Constantine Soo

Constantine's wall-to-wall carpeted listening room measures 12 feet wide, 25 feet deep, with an 8-foot high ceiling. To the left of the room is a 4 feet wide hardwood-floored corridor that runs alongside. Separating the corridor from the listening room is an 11-foot long wall that also serves as the left wall. The listening room’s right wall, on the other hand, stretches for a continuous 25 feet until it reaches the rear wall.

The listening position’s perpendicular distance to the front wall is 15 feet approximately, leaving another 10 feet of space behind the couch to the rear wall. An 8-foot wide, 65-inch tall thick drape, hung 18 inches from the carpeted floor, adorns the front wall behind the speakers.

A canvas measuring 40” x 40” hangs atop the fireplace on the right wall midway between the listening position and the front wall, while a 3-foot tall, sliding-door CD trove is positioned against the 11-foot left wall halfway to the listening position. 57 inches to the right of the listening position against the right wall is a six-foot high, 5-foot wide display shelf that harbors CDs.

Acoustic treatment is via the drape, the full carpeting, two 16-inch ASC Tube Traps at the front-wall's corner (behind speakers), 8 ASC flat panels, and two generic, 4-foot by 2-foot absorptive panels and other fixtures. The panels are deployed sporadically and only when needed.

4 pairs of Isoclean ICP-002, gold-plated 2-position wall sockets, running on dedicated, 15 amp AC lines supply power.

Primarily, Constantine listens to classical music of the Classical and Romantic periods, interspersed with occasional Baroque. He enjoys New Age and jazz of the 80’s, scores by John Williams, Philip Glass, Toru Takemitsu, Yoko Kanno, and a few others, some classic rock, sporadic heavy-metal, choice experimentals, plus limited assortment of special-effect discs for use on non-audiophile visitors.

System

Digital Front End
47 Laboratory 4704 PiTracer CD transport
Audio Note DAC5 Signature
Esoteric D-05
Lindemann USB-DCC 24/96 digital-to-digital converter
Wadia 170 iTransport

Analog Front End
47 Lab Koma turntable with Koma tonearm
Kyocera PL-910 turntable
Technics SP-10 MkIIA turntable
SME/Oracle 345 tonearm

Amplification
Pass Laboratory XP-15 phono
Pass Laboratory X0.2 solid-state preamplification system
Pass Laboratory XA100.5 solid-state monoblocks
Red Rock Renaissance triode parallel push-pull monoblocks

Speakers
Feastrex Makoto field-coil loudspeaker
MaxxHorn Immersion (2nd edition)
Rockport Mira Grand II loudspeaker

Cabling
Audio Note Sogon digital cable (1m, RCA)
Audio Note Sogon interconnect (2m pair, RCA)
Audio Note AN-Vx interconnect (1.5m, RCA)
Audio Note Sogon LX speaker cable (5 feet, spade/banana, bi-wired)
Audio Note AN-V silver interconnect (1m, RCA, 2 pairs)
Audio Note AN-SPx speaker cable (2m, bananas, bi-wired)
Audio Note AN-La copper speaker cable (8 feet, bi-wired)
Aural Symphonics Echelon Digital (1.5m, RCA)
Combak Harmonix HS-101 SLC speaker cable (8 feet, single-wired)
Granite Audio #470 silver cables (1m, RCA, 2 pairs)
Granite Audio #560 AC Mains (2)
Harmonix Reimyo Studio Master AC cord (4)
Illuminations D-60 75 Ohm digital cable (1.5m, RCA)
Isoclean Super Focus (4)
Isoclean Supreme Focus (1)
MIT Magnum MA speaker cable (8ft, single-wired)
Wireworld Golden Eclipse XLR (2m)
Wireworld Platinum Eclipse XLR (2m)
Wireworld Reference Platinum speaker cable (8ft, single-wired)

Accessories
Combak Harmonix Professional Tuning Devices
Isoclean 80A3 80-amp filter
Salamander Synergy 20 (2), Twin 30 and Amp Stand
ASC Tube Traps and Flat Traps