Last year I built a new listening room. From the ground up. In part, this is the story of that process, but much more I have tried here to organize what I learned so that it is also instructive for music lovers and audiophiles who want to get more out of their current rooms. So, you don’t have to build a new room or complete a new building like I did to get a lot of value from this. I hope.

This is a long one. Acoustics is a complex subject. Per our usual practice, I’ve tried to simplify but not dumb down. Anyway, if you hate complexity, hit the eject button now.

This video is sponsored by: http://theabsolutesound.com/newsletter

Robert Harley's Room Tour: https://youtu.be/OtUcfiaN6CY?si=GW7B9L13ZMlHpw0P

REDI Acoustics: https://rediacoustics.com/

Fundamentals of Residential Wiring: https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/fundamentals-of-residential-ac-wiring-to-improve-high-end-audio-system-performance/

00:00 Tom Martin’s Listening Room

01:28 Overview

03:37 Goals: What Are We Doing?

06:18 Building Steps

37:10 Sound Quality

39:41 DIY Budget Approach

43:17 More Approaches for a Tighter Budget

Newsletter: https://www.theabsolutesound.com/newsletter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theabsolutesound

Substack: https://www.theabsolutesound.substack.com

Tom's reference system:

Aurender N20 Streamer/Server

Roon Nucleus server

Mac Mini (M2) server

Wiim Pro server/DAC

Bluesound Node server/DAC

Topping D70 Pro DAC

dCS Lina DAC/Master clock

Berkeley Alpha DAC Reference Series 3P with Alpha USB Reference input module

MSB Premier DAC

J Sikora Initial Max turntable

Technics SL-1210G turntable

Kuzma 4Point 9” arm

J Sikora KV12 tone arm

DS Audio 003 cartridge

Benz Gullwing SLR cartridge

Hana Umami Blue cartridge

Hegel V10 phono preamp

Musical Surroundings Phonomena III phono preamp

DS Audio 003 optical cartridge energizer

Block Line and Power Block SE preamp

Block Mono power amps

Hegel H20 power amps

MBL N51 integrated amp

Magico A5 speakers

Perlisten S7t speakers

Wireworld Platinum Electra Series 10 speaker and line cables

Shunyata Omega digital cables

Shunyata Venom power cables and director

Audioquest Niagara 3000 power conditioner (for analog)

Audioquest Niagra 7000 power conditioning

Aavik Ethernet Switch

Rediacoustic diffusers and absorbers

Rediacoustic bass traps

PSI Audio AVAA active traps

Salamander racks

Solidsteel Turntable rack

What Is The Absolute Sound?

The Absolute Sound magazine has been a leading publication in high-end audio since 1972. Since the early 2000s, The Absolute Sound has expanded to include web, newsletter, digital magazine, social media, YouTube and Substack platforms. The Absolute Sound platforms have a global audience of over 500,000 audiophiles.

#hifi #audiophile #theabsolutesound