Stangman’s new hybrid 2CH/HT setup

stangman67

Polkies,

Finally got back fro deployment and had a day to get the media room/bar/man cave mostly situated. I started with a LSIM front end (707s and a 706) and a marantz AV7705 and a B&K ref 200.7 as the HT base. There is also a 15” DIY Dayton 15” sub not pictured.

For the 2CH section I picked up a Modwright SWL9.0 anniversary edition tube pre with HT bypass. Also picked up a Cambridge 851N to work with my Rega Planar 6/Ania combo.

Cables are as follows: Acoustic Zen Satori speaker cables, Audience Ohno interconnects throughout and Audience power chords on the pre and streamer.

The 2CH equipment rack is a semi diy allthread rack, had timber nation build the shelves and I sourced the allthread and nuts to make it work.

All in all it sounds fantastic in 2CH which was my main concern. I have some work to do on the HT side as I still need to pick up surrounds and wire all that up. Really enjoy spinning vinyl on this setup. The polks are surprisingly not outclassed by the other gear. They will hold me over until I pick up some ushers.

rooftop59

Looks awesome man! Not too shabby for your first married system 😂. Grad school did not allow me the, um, provisions to have anything near that nice! Rock on!

msg

Welcome home Zach, looks great!
Where'd you pick up the all-thread and hardware, and what did you use? I've been meaning to build one of these.

erniejade

Very nice looking setup!

Clipdat

Can you tell us more about the rack? How did you measure the number of turns for each nut so that each shelf/section was level? Digital calipers?

DaveHo

Not sure how Zach did it, but I'd have used a spacer to get all 4 corners even.

Clipdat

A what now?

DaveHo

Block of wood. Place it at each of the 4 corners and adjust the nuts until each corner of the shelf above rests on the block. Caliper, even I'm not OCD enough to go that far.

maxward

A stick, or better yet, a four-sided box of the exact spacing desired between shelves. Level the bottom shelf and build up from there using the spacer (or jig, if you’re technical about such things).

DaveHo

BTW, great looking system & rack, Zach. The black adonized hardware really makes it. Butcher blocks for the shelves?

Edit:. I see you bought the shelves. They look awesome!

maxward

Beat me to it, @DaveHo !

msg

just couldn't do it

DaveHo

Knew someone would take it there. Glad to see I wasn't disappointed!

haimoc

Your system is awesome.

stangman67

Thanks for all the compliments, I’ll answer in more detail later on. The shelves are super easy to level. I started with a ruler to get the nuts even on each post and then just set a spirit level on the shelf and adjust the nuts on each corner to get it perfectly level. In this house, this style of setup was necessary because it’s a 1920’s home where nothing is level. A standard audio stand without major leveling adjustment would have been very canted. Started on the bottom shelf and methodically moved up from there.

Timber nation sells a full kit like this but in walnut was 1600 or so. The shelves were 800 ish (2” thick solid walnut) and the allthread and nuts were about 150 from grainger

stangman67

For specific sizes, the allthread is 7/8-9 stainless steel b7 black oxide all thread in 36” length and a bought a pack of 80 of the 7/8-9 “heavy” nuts. I will be building a matching stand for under the tv eventually

stangman67

Also because this matters, tapped my inaugural keg in the Feenstra Tap House tonight. Precarious beer project “purple clouds” hazy pale ale. It’s light and pretty tasty









I am very excited with how this room turned out. Beer/bourbon/music - I don’t need to go anywhere else. My wife is definitely a keeper for being completely onboard with all of this, she actually instigated a few of these ideas

Clipdat

stangman67 wrote: »

Thanks for all the compliments, I’ll answer in more detail later on. The shelves are super easy to level. I started with a ruler to get the nuts even on each post and then just set a spirit level on the shelf and adjust the nuts on each corner to get it perfectly level. In this house, this style of setup was necessary because it’s a 1920’s home where nothing is level. A standard audio stand without major leveling adjustment would have been very canted. Started on the bottom shelf and methodically moved up from there.

Timber nation sells a full kit like this but in walnut was 1600 or so. The shelves were 800 ish (2” thick solid walnut) and the allthread and nuts were about 150 from grainger

Nice job on the rack and thanks for the detailed response.

DaveHo

You're lucky I don't live close by. Just got done mowing. So damn hot I'd polish off that keg.

txcoastal1

Sweet diggin' it, glad you're home

joecoulson

Looks great Zach. Come a long way from the Klipsch actives.

stangman67

I have indeed. But still not back to the setup previous to that but inching my way closer and closer. Some different speakers and I’d be back to the focal/b&k/backert combo

Gerres26

Looks awesome Zach, Congrats on the new setup

joecoulson

I have no doubts you’ll be back there in no time...

BlueFox

stangman67 wrote: »

Also because this matters, tapped my inaugural keg in the Feenstra Tap House tonight. Precarious beer project “purple clouds” hazy pale ale. It’s light and pretty tasty

Excellent. Now you have a great stereo, HT, and home. Enjoy.

Milito

Looks great, congrats!

TEAforONE

Great system,great room! Enjoy! (Like you need to be told to enjoy)

stangman67

Thanks verybody! And before everyone judges me too much, I know I need to fix the rats nest behind the equipment stand. I have some options coming for that soon

stangman67

Had my first snafu. Looks like the refurbished 851n I bought from Cambridge has issues. Has bad static, drowns out the music bad, I thought it was going to hurt my speakers. I contacted Cambridge and all they said they could do was repair it or offer me a return. I chose a return as I don’t want an issue plagued unit, so I just bought a new one. Still think the Cambridge is the beat at the price point, a little annoyed they couldn’t offer a replacement unit though

rooftop59

stangman67 wrote: »

Had my first snafu. Looks like the refurbished 851n I bought from Cambridge has issues. Has bad static, drowns out the music bad, I thought it was going to hurt my speakers. I contacted Cambridge and all they said they could do was repair it or offer me a return. I chose a return as I don’t want an issue plagued unit, so I just bought a new one. Still think the Cambridge is the beat at the price point, a little annoyed they couldn’t offer a replacement unit though

That sucks man, but their customer service is top notch. I have bought five refurb items in the last year and two were bad, one right when I got it and the other within a couple days. The other three have been perfect. But they offer easy returns with free shipping both ways and they even extend it a little past the 30 days if there is a problem. I do wish there were no problems, but since I know returns are easy it doesn’t really concern me fwiw...

audioluvr

Love my 851N! Great value DAC/streamer