The New Digs

It took some time but I finally have the 2-channel set up in the new apartment.

There are some big differences between the old place and the new place, that's for sure. The old place had a concrete fire barrier wall which was the front wall for my 2-channel/HT hybrid setup. The old place had 8' ceilings and the room was kind of a rectangle with one wall running at an angle; overall, it was a 1 bedroom with a big living room that had a carpeted floor (the bedroom & bathroom were separate from the living room so the living room was kind of isolated but it did open to a kitchenette in one corner).

The new place is a 1 bedroom in a historic building which was converted to loft apartments back in 2009. We have very high ceilings throughout the apartment and huge windows with exposed brick along one wall. We also have plastic laminate (looks like wood but more durable than Pergo) flooring in the kitchen, living, & dining room (there's carpet in the bedroom only) and the floorplan is pretty much open (there are doorways to the bedroom but no doors). The bathroom is an enclosed space with a door just off to the side of the bedroom. The kitchen opens to the living room/dining room and there's a partition that separates, for lack of a better word, the bedroom from the rest of the apartment. I cannot have a separate TV or stereo in the bedroom because the sound would bleed out into the main listening/living room.

So, what does all that have to do with 2-Channel Audio? lol. Well, I was expecting some issues due to the "hard" floors and vaulted ceilings + the huge windows & the exposed brick on the inside wall. Thankfully, I have no issues with the stereo. I will say that I've moved things around a few times and, if I move the rack and the speakers to be perfectly centered on the front wall, the bass response drops off. However, if I keep it a little to the right of center, the sound quality is far better and it's also better than the last place by a wide margin.

Honestly, the best way for me to describe what I'm hearing is to say that my system can finally breathe. Since it's still an apartment, I can't let it stretch out too much but it sounds really great at modest levels (brief 75 - 80 dB peaks). The biggest differences are in the clearer details on the top end, increased clarity and impact in the midrange, and tighter, cleaner, bass response. I'm pretty stoked that this place is more revealing of differences in small changes like phono cartridges. It's not that there wasn't a difference before, but the difference is easier for me to hear now. I'm getting similar results with tube rolling & swapping out cables. Maybe it's a synergy thing. Whatever it is, I like it. A lot.

I ended up dismantling the HT completely and the TV is now running through the Cary Preamp directly. It's much easier to deal with as the cinema bypass feature on the Cary had to be turned up to 40 with the volume level on the AVR at a similar level to get acceptable sound out of it. Even with that AVR --> 2-Channel pre, there was too much bass for apartment dwelling on movies and TV shows. I think the AVR & Audyssey were augmenting the bottom end a little too much and the dialog was always too quiet. Now, running through the Cary, it sounds balanced. There's still plenty of bottom end when the material provides it (Blade Runner 2049) but I'm not as worried about upsetting any of my neighbors. For the most part, I just cleaned up the cable clutter and minimized what I needed with the proper lengths for a better aesthetic; it's not perfect but it's better than it was and I'm happy with it. I did notice the differences between the cables I'm using as well so that's pretty cool. Every piece does influence the final product and I can hear how the room plays a major part in that.

The transition from Chicago to Saint Louis wasn't (still isn't) the smoothest but I want to give a huge shout out to @KennethSwauger for assisting when one of the S60s was damaged. Polk CS is still the best! I also want to give a big Club Polk high-five to @ALL212 for helping me out, in no small way, by slinging some solder on some serious (to me) projects. Huge thanks Aaron! You totally rock! And thank you to all the good folks on the Polk forum for keeping things interesting around here