Skylab
Reviewerus Prolificus
Some of you may have read about this room in Stereophile:
http://www.stereophile.com/content/road-trip-0
The University of the South is a small, mainly liberal-arts college in Tennessee. It so happens that my Father taught there for more than 30 years (he is now semi-retired and teaches there part-time). So on a recent visit to my parents, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit this room. My Dad is himself an audiophile, and it is because of him that I am as well. My Dad's own system is truly outstanding - Magnepan 1.7's, Audio by VanAlstine tube eletronics, VPI/Benz analog, Marantz/Assemblage digital. So he, my brother (also an audio-nut) and I went to check out the room.
Sorry for the crappy cellphone pics:
1. My kids in front of one very small part of the vinyl collection:
2. Me next to the mighty Wilson Audio Alexandrias:
3. TWO turntables, and some of the Ayre electronics:
The system is anchored by the massive Wilson Alexandria speakers, driven by all high-end Ayre electronics. The analog front end is the primary source, and there are two turntables - a Bauer DPS-150 with Koetsu Corralstone cartridge, and also a VPI Classic which had an Audio Technica OC-9 on it at the time, although it was switched out while we were there with a Japanese mono cartridge so we could play a mono LP of Toscanini conducting Rossini overtures.
The room itself is gorgeous, and was purpose-built for the system. It is completely acoustically isolated from the rest of the building, which since it is in the University Library, it has to be! It's acoustically tuned and treated - lots of diffuser panels and the like, although the main acoustic treatment are the thousands and thousands of LP's that line the walls. These LP's were largely donated by the room's namesake, William Ralston, and are mostly Classical music.
The main curator of the room, Dr. Tam Carlson, was nice enough to allow us to play whatever music we wanted. I played the MoFi LP of Alison Krauss's "So Long, So Wrong". It was truly a mind-blowing experience. I have never before heard soundstaging and imaging like this, and I have heard a lot of VERY high end systems. I could not only hear a palpable image, but I could tell EXACTLY how tall Alison was, where she was standing, and when she moved around - her placement in every dimension was truly three dimensional. I truly could, without ANY effort, picture her standing there, if I closed my eyes. It was just astounding, and is almost hard to describe. The sound was so lifelike it was absolutely hair-raising. I am convinced that it takes a combination of great system AND a great room to achieve this, and in the Ralston room, both are present.
We moved on to the SACD of Peter Gabriel's "Security". During "Lay Your Hands on Me", the dynamics were so explosive it again was a bit shocking. The drum strikes during the mid part of the song were as realistic as you could ever imagine. Digital sourced (like hi-res FLAC, which we did listen to some of) is handled by a relatively pedestrian Grace M902 DAC, but still sounded excellent.
Even listening to that 1950's mono RCA LP of Toscanini was just astonishing - the performance of William Tell's Overture was invigorating. It's hard to believe that such a recording could be so good, but it sure was! The finale again produced goose bumps for me - always a good sign that I am absorbed by the music.
Also of interest is that the next phase of this project is a listening lounge with a whole bunch of headphone stations, where students (and others) will be able to play both the library's music (there are over 11,000 CD's in addition to the huge number of LP's), and their own music. At this point it would appear that the Beyer DT770 will be the headphone of choice, due to a combination of durability and the necessity of it being closed-back, although the final choice there hadn't been made (needless to say I volunteered my opinion
).
I sure wish EVERY University had a room like this - because if they did, more people would care about sound reproduction. Sure, this room is uber-expensive, but just opening more eyes to what sound CAN be like would help to further our hobby significantly.
If you are ever in south central Tennessee, make the time to visit this amazing room. You won't regret it!
http://www.stereophile.com/content/road-trip-0
The University of the South is a small, mainly liberal-arts college in Tennessee. It so happens that my Father taught there for more than 30 years (he is now semi-retired and teaches there part-time). So on a recent visit to my parents, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit this room. My Dad is himself an audiophile, and it is because of him that I am as well. My Dad's own system is truly outstanding - Magnepan 1.7's, Audio by VanAlstine tube eletronics, VPI/Benz analog, Marantz/Assemblage digital. So he, my brother (also an audio-nut) and I went to check out the room.
Sorry for the crappy cellphone pics:
1. My kids in front of one very small part of the vinyl collection:
2. Me next to the mighty Wilson Audio Alexandrias:
3. TWO turntables, and some of the Ayre electronics:
The system is anchored by the massive Wilson Alexandria speakers, driven by all high-end Ayre electronics. The analog front end is the primary source, and there are two turntables - a Bauer DPS-150 with Koetsu Corralstone cartridge, and also a VPI Classic which had an Audio Technica OC-9 on it at the time, although it was switched out while we were there with a Japanese mono cartridge so we could play a mono LP of Toscanini conducting Rossini overtures.
The room itself is gorgeous, and was purpose-built for the system. It is completely acoustically isolated from the rest of the building, which since it is in the University Library, it has to be! It's acoustically tuned and treated - lots of diffuser panels and the like, although the main acoustic treatment are the thousands and thousands of LP's that line the walls. These LP's were largely donated by the room's namesake, William Ralston, and are mostly Classical music.
The main curator of the room, Dr. Tam Carlson, was nice enough to allow us to play whatever music we wanted. I played the MoFi LP of Alison Krauss's "So Long, So Wrong". It was truly a mind-blowing experience. I have never before heard soundstaging and imaging like this, and I have heard a lot of VERY high end systems. I could not only hear a palpable image, but I could tell EXACTLY how tall Alison was, where she was standing, and when she moved around - her placement in every dimension was truly three dimensional. I truly could, without ANY effort, picture her standing there, if I closed my eyes. It was just astounding, and is almost hard to describe. The sound was so lifelike it was absolutely hair-raising. I am convinced that it takes a combination of great system AND a great room to achieve this, and in the Ralston room, both are present.
We moved on to the SACD of Peter Gabriel's "Security". During "Lay Your Hands on Me", the dynamics were so explosive it again was a bit shocking. The drum strikes during the mid part of the song were as realistic as you could ever imagine. Digital sourced (like hi-res FLAC, which we did listen to some of) is handled by a relatively pedestrian Grace M902 DAC, but still sounded excellent.
Even listening to that 1950's mono RCA LP of Toscanini was just astonishing - the performance of William Tell's Overture was invigorating. It's hard to believe that such a recording could be so good, but it sure was! The finale again produced goose bumps for me - always a good sign that I am absorbed by the music.
Also of interest is that the next phase of this project is a listening lounge with a whole bunch of headphone stations, where students (and others) will be able to play both the library's music (there are over 11,000 CD's in addition to the huge number of LP's), and their own music. At this point it would appear that the Beyer DT770 will be the headphone of choice, due to a combination of durability and the necessity of it being closed-back, although the final choice there hadn't been made (needless to say I volunteered my opinion
I sure wish EVERY University had a room like this - because if they did, more people would care about sound reproduction. Sure, this room is uber-expensive, but just opening more eyes to what sound CAN be like would help to further our hobby significantly.
If you are ever in south central Tennessee, make the time to visit this amazing room. You won't regret it!
