See my reply to the question about them being too close to the walls. Short story is that the Stillpoints Ultra 5’s made a huge difference in room interactions. Crazy, I know, but I went back and forth removing them and putting them back on and sure enough, they smoothed out a lot of midbass and lower frequency “humps”.
The Alexia’s are highly adjustable and can be listened to properly as close as 7 feet away with accurate time-alignment. They can play in big rooms and small, and it’s all because of the many adjustments in the upper unit – there are many, and if you want to read up on the specifics I recommend going to Wilson’s site and downloading the manual. It has several charts and graphs for what settings to change for things like listening distance, ear height, etc.
I’d love to put them in a bigger room, but when I finish my basement it’s going to be done right and I don’t have that kind of money right now. If you’re curious, my current room is 12 Feet wide (that’s the side the Alexia’s are on) and 15 Feet long. Standard 8 foot ceiling.
Yes, I used the spikes. I had to use a bigger floor protector disc underneath because they weigh so much they punched a hole through the subfloor! It was a real pain in the ass.
Ouch! But no real surprise. The Sophias are plenty heavy enough for me. I tweaked my back pretty good in the process of getting them crated, uncrated, and placed in their new home when I acquired them.
LOL! The Wilson Dealer who delivered them were complaining about carrying a pair of Sophias up stairs at their previous delivery. Apparently all the other speakers are not as difficult to move since they come apart. But the Sophias are one heavy piece – I think they had a nickname for them that something like “backbreakers”!
Ok, my system is kind of complete now and I’m fairly happy with the way it sounds.
I’m using an Asus eeebox as my core, running Roon server on Windows 10 with Fidelizer. I’ve upgraded this to an SSD and maxed out the ram.
This connects to my Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2 using wasapi. Cable is a blue jeans usb, and I’m using an iFi purifier 2, found this was a worthwhile upgrade. The DAC itself has had the Sparkos SS3602 discrete opamp upgrade and the tube was upgraded to the WE396A. Review of this can be found here http://www.tnt-audio.com/accessories/sparkos_ss3602_e.html
I was using a Rotel RC995 preamp, but when I upgraded the power amp, I find the volume control via Roon and the gain of the DAC meant it sounds better without.
The power amp is a Niles Audio SI-2100. This uses Hypex ucd180 d class modules and they are amazing. I heard them in a Rogue Audio Sphinx and they sound really good, got lucky finding this on eBay. More than enough power, they have the gain turned down to around 30%. Interconnect is a blue jeans one that I found to be really good.
Speakers are Mordaunt Short MS908i’s. Had these for about 6 years now and the sound dynamics and detail are really nice and have taken every upgrade I’ve thrown at them and sounded still better. They are sitting on some Audeze vibration pads with some Ikea chopping boards in between for a little extra stability. Cables are monoprice which I can recommend.
Next upgrade may be speakers, looked the ls50 when I hear them, have always liked KEF and Dynaudio, but I’m fine for the moment.
I’ve been playing around with the DSP function, but so far had mixed results. Will keep playing with it.
Because I had nothing but pop and crackle issues using the USB - at all resolutions. Nearly drove me nuts troubleshooting and gave up. Coax tops at 192/24 but sounds good and is stable
Senn HD 800 S (Wywires Red Cabled)
Chord Mojo
Auralic Aries Femto (concealed under first table)
Synology DS116 NAS
NUC7i7BNH Mini PC NUC Kit (Roon Core)
Thought the tube buffer would have a hard time!
