Finally... Pictures of my Room

Well I've been promising this forever, and I finally allocated a spare moment to do it. Here are a few pics of my listening space. If you remember, it's quite small (8x12 feet), with a 4x2' closet cutting into one corner. There's also a bay window, so you would think it should sound awful. Amazingly enough, it's actually quite wonderful. It does have French doors behind the chair, though, so in a way this room is sort of 8x50 feet. Curiously, it doesn't sound much different with the doors closed.

Let's start with the view from my chair:



Here are the Albions, in all their glory. Although it's hard to see in this picture, the speakers are sitting on custom platforms that do a great job of keeping the bass out of the floor. They look at bit like Mana at first glance, but they're using ball bearings rather than spikes. (It's nicer on the floor, and still does the trick.)

Note the bay window behind the speakers. At higher volumes the reflection off the glass can be a touch shrill, which is relieved by closing the blinds. I prefer them open, though, so that I can appreciate the view of the trees and ravine in my back yard. (It's not all about music, you know! )

BTW, that fellow standing beween the speakers is "Vuk Naked, Nuts Only Finger Tight".



Here's a shot in the other direction. You can really get a sense of how small the room is, especially with the closet there. However that closet does enable me to hide my ugly Mana. The CDS2 is on the top of the rack, so it's very easy to change CDs without leaving my chair. I built that shelf, and it holds about 500 CDs. Finally, that's "Ferrous" sitting in one of his favorite spots.



This is the rack that sits directly beside my chair. It's a CDS2, 52, and Creek T43 tuner, along with three Mana Sound Stages, a 3-tier amp rack, and a Sound Frame on top (i.e. phases 5/4/4)



Here's the other rack, holding the Rega P3/DX4mk2, XPS, Super-Cap, and two 135s, all held up by two Sound Stages, a 5-tier amp rack, and another Sound Frame (i.e. phases 4/3/3/3/3).



A fellow in another thread was asking about CD storage. Here's where I keep the bulk of my CDs. You're looking at two 3-drawer units here. (They stack quite nicely.) I paid about $300US for each cabinet. The manufacturer is here in Toronto, so I didn't get killed by the shipping costs.

BTW, that's Ferris's brother Cosmo. No, he wasn't named after that guy in Seinfeld. Both cats are named after undesirable acquaintances. Ferris was a former boyfriend of my wife, and Cosmo was a really awful customer of mine. (I have no idea why we chose that naming methodology.)



Here's another shot with a drawer open. As you can see, it holds LOTS of CDs, and also works well for video tapes, DVDs, etc.

So there you have it. A little view of "Chez Catch".

-=> Mike Hanson <=-