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Rig — the reference signal path

The reference rig.

The actual gear in the actual room. Where the umbrella tag stops being a metaphor and becomes a signal path you can hear. Hi-fi is the home court for a signal-vs-noise thesis.

Signal chain — hover or focus a stage to trace the pathSourceRoon · streamingDACdCSPreampAudio ResearchPower ampAudio ResearchSpeakersSonus faber

Hover or tab through to trace the path.

Two-channel reference

  • dCS DAC
  • Audio Research preamp
  • Audio Research power amps
  • Sonus faber floorstanders
  • Cardas cabling
  • Roon (source)

The 2-channel chain is the one I tune everything else against. Sonus faber floorstanders earn the room — large enough that the bottom octave doesn't beg for a sub. Audio Research up the chain because tubes do something with mid-band weight that solid state still chases. dCS at the front because the DAC has to be honest before anything downstream gets a chance.

Home theater

  • Rotel surround processor
  • Paradigm floorstanding surrounds

A second system because film deserves real surrounds and the 2-channel rig isn't going to do five-channel duty. Rotel processor + Paradigm floorstanding surrounds: workmanlike, transparent, gets out of the way of the source.

Room

  • Untreated honest room
  • No DSP correction
  • Speakers pulled out, toed in

No DSP, no traps on the walls, no measurement microphone hanging from a stand. Treatment via furniture and bookshelves; speakers pulled away from the wall and toed in. The room is a tool, not the project.

Different from /uses — that's the brands I've worked with. This is the rig in the listening chair.