Chris A's setup

Speakers: 2007 Klipsch Jubilees (two-way w/TAD TD-4002 HF drivers in front corners), full-range multiple-entry K-402/BMS 4592ND with two Crites 15" cast frame woofers (center), '82 Belle bass bins with bi-amped ESS AMT-1s (surrounds), 14 Hz DIY tapped horns behind each Jubilee bass bin (subs)...a fully horn-loaded 5.1 surround sound setup.

Amplifiers: First Watt F3 driving TAD TD-4002s on left and right Jubilee K-402 HF horns, Crown D-75As tri-amping center and bi-amping surrounds/front bass bins, and Crown XTi-1000s driving TH subs.

Preamplifier/DAC/crossovers: Emotiva XMC-1 Gen 2 AVP, Xilica XP-8080 DSP crossover (crossing Jubilees, crossing center 3-way K-402-MEH), miniDSP 2x4 HD EQing and crossing Belle bass bin/AMT-1 surrounds, XTi-1000 DSPs EQing subs.

Sources: Oppo BDP-103, PS3, desktop PC running foobar2000 with CD/DVD-A collection ripped to FLAC and connected via HDMI to AVP.

Turntable/Phono preamplifier: Empire 398 with 980 arm, Stanton 681 EEE MK. III, transcription phono preamplifier.

TV: 60" Sharp Aquos Quattron.

Room dimensions: 40'L x 15.5'W x 9'H (5510 cubic feet), (12 x 4.7 x 2.7 metres--152 cubic metres) [relative dimensions 1:1.7:4.4], short wall front, listening chairs 10' from front wall (3 m). Auralex Sonofiber tiles to control early reflections, bass traps in corners for mid-bass control.



Digital music album genres: classical 33%, jazz and jazz fusion 26%, rock 20%, misc 7% folk 6%, ambient 5%, pop 5%, world 3%, soundtracks 2%. More than 23K tracks in >1800 albums within a FLAC library, >75% of which includes demastered stereo tracks from mainly CDs.

System Goals: Integrated 2-channel/HT, no tube amplification, no bass reflex ports, fully horn loaded for very low modulation distortion, very low phase and group delay growth, and high accuracy dynamic reproduction.


System Strengths: Fully EQed, time/phase-aligned crossovers for each loudspeaker using active digital crossovers (Xilica XP-8080 fronts, miniDSP 2x4 HD surrounds). All drivers/loudspeakers time aligned, manually EQed, and crossed using fractional order crossover filters for an overall system frequency response of 14 Hz--20 kHz, ± 1.5 dB.