Apologies!
I originally linked some Google pictures and they didn't show. I relocated them to OneDrive and they still didn't show. Now, they are hosted on "imgur" and the links are working

Here is my actual setup.



The audio rack is designed and handmade by me. It is based on a commercial model I have seen in a shop but tailored to my exact setup. I initially expected to tri-amp but...

Left shelf bottom to top: Arcam Alpha 8 FM Tuner | Alpha 8 CD that now acts as a transport only since it's fed through the SM6 DAC (when dinosaur friends come by with CDs...) | Cambridge Audio Stream Magic 6v2 | Linn Kairn.

Right shelf bottom to top: Tripp Lite surge protector w/ ampmeter | LK85 | LK140.

Ninkas, aktiv

Fot those who wonder, the left speaker is 76½cm from the left wall and 70 cm from the back wall.
The two speakers are 185 cm apart.

TrippLite w/ampmeter
Before I converted to digital streaming and ripped all my CD library, replay gain differed from one album to another, hence the volume level on the Kairn was not enough to ensure a perfect neighborhood relationship. I phone-called my upstair's neighbor and, with trial and error, we agreed that whatever time of day, "1,3A" on the TrippLite ampmeter was of no concern for our relatioship and, that during the day, there was no sound level that would still be enjoyable to me while bothering her. Nice!

Now that I FLACked everything with replay gain tags, I would say that a volume "70" on the Kairn is most enjoyable with most albums. As it happens, it's still "1.3A" on the TrippLite and, quite a coincidence, also happens to be "70dBa" on a soundmeter I borrowed for testing.

Room configuration


The second picture shows the plant racks I designed and completed assembling last week and, more importantly, without this idea in mind, are now an essential part of the system in it's whole.

While I always had pleasure listening to the system, I also felt something was not the way it should be. The exact same kit was listened at the dealer and sounded better. The dealer's best guy came to install the system, and position the speakers.

Since I moved in back in 2005, I was pretty sure the room's acoustic was deteriorated by the 2¾ m patio door (9'). But, because the condo's orientation allows only for dim sun to get in, heavy curtains were not an option I have considered.

My girlfriend moved-in this summer and the garden went from 5 plants to 20 so I had to find a viable solution. As stated above, since there is not much light coming from outside, I decided to design the plant rack and install fluorescent tubes on the ceiling. Damn! With all those soft plants in front of the window, the acoustic is now pure bliss. What a sound improvement came from those racks!

A box to hide the fluorescent tubes is still to be made, hence the wood planer on the ground.

We live three in a 90m2 condo, so it needs to look like a family apartment, not a man's cave. The plant rack allowed this to happen, since I did not want to add some sound proofing panels on the walls and endup with an ugly living room.

This is it.

Nicolas

Hello Nicolas!

Thanks for the story and the pictures!

I tried fixing the links, but they still don't show... You can change IMG and /IMG to URL and /URL, to make us access the pictures by clicking the links. When I tried this I was for some reason prompted to confirm my account, which perhaps gives some indication as to why IMG doesn't work properly?

Sorry to be of no real help with this!

Hi NinthWave!

Did you design the plant rack yourself? It looks nice. I also saw the cat now. lol

I'm not sure about this though:

We live three in a 90m2 condo so it needs to look like a family apartment, not a man's cave.

Surely you're not suggesting that we make compromises?! :)

Paaf wrote: ↑2019-01-14 01:09 Hi NinthWave!

Did you design the plant rack yourself? It looks nice. I also saw the cat now. lol

I'm not sure about this though:

We live three in a 90m2 condo so it needs to look like a family apartment, not a man's cave.

Surely you're not suggesting that we make compromises?! :)

Not exactly. While I can go to work with 15 years old shirts and Ts, I wear fancy glasses and did everyting in my condo to my liking. Having a living room looking like a recording studio is not something I fancy.

The plant racks were not a compromise but a consensus on keeping all the combined plants without loosing a squarefoot.

Nicolas

Very nice looking rack you've made.

I like the cat tower too - never seen one like that before. I bet your cat would love a walkway to the coat rack, but I doubt the humans would appreciate the look.

You could try a thick rug in front of the speakers, but I guess you already considered that.

I preferred Linn Skeets with Ninkas (on carpet), but never tried them on a wood floor, even though that's the sort of flooring Skeets are designed for. Also makes speaker positioning much easier.

The Ninkas seem quite a way from the rear wall but so long as you're enjoying music then why worry.

Charlie1 wrote: ↑2019-01-14 10:15 [...]
The Ninkas seem quite a way from the rear wall but so long as you're enjoying music then why worry.

This brings us back at compromise.

I got the second amp afterward and secondhand. Since the system went from passive to Aktiv, I had my acquaintance, no longer working for the Linn dealer, to come by and reposition the whole thing.

When me and my gilfriend decided to live together, I already own the condo for 13 years and it was tailored to my needs. I told my girlfriend: « I am quite aware those speakers take room, but I paid X$ for the rig and Y$ just to have the speakers placed at this exact spot. They won't move ». She did not argue... :-)

Wall colors, furniture, kitchenware organization...anything could be re-established on a consensus but the Ninkas would stay right where they were.

Just updated pictures with an SLR that has a wider lens so the plant racks are better shown.

To me, it's important because they improved the sound so much.

Quite the setup, you obviously have some woodworking skills. I've done some basic woodwork in the past but my first love is offhand glassblowing, although I haven't done any in years. Music reproduction seems to be my main art.

It seems like you should call it the Rack Room - Hi-Fi rack, coat rack, plant rack, cat rack - a lot of racks. I don't have a big patio door to put that kind of plant rack in so my house plants are spread around the rooms. My big windows are on the font of the house in the living room, where they get some morning sun but not much because of the really huge tree across the street. Plus putting plant racks there would give me no place to sit and listen!

Those are some of the prettiest Ninkas I have seen - really lovely figuring. I'm sure the plants make for better sound control than any absorption panels. Plus the music should make the plants grow better and be more healthy (unless you feed them on a steady diet of Nine Inch Nails!). Looks like a nice place.

ThomasOK wrote: ↑2019-01-18 20:18 Quite the setup, you obviously have some woodworking skills. [...]

It seems like you should call it the Rack Room - Hi-Fi rack, coat rack, plant rack, cat rack - a lot of racks. [...]

Those are some of the prettiest Ninkas I have seen - really lovely figuring. I'm sure the plants make for better sound control than any absorption panels. Plus the music should make the plants grow better and be more healthy (unless you feed them on a steady diet of Nine Inch Nails!). Looks like a nice place.

Thank you for the compliment. As mentioned in my initial post, everything in my condo is done by me to my liking, except the kitchen cabinets.

The cat rack was bought on Amazon because unfortunately, at the price Chineses can sell it, its not worth the work.

But since you mentioned the coat rack, I made it as well. Here is a picture when it was first installed three years ago. I guess it helped the sound as well but not as much as the plant racks in front of the very large patio door.



The audio rack and coat rack are made of walnut. The plant rack is made of red cedar for the vertical and horizontal beams but the shelves are made of cherry wood (like the Ninkas). The right top shelf is missing the sides plus the horizontal beam is missing some stain since we are still bying new plants so I have to build more shelves! Can you figure...

I am pretty sure Lejonklou electronics would fit perfectly in this room, with an appropriate customization of the audio rack.

Nicolas

Four years later, here is an update of the plant rack.

If you skipped the whole thread and ask yourself why post this in the "me and my system" section, it's because this whole plant rack improves the room acoustic by damping the reflections in the 9' patio door.