System #42 (Aerius)

George Kachadoorian - known hereafter as "kach22i"
Ann Arbor, Michigan USA

My 2-channel system:

Turntable: Dual 503 CS
Modification - the output wires have terminated on the back with RCA jacks. One day I hope own a Teres............... until that day comes it will be wired with 2 meter run of Cardas neutral Reference to the phono preamp.

Cartridge: Grado Sonada, MM

CD Player: McIntosh MCD7009

Tuner: Lafayette LT-825, solid state, made between 1977-81.

Pre-Amp: GRAAF WFB One
tube with tube phono section

AMP: Golden Tube Audio SE-100
Russian EL-34 tubes

Speakers: Martin Logan - Aerius (the original 1992 - a pair of the first couple hundered built). Replaced the stats seven or eight years ago along with a woofer/bass unit - thank you Jim Power of M/L.

Interconnects and speaker wires: Nordost – Blue Heaven all around

Racks and Stands: Atlantis equipment rack, original design turntable stand of my own, speakers sit on BrightStar knock-offs (sand boxes) of my own design and build.

Beyond Reasonable:
Built an acousticaly tuned wall for diffusion and bass absorbtion to hide the inclined stair behind the main speakers.

Music: Jazz, Alternative/Progressive and Classic Rock…….just about anything.

Future wants: Refurbished antique Scott tuner - FM with tubes.




My Home Theater.................seperated out - but in the same room.

Electronics:
A stack of bridgeable Rotel amps from 1991 (1-100 watt and 2-50 watt) plus a Rotel 1066 processor added in 2004.

Speakers:
M&K 60-something or such, M&K subwoofer (dual push-pull drivers) with a Tributaries sub-interconnect, and some tiny Celestron rears way up high (AudioQuest wires) and a Yamaha dual driver center speaker plus some old Radio Shack/Realistic super-tweeters pointed backwards fed off the center speaker.

Things that slipped my mind:
Akai DVD player (2003), Yamaha compact cassette player (1986), Tripp-lite power thingy (1986), Panasonic 31 inch TV, Go-Video HIFI VHS dual deck (copy to copy dubbing). EDIT; Recoton wireless speakers in the kitchen were dual zoned from the Carver CT-17 as a "tuner" now sourced from a Lafayette LT-825 tuner through tape outs. The Carver CT-17 (with pro-logic mode) now sits with an unused laser disc player.

Comments: Not too long ago (and for 12 years) the Aerius were driven by the Rotels and I had a Carver CT-17 tuner/processor/preamp and B&O RL-1000's (I think) rear surrounds. EDIT; The B&O's are now back up, mounted up on the wall.

Do I see a separate M&K HT speaker system set up there?

I can't find the "attach files" button anywhere so that I can attach more images to my original post - so I'll do this the tried and true way.

...........one at a time, guess "manage attachments" is not the same as "attach files" so what else can I do?

I built special sand boxes aka Bright-Star knock-offs to control the bass in my small room. Added steel plates and concrete cutting disks underneath to pick some trebble back up.

EricE said:

Do I see a separate M&K HT speaker system set up there?

Click to expand...

Yes...........almost forgot about that. I've edited my listing to reflect that - cheers.

This is a view standing on the stairs looking at the listening position. Notice the little surround speakers high up in the corners. I swear one day I'll actually hide those dangling speaker wires.

Speaking of speaker wires, if you lay your flat wire Nordost under the area carpet - be sure to purchase the best carpet pad underlayment you can find. Place it both below and above the wires. Any grain of sand on a hardwood floor will eat up the wires in a few years (and your floor). I'll give Nordost credit for standing by their product and replacing my wires for free - good people.

Last picture - I swear.

Things that slipped my mind:

Akai DVD player (2003), Yamaha compact cassette player (1986), Tripp-lite power thingy (1986), some kind of Bright-Star rock, Record Doctor cleaning machine, steam clearer for LP's (you must get one - they are cheap and work extremely well), Orba-trac, Hunt carbon-fiber brush, Last- stylist brush and cleaner, DB systems cartridge alignment tool, some CD treatment spray, miscelanous pucks disk and an AudioQuest gel mat for the record player, dedicated power outlets here and there. Oh, and a couple of thousand records and almost a thousand CD's plus stacks of audio magazines (and an old SAE reciever owners manual) going back 20 some years.

Great system
.........and thought I had a bunch of stuff all around. I guess it is just hard to part with some of the older stuff especially when it is still good!!

Congrats on a great setup. I bet it sounds good too



Jeff

Jeff Zaret said:

Great system
.........and thought I had a bunch of stuff all around.

Click to expand...

You don't know the half of it........the Pioneer laser disc player only plays one side at a time now and sits in an empty room upstairs.

I have not gotten around to setting up the multi-room/zone on the new Rotel processor (1066) to the Recoton wireless speakers which sit on top of the refrigerator in the kitchen either.

The mandolin and the piano left years ago...........I can't play nothing but the stereo anyways.

Now I don't feel so bad. I have a B&O turntable sitting not doing anything. I also have 2 Nakamichi cassette decks, CR2a & 700ii, an old VCR, Yamaha 5 disk CD changer and I sure a bunch of other crap. I think we may need to go on TLC's Clean Sweep.
LOL

Jeff

Jeff, you need a nephew to give some of that stuff to; maybe he can hock it on e-bay and have enough for half of an i-pod.

Sounds like a good idea since my son is accumulating too much stuff too

Night mode......the wall of light and sound. My invention (innovation), but like always I don't see the advantage of handing a lawyer thousands of dollars just to keep others from enjoying what I have.

Lights!!!!
We need lights!!!!

George,
How's the system doing? Repair all set?

Back in the saddle, all is good at the stereo ranch.

I added extra foam behind the TV just before my incident - it's doing a good job. A few weeks before that I placed a larger piece of acoustic foam between the speakers. With these latest tweeks, I'm far less inclined to place a heavy wool blanket over the TV for serious listening.

EDIT: Latest tweek:

http://www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showthread.php?t=341

Single or bi-wire.

Is it a singel wire aerius you have???

Excellent set-up...

kach22i,

Your system looks great! I like the lights too... They look cool through your ML Aerius speakers. Are they motion to the music lights? I can see why you wanted to take a 'stereo day'... Your system looks to be very musical...

Beautiful system...

Cheers

-Robin

hsam said:

Is it a singel wire aerius you have???

Click to expand...

Single, not the Bi-wire.

Robin, the lights do not flash or pulsate - still it's a nice treatment. I think the Christmas lights would look nice over any textured wall (brick) or even a work of sculpture.

Have you seen the plasma TV's that have back lighting? They claim to ease eye strain. I buy into this claim because the back lighting has help me too.