Hogan 300B, NOS Valves VRD Monoblocks
Integrated: MF A308
Speakers: Hawthorne, Pinnacle

Room 2:
Turntable: MMF5
Phono Pre: Octal Cornet
CDP: Marantz SA8001
Pre: Blueberry
Amps: NOS Valves Stereo Amp
Integrated: Luxman LV-105u
Speakers: PSB 6T, AVI ADM9.1

Excellent. That's the kind of post we're looking for. Anyone else care to weigh in with a component list for each room? Or just comment on this one?

Don't know if djnagle fixed it but the Octal Cornet hummed last time I heard it. Djnagle, still humming???

Also, if it changes anyone's mind about phono pre pairings, wojciech has also agreed to provide his Cinemag Step-up transformer for the P9/Benz combo so the JD9 would not be essential for that setup.

Jeff

Once the lists are finalized, we should probably print some fliers listing all the equipment in each room. I volunteer to print these up. Would about 50 or so per room be sufficient?

Ashok

Does anyone remember if Mike Reed's AVI ADM9.1's can be connected to a traditional amp or pre. I remember them being self powered with a USB input, but I don't remember the other connections.

The AVIs have a preamp built in so adding another may not work to well. They can take a phono stage or the analog out of another source, or the digital out through toslink of a source.

Excellent. That's the kind of post we're looking for. Anyone else care to weigh in with a component list for each room? Or just comment on this one?

Don't know if djnagle fixed it but the Octal Cornet hummed last time I heard it. Djnagle, still humming???

Jeff

Bottlehead Seduction at the ready. :D

I like Ashok's list but then again, I'm easy. Whatever TT is used I'd like to be in the same room as my MMF-5.1SE - which is how Ashok has it listed.

Cheers

Hi Darren,

I was starting to wonder if Midland had 'slipped into the sea, eventually'

Can I talk you into bringing your new copy of of Hot Rats?

Anyone have a clean copy of the Grand Wazoo?

Hi Darren,

I was starting to wonder if Midland had 'slipped into the sea, eventually'

Can I talk you into bringing your new copy of of Hot Rats?

Anyone have a clean copy of the Grand Wazoo?

We are a salty bunch. Consider it done.

Hey Jeff, I hope to have my "What the Fuck" power strip done by the fest.

I forgot to ask, but is there internet access in the rooms?

Hey Jeff, I hope to have my "What the Fuck" power strip done by the fest.

Bring it.

I hope you'll also be bringing the "Ya gotta be fuckin kiddin me" power cord and the "Fuckin Great" interconnects.:D

Jeff

I forgot to ask, but is there internet access in the rooms?

I believe there is wireless throughout the hotel. Can anyone confirm?

I would agree that Ashok's list sounds pretty much spot on, as my weighting in on equipment array would just add high levels of THD to this thread. It's obvious that you guys have a better handle on the gear thingies than I. You can count on me (as always) for some of the source (vinyl) material to drive this merry pranksters bus load though!

I could also offer a PS Audio Premier, juice bar (power strip), and HD PS Audio power cables if you guys feel the need to stabilize the mains a bit... Just got the premier and it really made a huge difference in the urban grid mains quagmire that I exist in. Do any of the more technically astute know how the current was flowing in these rooms last year and were ya picking up any nasties along the way noise wise?

Happy (AK) Listening! :beatnik:

I would agree that Ashok's list sounds pretty much spot on, as my weighting in on equipment array would just add high levels of THD to this thread. It's obvious that you guys have a better handle on the gear thingies than I. You can count on me (as always) for some of the source (vinyl) material to drive this merry pranksters bus load though!

I could also offer a PS Audio Premier, juice bar (power strip), and HD PS Audio power cables if you guys feel the need to stabilize the mains a bit... Just got the premier and it really made a huge difference in the urban grid mains quagmire that I exist in. Do any of the more technically astute know how the current was flowing in these rooms last year and were ya picking up any nasties along the way noise wise?

Happy (AK) Listening! :beatnik:

We would welcome the power tweaks. Bring 'em.

Jeff

The end of a day (beginning of the next) seemed like a clean breaking point for easily swapping equipment. During the day, if a lot of people are moving in and out, it may not be very practical to swap equipment around. I think that was my only concern.

I have absolutely no problem with letting the volunteer decide the system composition.

My choices:

Room 1:
Turntable: P9 with Benz
Phono Pre: JD9
CDP: MF A5
Pre: Audible Illusions
Amps: Hogan 300B, NOS Valves VRD Monoblocks
Integrated: MF A308
Speakers: Hawthorne, Pinnacle

Room 2:
Turntable: MMF5
Phono Pre: Octal Cornet
CDP: Marantz SA8001
Pre: Blueberry
Amps: NOS Valves Stereo Amp
Integrated: Luxman LV-105u
Speakers: PSB 6T, AVI ADM9.1

So other than replacing the Octal Cornet with Darren's Bottlehead Seduction, is this it for the rooms?

Any other opinions? Ideas?

Jeff

I've made an appt. with Darren to see that Seduction!

I listened to the PSB 6T's with the A308 integrated/A5 CDP/Blue Heaven cables Sunday and was pretty happy with the sound. I was somewhat nervous offering up a pair of cheep, used speakers, that I had never heard, but I think we should be OK with them.


What is the plan for Friday, just show up with the equipment after work and get to it?

I listened to the PSB 6T's with the A308 integrated/A5 CDP/Blue Heaven cables Sunday and was pretty happy with the sound. I was somewhat nervous offering up a pair of cheep, used speakers, that I had never heard, but I think we should be OK with them.


What is the plan for Friday, just show up with the equipment after work and get to it?

Just show up Friday when you can - I should be there from around 2pm onwards and there should be other folks looking out for SMAC members. We'll help you unload, etc.

Jeff

I am also bringing my Mac Mini which anyone is welcome to use as a music server.

My $0.02...
*The Rega P9/Benz and Jolida JD9 in Room 2...cause thats the room I'm in :)


If you want to switch rooms with someone just let me know.

Jeff

Hi all,

Not a SMAC member but I have an opportunity for some cross pollination at the fest. I'm hosting a DIY room. We have homebrew tube amps of different topology and power, a SS kit, and various speakers including Indignias. What we don't have is a "full time" set of econowaves. A couple of AKers have said that they might bring some in for a bit but I'd like to find a set that would be available in the room the whole weekend. I figured you local folks would be my best bet for a late entry like this.

So if anyone has some EWG's they'd like to show off, let me know and we'll figure something out.

Thanks,
Ray

p.s. I believe there is wireless throughout the hotel. Can anyone confirm?

As I recall from last year it's available but you have to pay for it.

Really loved the little hard drive based music server thingy you guys had in the room. Sadly, my premature senility caused me to totally forget the name of it.
Would really appreciate it if one of you guys could give me some details.
Thanks!

Really loved the little hard drive based music server thingy you guys had in the room. Sadly, my premature senility caused me to totally forget the name of it.


There was Mike Reed's Mac Mini based music server. This one had an external hard-drive connected via USB to the Mac. The optical output from the Mac was used to feed active speakers (AVI ADM9.1) which include a DAC in them.

Then there was my ioBox. The ioBox belongs to a class of devices called networked media tanks. These devices come with a motherboard and some basic memory, and run an operating system on them which is similar to linux.

A company called Syabas develops and licenses the firmware to a number of other companies that produce slightly varying hardware platforms, but running the same firmware (with minor compatibility modifications).

As the name suggests, the device needs to be on your home network for you to take full advantage of its capabilities. A direct wired ethernet to your router is the recommended way, although you can do wireless. But this is slow.

You can either put a hard drive in the unit, as I had done, or you can stream media from a NAS type drive, residing elsewhere on your network.

The device can play pretty much any type of media file - video or audio. It can play mp3, WAV, FLAC and a few other audio formats.

Stereo audio information is sent out on the co-axial or optical S/PDIF port. You have to supply your own D/A converter. I use one called the Keces DA 131.1, which can handle bit depths up to 24, with sampling rates up to 192kHz.

The ioBox can output such high-resolution 2-channel audio on the co-ax or optical port.

My CDs are ripped in lossless WAV format. For tagging and compression (to save disk space), I use FLAC. All these files are then copied from my laptop (where I rip them) to the ioBox using ftp.

The basic interface that comes with the ioBox is very rudimentary for playback. You have to navigate a file-folder system to select flac files for playback. While one file is playing, you cannot browse your library to select others.

It is possible to get around this by installing user developed applications like the Music Player Daemon (MPD) that provides the guts of the playback, and Music Jukebox, which provides the pretty interface and organization of the music.

To view your music, you can connect the ioBox to a TV via composite video, component video or HDMI.

You can also use a computer monitor with a DVI input. You will need a HDMI - DVI cable. This is what I was doing in the SMAC room.

Another way to control the Music player daemon is to use an addon client for the Firefox browser. This client will interact with MPD and give you a list of albums, artist etc, but just not as pretty as the one that you can see if you turned the TV on.

You can also use a special iPhone or iPod Touch application to control the ioBox.

If you get a chance, take a look at the forum www.networkedmediatank.com. Lots of good information and discussion.

Ashok

Thanks Ashok.
It was the ioBox. Damn impressive, I thought. Will certainly have to look into this.
Btw, it was a pleasure to meet you, however briefly.

Btw, it was a pleasure to meet you, however briefly.

Same here, Erik.

Who's speaker cables were being used in room 2 ? What ones were they ? I see the list on the first page but there are several pairs listed . Reason I am asking , I am BORED , with too much time on my hands . All my current speaker projects are caught up . So I was thinking of doing some "litz " braided wires with a photo tutorial .
My current setup couldnt really take advantage of these , if they even perform well :worried: . If I decide to try this project , maybe one of the local guru's could try them out in their rigs and give opinions . Still just thinking out loud though......... :scratch2:

Who's speaker cables were being used in room 2 ? What ones were they ? I see the list on the first page but there are several pairs listed . Reason I am asking , I am BORED , with too much time on my hands . All my current speaker projects are caught up . So I was thinking of doing some "litz " braided wires with a photo tutorial .
My current setup couldnt really take advantage of these , if they even perform well :worried: . If I decide to try this project , maybe one of the local guru's could try them out in their rigs and give opinions . Still just thinking out loud though......... :scratch2:

Olson's Kimber 4tc I believe.

You might want to try something like the Cat 5e braided speaker cables. I did a pair of these and have used nothing else for the past 4 years. Good stuff.

Jeff

Yep, it was either the 4 TC or 8 TC Kimber, same braid on each, don't remember which was used where and when.

Maron, how did your fiberglass panels come out?