Audio Components

Why And How To Create The Best Audio Listening System!

An audio system allows you to remove your consicous ratioinal mind and learn to use your intuition to enjoy being here. Listening to music is as pure a method you can use and your choice of things you listen to will change over time and slow music that sounds beautiful will be your ultimate choice. Maybe you will start with something complex and noisy but over time, that will changea as you work on improving your consicusness.

This system uses the 99 db efficient La Dolce Audio Open Baffle Speakers (15″ coax with 18″ bass)

This system uses the Bricasti M12 DAC (Bricasti M3 Is A Lower Cost Alternative) – Your Source Is Your Most Important Purchase And The Beginning Purchase For Improving Audio Sound Quality

This system uses a Custom 300B Amplifeir Built By Treehaus Audio Lab and Radu Tarta that 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 an even better sound quality.

A 300B kit that you purchase from SunValley is a lower cost alternative – 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 99db sensitive and you have a system that blanaces perfectly with all genres of music.

My proprietary way of connecting this system together.

I’ll explain what I’ve discovered and you can put together a lower cost system using similar pratices if you cannot afford what I’ve done. I cannot, however, guarantee that this will be an audio sound quality improvement but should be decent if done properly.

Allow Me To Explain

My attempt to stay away from audio has never worked and I was always drawn back in to build what I couldn’t find and to purchase other’s components. I used to be 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 I can make it. Until recently, that effort has been a long away from the real thing but gradually, after decades of building things and purchasing many different components, I finally have learned how to create a digital streaming system that sounds superb. In my opinion, it sounds better than an expensive analog turntable system and that is no small feat.

I found that your source is #1 and the power amplifier and speakers need to be perfectly matched. If done correctly, you’ll end up with a system that will sound as close to live music as you can do using an aduio system for reproduction.

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 and I feel that this is important. Components that weigh 75 or 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.

No one piece is heavier than the power amp. The 300B tube amp that I use and recommend weighs approximately 45 lbs. The Bricasti M12 DAC weighs 16 lbs. Each of the two open baffle speakers weigh 37 lbs. All large items needed to build this system meet my 40 to 50 pound max weight per component consideration.

ALL OF THEM!

I built my own amplifiers (solid state versions, tube using 45, 2A3 and 300B power tubes) and everything except for the DAC. Really high quality DACs require surface mounted components and I don’t have the equipment to build in that way. So consequently, I have purcahsed over 50 DACs in the last 8 years that have been build by others to find the one that meets my reqirements.

The best DAC I’ve found is the Bricasti M12 that retails for $16,000. I use it in my own system. An alternative DAC that costs less would be the Bricasti M3 DAC with their network card option. Those are my favorites out of everything I’ve tried.

As a result of learning as much as I can and building several 300B ampifiers, the 300B tube amp provdies around 6-8 watts per channel and works well with 99db efficient speakers. I’m fortunate to have found both and these provide the high quality sound that I really like. 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 to 50 pounds per component. I don’t pay for bling and instead put all of my money into convenience and sound quality.

The 300B amplifier that I’m using now has a Mullard GZ34 recitifer tube (slow start), a pair of C3M 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 isntead provides a tube quality with a soid state kind of linear sound quality but with excellent tube euphonics. I can play all types of music with this amplifier and the sound quality is off the chart. It is that good.

If it wasn’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.

The power coming into each component is critical and for decades, I kept searching for the bset sound using streaming music only. I found that Audrivana as my music player, my Mac Computer as the database going into Tidal, and my RJ45 network that ended up bringing music files into my Bricasti M12 DAC was the absolute best. I cannot imagine using anything else.

However, I valued the rear of the DAC near my audio system as where I should create the best power when in fact the best power for a digital streaming system starts at the rear of the modem. When I used a Farad Super 6 linear power supply instead of the cheap wall art that came with the modem to power it, I began to understand how providing the best power is so critical to an audio reporudction system.

I’ll share why this is so and you can try to put together your system and to find out if this is worthwhile. It should be. Will it be of the same high level sound quality if you don’t use the best components. No. Money spent is money spent if done correctly. However, you don’t need to spend over $60,000 retail for the system that I have to enjoy and listen to music at a really high level. You can spend less and really enjoy music. However, 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. My system currently retails for over $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.

Keep reading!

How to create the ultimate sounding digital streaming system:

  1. DAC – Bricasti M12 ($16,000)
  2. Power Amp (EL84 – Amps and Sound Little Nugget push-pull at 17w/ch for fine-tuning using my 10/18 speaker build at 94 db efficient, then move to Treehaus 300B amp as the ultimate using 6w/ch but requires an even more efficient speaker build at 99db). I used my 10”/18” bass build to fine-tune this combination, then moved to the more efficient build using the 15”/18” build. Both speaker systems are open baffle and sound excellent. I also tried many inductors for the 18” bass and finally arrived at the best inductor to use. This cost an additional $3,500 for R&D costs for the inductors and $3,500 for the speakers. I threw away $7,000 to find the best sound for this system but it was worth it. You now don’t need to. Purchase either amplifier and either speaker system. The best? The 300B with the 15″ coax speaker system.
  3. Speakers (LaDolce Audio compact baffle 15” coax with 1002 tweeter and 18” bass speakers – high 20Hz to 18Khz at 99db sensitivity). All component cost is slightly less than $2,000 but now you need to provide an open baffle frame. You can do so inexpensively and essentially use a 3/4″ piece of plywood from Home Depot and a pair of clamps for feet or do as I’ve done and create a beautiful frame that looks good. However, sound quality of both system approaches won’t vary – just the looks.
  4. Speaker Cables (Furutech 15 gauge solid core)
  5. Puritan 256 Conditioner with six outlets
  6. Puritan Ground Master Unit with an 8-foot deep ground rod in my backyard
  7. Furtech NTX 6 outlet system Jena Labs 3-foot Valkarie interconnect between DAC and power amp
  8. Farad Super 6 linear power supply (7V) with upgraded DC Classic copper cable power cable.
  9. Uptone Audio EtherRegen RJ45 converter
  10. Shanyata Alpha Eternet 1.5 meter cable
  11. Fiber RJ45 cable to network switch
  12. Two Finesar transceivers connect the fiber cable to both ends using SPF+ on the switch and the Sonore or Uptone units.
  13. Matrix Audio SS-1 Pro switch with linear power supply and re-clocker built-in
  14. Cat 6 cable between modem-router (upstairs) going through ceiling and floor 
  15. Modem/router connected to Xfinity service. I’m using an Asus router/modem.
  16. 2nd Farad Super 6 linear power supply (12V) to power modem/router
  17. All Furutech power cables for all items (linear power supplies, switch, DAC, power amp, modem/router are F50 connectors with Furtuech Alpha Nano cable in between.
  18. AusioRAX custom rack (20” wide x 16” deep & 6U high with finger jointing and ventilation top and sides. The DAC sits at the bottom, and the Puritan conditioner is rack mounted on top using 2U of space + $800
  19. Peter Meijer 6” high legs for AudioRax custom rack = $100

Total Cost Of This System:

  1. DAC (Bricasti M12) = $16,000
  2. 300B Amp (Treehaus) = $16,000
  3. Additional Tubes for 300B amp = $2,000 (NOS metal base GZ34 + NOS Telefunken C3m pair. The Western Electric 300B is part of the $16,000 cost from Treehaus.)
  1. Speakers = $5,000 (for the 15” coax with 1002 tweeter and 18” bass driver)
  1. Valkarie Jena Labs RCA Interconnect cable = $3700
  2. Shunyata Alpha RJ45 interconnect RJ45 = $1800
  1. Puritan conditioner = $2,500
  2. Puritan ground master = $500
  3. 8-foot deep ground rod and misc equipment = $200
  4. Farad Super 6 – 7V power linear power supply for RJ45 converter = $1,900
  5. Finisar transceivers (2 x $125) = $250
  6. Fiber Cable between both SPF+ = $100
  7. Matrix SS-1 Pro = $1,900
  8. Cat 6 cable between floors (Home Depot) = $50
  9. Surfboard modem/router (Asus) = $250
  10. Farad Super 6 – 12V linear power supply for modem/router = $1,800
  1. Furutech FI-50 power cables (5 pairs at $1,000 each) = $5,000

18. ITE and other experiments = $1,000

  1. AudioRax 6U high-unit = $700
  2. Uptone Audio EterRegen = $650
  3. 20. Sonore Deluxe RJ45 Converter = $499

(All music is streamed from Titdal using Audirvana on my Mac Studio computer over my network)

Total Cost For This System = $60300 with 300B amp and tubes.

Total Cost For This System = $48,600 with EL34 amp and tubes

(This system takes up a minimum of floor space and is quite simple to assemble. It is not bi-amped, and extra cables are not used, even though I’ve tested everything with bi-amping and additional wires. I’ve used electronic crossover units provided by Sublime Acoustics, JL Acoustics, and SPL. I prefer the passive capacitor (Russian PIO 3.3uF and the inductor I use). T

The best sound quality for me was with one amp (the 300B or the EL84),

The EL84 amp is push-pull and puts out 17 w/ch, which is enough to power the 10” coax that is 94db sensitive. The 300B amp is single-ended and puts out 6 w/ch, which is enough to power the 15” coax that is 99db sensitive but not the 10″ coax. Consequently, the best approach is a 300B amplifier into the 15″ coax speaker system.

I’ve removed a pair of binding posts on the 10”18” speaker build and now use only one pair per speaker (all copper Cardas posts). The crossover unit consists of one inductor (for the 18” bass speaker) and one Russian PIO capacitor for the treble driver. That’s it. This is as simple as possible, and the sound quality is superb.)