Why Is Audio On This Website?
Intuition
An audio system lets you remove your conscious, rational mind and learn to use your intuition to enjoy being here. Listening to music is a pure method, and the things you listen to will change over time. Slow music that sounds beautiful will be your ultimate choice. Maybe you will start with something complex and noisy, but over time, that will change as you improve your consciousness.
This system uses the 99 dB efficient La Dolce Audio Open Baffle Speakers (15″ coax with 18″ bass)
It also uses the Bricasti M12 DAC (the Bricasti M3 is a lower-cost alternative and a great place to start). Your source is your most important purchase, and it is also the beginning of our purchase for improving audio sound quality. If done well, this system will sound as close to real music as you can get with a recorded musical source.
This system uses a Custom 300B Amplifier Built by Treehaus Audio Lab and Radu Tarta, which replaces an EL84 amplifier built by Amps and Sound (their Little Nugget). The EL84 amp was used for fine-tuning this system, and the 300B amplifier now provides even better sound quality. Of course, it costs a lot more and chases that last 5% of sound quality where the breakthrough occurs. That’s why I do it.
A 300B kit you purchase from SunValley is a lower-cost alternative to what I’ve used, but a decent one, and what I would start with. I’ve used that amplifier to learn what works well and highly recommend taking your time and beginning your adventure this way. Match a pair of speakers that are about 99 dB sensitive, and you have a system that balances perfectly with all genres of music. The speakers I use cost around $2,000 for the parts, and you build your baffles (rough, ugly, or beautiful) using purchased but lower-cost drivers. Sound quality won’t vary with this approach, but build quality will. The sound quality, however, can be breathtaking and is why I built the system I have. You can too even if you’re never done this before.
My proprietary way of connecting this system.
I’ll explain what I’ve discovered, and if you cannot afford what I’ve done, you can put together a lower-cost system using similar practices. However, I cannot guarantee that this will be close to the sound quality I get, but it should be decent if done correctly.
Allow Me To Explain
My attempt to avoid audio has never worked, and I was always drawn back in to build what I couldn’t find and to purchase others’ components that I liked. I am a professional jazz piano player and know what real music sounds like.
As a result, I’ve tried to build an audio component system that sounds as “live” as possible. Until recently, that effort was a long way from the real thing, but gradually, after decades of building things and purchasing many different components, I have finally learned how to create a digital streaming system that sounds superb. It sounds better than an expensive analog turntable system, which is no small feat.
Your source is #1, and the power amplifier and speakers must be perfectly matched. If done correctly, you’ll end up with a system that sounds as close to live music as you can reproduce using an audio system and has the body and transparency you hear in person. The body needed will be provided by only one tube source, which will be your power amplifier. Everything else will be solid state.
I’ve also uncovered a “lifetime ownership” heirloom audio system that can interest almost anyone in your family. You and they can pick up each component; this is important. Components that weigh close to 100 pounds or more aren’t necessary to gain the best sound quality. You can use around 40 to 50 pounds per component as your max with this system. Or maybe step up to 57 pounds just for your power amplifier, like I have done. I’m glad to go up that high, but no higher. Cost-wise, that will probably eliminate most people. However, I am trying to find a lower-cost alternative where you don’t need to give up sound quality, and that’s for future users.
No one piece is heavier than the power amp. The 300B tube amp (over $20,000 in cost) I use is my doing, and you can use one closer to 40 pounds (and closer to $5,000) if you like. The Bricasti M12 DAC weighs 16 lbs. Each of the two open baffle speakers weighs 37 lbs. All significant items needed to build this system meet my 40-pound max weight per component consideration. However, I’m now working on a power amplifier that weighs 37 pounds. I’m getting too old to work with anything heavier than 40 pounds, so that is my goal. It should be yours too, since family members may have to move your components, and there is no sense taxing them beyond their limits.
ALL COMPONENTS!
I built my amplifiers (solid-state versions, tubes using 45, 2A3, and 300B power tubes) and everything except the DAC. High-quality DACs require surface-mounted components, and I don’t have the equipment to build them that way. So, consequently, I have purchased over 50 DACs in the last 8 years, built by others, to find the best one that meets my requirements.
The best DAC I’ve found is the Bricasti M12, which retails for $16,000. I use it in my system. The Bricasti M3 DAC, with its network card option, is an alternative DAC that costs less than half of that and is what I’d use if I couldn’t afford the M12 DAC. Those are my favorites out of everything I’ve tried. I’ve owned and tried almost every major brand of DAC, including many costly ones (solid state and tube).
As a result of learning as much as I can after building several 300B amplifiers, the excellent 300B tube amp provides around 6-8 watts per channel. That power rating works well with 97 to 99 dB efficient speakers and above. I’m fortunate to have found this speaker design, which provides the high-quality sound I like when used with my favorite power amplifier. I’m sure this can be accomplished with other equipment, but not with my stringent requirements that everything be made in the US and weigh less than 40 pounds per component. I don’t pay for bling; I put all my money into convenience and sound quality instead.
The 300B amplifier that I’m using now has a NOS Mullard GZ34 4-notch rectifier tube (slow start), a pair of C3M Telefunken input tubes (plenty of current for the 300B tubes), and a pair of Western Electric 300B tubes. It doesn’t roll off the treble and bass, and instead provides a tube quality with a solid state kind of linear sound quality, but with excellent tube euphonics. Excellent! I can play all types of music with this amplifier, and the sound quality is off the chart, tight, and whole. It is that good and highly unusual for a 300B amp.
If it weren’t for my research into the design of the 300B amplifier and the fact that I’ve built several to find out what is necessary, I never would have found the correct solution. But now I have. I don’t need to go beyond the one-chassis Treehaus 300B amplifier to see it. I’ve got it now, and a single chassis power amplifier is all that anyone needs.
The power quality coming into each component is critical, and for decades, I kept searching for the best sound using streaming music only. I’m into convenience and ease of use, and I gave up on vinyl and my Linn Sondek LP12 a long time ago. I might only like one track on both sides, and the work to play that track isn’t fun.
Audrivana is my music player, my Mac Computer is the database going into Tidal, and my RJ45 network brings music files into my Bricasti M12 DAC. They are unrolled there, less than an inch from the i2S entry point inside the DAC. This is the best. I cannot imagine using anything else. Because the Bricasti M12 also has a built-in preamplifier section, I can connect a turntable system to my digital streaming network without adding a separate preamplifier. I then toggle between the 2nd and 1st systems connected to the DAC using the handheld remote. It’s straightforward and has a superb sound quality!
I value the best power quality for all of my components, and the best power for a digital streaming system starts at the rear of the modem, not behind the DAC.
I found out when I used a Farad Super 6 linear power supply instead of the cheap wall adapter that came with the modem to power it. I began to understand how providing the best power at the place where my source comes into my studio system is so critical to an audio reproduction system. I discovered that after over 5 decades of trying. Imagine that. It took that long due to my conditioning, and after spending time on the various audio forums. Until recently, you never heard this recommendation, and now you will as I share it with the audio world.
I was tuning the distortion of devices that had nothing to do with my primary system (particularly the power supply used in the network entering my DAC). I figured that out simply by trying to figure out why I wasn’t happy with my system, no matter what I did, and changing tubes and cables only tuned the distortion from these devices that I was hearing, not taking the distortion out. I realized this only because I tried everything else and discovered this by accident. Now I am pleased that I’ve finally found a solution.
I’ll share why this is so, and you can try to assemble your system and find out if this is worthwhile. It definitely should be. Will it be of the same high-level sound quality if you don’t use the best components as I have? No. Money spent is money well spent only if it is done correctly. However, you don’t need to pay over $60,000 retail for the system that I have to enjoy and listen to music at a high level. You can spend less and enjoy music. I haven’t tried to spend less since I have been doing this for a long time, and eventually decided to create the best I could, and cost has not been my object. My system currently retails for around $60,000 and sounds excellent without problems.
I’ll explain what I’m sharing here, but not on this page. This page instead will document my system at its most macro level and won’t get into the proprietary things that I’ve used and found after exploring audio all of my life.