Showing (off) your Roon setup - description and photos [2015-04 .. 2021-03]

Bob_Findlay · April 20, 2019, 8:30am

First off - I love looking at all your setups… It’s like shopping by proxy ha ha! And really interesting seeing all the different implementations that Roon supports. Who knows where it’s going to go next but I sure am going along for the ride.

Anyway, here’s mine:

The Room

I think you can guess where it’s all tucked away (spot the cheeky Kef Sub in this picture too…

Speakers

ATC SCM20SL on Track Audio stands. Two things: the stands make so much difference. The speakers are totally isolated from the room, which is important with wooden floorboards like mine. They have a really neat spirit level built in which (again) helps with wonky wooden floorboards:

Secondly, they’re a right bastard to drive so why not give them half a kilowatt of power from:

Amp

Musical Fidelity M6-500i.

This is one of the original models before MF were bought out. It’s surprising how resolving and delicate this amp is given what a brute it is. Anyway, it’s all needed to drive the ATCs.

DAC

Audio Note 0.1x valve DAC

Pretty simple really. This smooths everything out perfectly. My amp and speakers can be very clinical and resolving, but the valves in the DAC take all of that away by adding a lot more warmth to the sound, allowing me to relax and enjoy the music, which is what it’s all about, right?

Round the Back

Ha ha just look at my expert hacking apart of a beautiful mid-century sideboard! So a bit boring really, but an Allo Digione Signature endpoint (with John Darko approved door stop on the top) fed by Roon Core on a Mac Mini (FLACs stored on FreeNas in another room).

My most recent revelation has been to discover what a difference giving clean power to the Digione makes. I put in a linear power supply made by Mains Cables R Us (terrible name, top notch products!) as well as their mains block and a couple of PS Audio AC cables feeding the amp and DAC, and that has completed it for me.

I think there is literally nothing I would want to change in my system now. To my ears, in my room, I frequently close my eyes (or dance around like a lunatic!) with music on and just get taken away by it.

Thanks for indulging me. Keep it going everybody - just listen to the music

John_Eaton · April 20, 2019, 8:52pm

I also have a Lenovo Q190 that came with Windows 8 and was up graded to 10. It now resides, mostly unused, in a guest bedroom. Like you I replaced it with a Lenovo Tiny I7, 16 GB, with a 1 TB SSD. The Q190 feels steam powered compared to the Tiny. I think you will really like it. Mine fits so nicely and unobtrusively in the HiFi rack and now acts as a very capable roon core.
Love your old Advent “Larges” too. They are absolute classics.

SKBubba · April 20, 2019, 10:39pm

Got mine today. I concur!

Kevin_Owen · April 21, 2019, 11:46am

What is the Darko approved door stop thingy? Got a link to it?

Bob_Findlay · April 21, 2019, 11:58am

Oh that is a very high tech bit of kit! John Darko thinks it helps improve the sound of certain bits of light weight kit, such as this RPI as well as holding it down with a load of cabling plugged into it. Not sure I can hear a difference, but it definitely keeps it where I put it.

You can get one on eBay: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F123253175601

Bob_Findlay · April 21, 2019, 12:01pm

Here’s his rundown…

Kevin_Owen · April 21, 2019, 2:24pm

Hell, for that price, why not. Thanks

TreeZorro · April 22, 2019, 8:04am

It really helped the sound of my door improving.

Bob_Findlay · April 22, 2019, 8:07am

I found it really contrasted well with the natural grain in mine

Lyall_Johns · April 22, 2019, 8:59am

Yes, a nice, simple setup, Kevin. Thanks for the photo.
I’m interested in your speaker placement as I have a pair of Martin Logan Montis speakers. Yours seem to be about 8 feet apart and 4 feet from the back wall. And what cables do you use? Thanks.

mikeb · April 22, 2019, 9:02am

In all fairness to Mr Darko, he is saying if you want to do this, do it for 9 euro and not for audiophool hundreds. Got to admire him for keeping it half real as it’s obviously a controversial subject!

rrwwss52 · April 22, 2019, 9:09am

Herbie’s is a great source for inexpensive vibration products. I think there is importance in managing vibration. I use a variety of products, some are expensive, some are not.

Kevin_Owen · April 22, 2019, 1:23pm

Hey Thanks Lyall. They are indeed 4.5 feet from the back wall and 5.5 feet apart (inner wall of each speaker). I also have a slight toe-in.

I also noticed that when sitting in my center position, the singer in the center image seemed to always be 7 feet tall. So I took 2 rubber raquet balls (see the pink ball on the floor behind the right speaker) cut them in half and placed the 2 halves under the back 2 feet of eah speaker which tipped them forward approximatly 3 degrees which brought the center image back to a relativly normal 5-6 foot height.

As for speaker wire, I’m using a 30 year old set of very high quality but generic speaker wire that has no name on it stuffed inside a cable set of cable sleeves:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073PFXFH9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Kevin_Owen · April 22, 2019, 1:27pm

Herbie’s? When I search Herbie’s, all I get is the Bug movie from my childhood or a Bird Seed company

ipeverywhere · April 22, 2019, 3:45pm

I own a couple of these. My absolute favorite is the Cone/Spike Decoupling Glider, because my speakers are on spikes on carpet, these make it super easy to adjust placement whenever I want to experiment.

As far as sound quality? There are other components which will make more of a difference but I think I’m hearing improvement? It’s been so long since I put them in and I’ve made other changes I cannot remember exactly what I heard with just swapping in the gliders and I’m not removing them because I like sliding my speakers around. I also have some isolation feet (Tenderfoot). I’m still playing around with placement of these. They certainly do not hurt.

rrwwss52 · April 22, 2019, 7:07pm

I use the Tenderfeet in a few places. I also use Alto Extremo Lyds for several components (bought most of them second hand). The price of Herbie’s Audio Labs tenderfeet are much more accommodating.
Tenderfeet come in different heights, and to accommodate lighter/heavier equipment. Good company.

Derek_Wyman · April 24, 2019, 3:41am

New setup almost there.

Allo USBridge
Khadas Tone Board
Marantz 7013
Emotiva A300
Kef Q350

woodford · April 24, 2019, 11:12am

pretty stands.

Gigatoaster · April 24, 2019, 1:11pm

Hello there

I was looking with admiration your setups, some have amazing and beautiful stuff, but some are ugly haha. Me too, I’d like to share my very modest setup.

I changed country so I bought new stuff:

These are KEF R300 speakers with Teac AI-503. I use a Mac mini 2018 & a Panasonic OLED 55FZ950S. I need to do some cable management but unfortunately if I put the mini to the right side of the TV, I get interferences with keyboard & trackpad. So I leave it back in the left.

I always been a fan of KEF. Before I had KEF Q700 with Rotel RA-12 and I loved them. I couldn’t go floor stand this time as I now live in an apartment so I took small bookshelves. I love the sound and the look of it.

Jazzfan_NJ · April 24, 2019, 1:40pm

Nice looking set up. Since you are using a Marantz receiver you might want to give a Google Chromecast (regular, not audio) a try. The Chromecast works great with Roon and the HDMI output works nicely with the Marantz plus you get the added bonus of a Now Playing screen on that beautiful HDTV.