Showcase your audio/video setup here!......

[panditji]

What a gorgeous house.....Fantastic space and surroundings you have chosen to listen to music....Congratulations...

Hi all, here are a few pics of my brand new listening space. Its a largish hall on my first floor with a balcony overlooking a valley (with greenery). I am yet to furnish the listening space, which I plan to do this Onam, when furniture discounts are at their best. Also, the floorstanders are positioned to face, straight on. Going to experiment with angling, this weekend.

My listening space (from just in front of where the staircase lands):

Note how the speaker cable runs right along the side of the room (equal lengths of 15m for both channels).

A closer shot of the speakers positioned beside the balcony door:

A view of the valley below, from the balcony:

Another shot of the valley below, from the balcony:

A view of the listening space (and gym area, where the sewing machine is parked) from the balcony:

My humble rig in the corner (vinyl not spinning yet):

My Technics DD, all set to spin AC/DC's Highway to Hell:

Rig with my turntable in action:

The left channel tower:

The right channel tower:

New speaker cables (Finolex submersible pump cabling):

Speaker cables behind the rig:

And finally, here's how my new home looks (European styling), this pic is from the night of the inauguration:

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Wow... That is an astonishingly amazingly home in a beautiful location. Thank you for sharing

 

[AMITNOIDA]

@Reuben,
The house looks very good and the surroundings are brilliant. Your listening room is quite big and needs a decent amplification. What would be the distance between your listening position and the speakers?
We the apartment dwellers envy you.

Regards

Amit

 

[Staxxx]

Very lovely home and I envy that you have such a wonderful space for listening to music with a view of such beautiful greenery. Enjoy the music !!
A small suggestion as you are planning to play a little with the speakers. Do try and bring them at least 3 feet away from the back corner walls and a few feet off the side walls (just maybe 6 inches or so closer together, if that) - your imaging in that space will be fantastic. Regards.

 

[arj]

fantastic, you are the owner of a fantastic model as far as the most expensive components of an Audio- real Estate ..as Staxxx suggested get the distance right and your will be rewarded with a fantastic Soundstage !

if it is possible try to move the rack closer and reduce the speaker cable run to the extent you can.

 

[ghatgepatil]

@ reuben - a mansion of this dimensions and slick designing (minus the luscious surroundings :sad would be costing a fortune in any Indian metropolis! This is what we call, living a fantastic life with available free space to play around with music of ones choice. :clapping:

 

[Record Player]

Congratulations on your new home Reuben and I must admit, its lovely . You've made your rig look humble but they are something....legends on there!! Simplicity at its best.

What are the other plans to this listening space in time??

Reuben - I would like to send over a couple of rare rock posters framed from the 60s for your listening space. Do you have a particular band of choice or would you prefer it be my choice completely? Please pick a few spots and let me know the dimensions of the frame you prefer. Please do accept this as I insist .

Cheers...

 

[vjc]

Neighbour's Envy, Owner's Pride !

Music can attain more serenity (eternity) in such background.
Congratulations.

vjc

 

[isoton]

Very beautiful house with Beautiful Background.
it is only a dream of Many city dwellers.
Enjoy....
Congrats for your new listening arrangement.:clapping:

Regards,

 

[manniraj]

Congratulations on your new home Reuben and I must admit, its lovely . You've made your rig look humble but they are something....legends on there!! Simplicity at its best.

What are the other plans to this listening space in time??

Reuben - I would like to send over a couple of rare rock posters framed from the 60s for your listening space. Do you have a particular band of choice or would you prefer it be my choice completely? Please pick a few spots and let me know the dimensions of the frame you prefer. Please do accept this as I insist .

Cheers...

A nice gesture for a beautiful home.

 

[gopib]

Lovely house Reuben. Getting it completed in God's own country is a remarkable achievement by itself. I am sure you will have endless hours of listening pleasure in there. All the best and God bless.

 

[reubensm]

What a gorgeous house.....Fantastic space and surroundings you have chosen to listen to music....Congratulations...

Thanks panditji, we've been a music listening family all along, so the listening space was always talked about while designing the house. Luckily I have a wife who is also very interested in listening to music.

 

[reubensm]

Wow... That is an astonishingly amazingly home in a beautiful location. Thank you for sharing

Thanks Thad, the location is a very good one. My home is at the top of a hill, overlooking a valley. I had picked up this property for investment purposes and planned to buy an apartment, but when my girlfriend (now wife) came along and saw the location, she insisted that we build a home there. Was a good idea after all.

An interesting aspect is that the listening space faces the valley towards the South, if you climb up to the terrace, you can actually see the Arabian sea in the distance on a clear day. I have actually brought across a friend's telescope and have seen the lights of little fishing boats on a clear night.

Also our Trivandrum International Airport is in the same direction towards the left of the valley (in the distance, by the sea). My wife specifically wanted the valley view as all planes taking off (once they've left the airport) can be seen climbing into the air (gaining altitude). Her intention was, whenever i travel out of Trivandrum, she could sit back in our listening space and watch my plane take off

 

[reubensm]

@Reuben,
The house looks very good and the surroundings are brilliant. Your listening room is quite big and needs a decent amplification. What would be the distance between your listening position and the speakers?
We the apartment dwellers envy you.

Regards

Amit

Thanks Amit, yes, lots of greenery around and we're perched on top of a hill

The NAD 216thx is one hell of an amp, very capable of belting out some raw power. Never felt the need to change the power amplification (at least, as of now). Just to give you an idea of the listening position and the dimensions, I have placed some vintage 1960s furniture (which was lying around) in the hall and taken a pic for you. The dimensions are as follows:

length (side where the rig is placed) - 5m
breadth (the wall behind the speakers) - 4m
room height (floor to roof) - 3.2m (I specifically insisted on a high roof for bigger room volume)
distance from speaker front plane to backrest of the central 2-seater - 3.9m

Just clicked a pic for you to put these dimensions across from a visual perspective:

After my wify came along, I realized that I was going to have a few folks around the house and of course, visitors. We have 2 little sons now, also my mom-in-law stays with us, one room dedicated as an office (as Ernst & Young has the work from home option) and a guest bed room, hence 5 bedrooms in all. I would have had to purchase 2 apartments and tear down the wall between them. That would have costed me a bomb, hence the house turned out to be a value for money proposition.

Interestingly, as of now, we are all music lovers at home, hence no A/V room. When the kids grow up and if they want, they can convert the listening space into an A/V room as well.

 

[reubensm]

Very lovely home and I envy that you have such a wonderful space for listening to music with a view of such beautiful greenery. Enjoy the music !!
A small suggestion as you are planning to play a little with the speakers. Do try and bring them at least 3 feet away from the back corner walls and a few feet off the side walls (just maybe 6 inches or so closer together, if that) - your imaging in that space will be fantastic. Regards.

Thanks Staxxx, yes, the place where I've built this home is very green, its on top of a hill with lots of greenery. There's a valley on the side (which I can see from the listening space) which has its bit of greenery too. Here's a satellite pic of the area, just to give you an idea of how "green" it really is:

By the way, my brother too stays down the street, hence the hill has now kind of become a haven for audio enthusiasts.

Yes, I think I will move the speakers closer to the door (because 2 corner consoles are to come up in the corners, as per the design). That was wify's idea so I may end up going with them.

 

[reubensm]

fantastic, you are the owner of a fantastic model as far as the most expensive components of an Audio- real Estate ..as Staxxx suggested get the distance right and your will be rewarded with a fantastic Soundstage !

if it is possible try to move the rack closer and reduce the speaker cable run to the extent you can.

Many thanks arj, yes it turned out to be very expensive indeed, but you now know the reason why I was enquiring about the Tannoys. As of now, my options of choice are either the Tannoys or the Lyrita Horns (now its down to saving up for these). Yes, I am going to bring the speakers closer. Am going to experiment with this over the coming weekend.

The rig position, oh, I'd love to bring it closer but w.a.f. is key for this aspect. My elder son is going to start his dance classes (domestic tutoring) shortly and this space will also be used for the purpose. Hence she wanted the rig out of the way. This was the agreement she had with me while designing the room (not that I was excited about it). Also, she wanted more free space with the seating, while I was keen to keep my rack out of visible reach (to avoid fiddling with the controls)

 

[reubensm]

@ reuben - a mansion of this dimensions and slick designing (minus the luscious surroundings :sad would be costing a fortune in any Indian metropolis! This is what we call, living a fantastic life with available free space to play around with music of ones choice. :clapping:

Thanks ghatgepatil, this kind of home costs quite a bit back here as well. You are spot on about the standard of living and quality of life. I've lived in most parts of the world and in the big cities in India, but I've never found a place better than good old Kerala. My parents had similar thoughts when relocating to Kerala in the late 1960s (dad was a hardcore Chennaite while mom was from Hyderabad). Its monsoon time back here in Kerala and this past Sunday, it was great to sit back, listening to Nat King Cole, looking out into the valley, and see the heavy rain falling, while sipping hot chocolate. That was the intention when we designed the listening space and its come out pretty well.

 

[reubensm]

Congratulations on your new home Reuben and I must admit, its lovely . You've made your rig look humble but they are something....legends on there!! Simplicity at its best.

What are the other plans to this listening space in time??

Reuben - I would like to send over a couple of rare rock posters framed from the 60s for your listening space. Do you have a particular band of choice or would you prefer it be my choice completely? Please pick a few spots and let me know the dimensions of the frame you prefer. Please do accept this as I insist .

Cheers...

Thanks a lot Record Player, the rig is quite humble indeed compared to those of our friends on the forum. However each piece of gear (except the Sony DVD player) has been specifically sort after and acquired after lots of patient searching. I can now just sit back, forget about upgrades or wishlists and just enjoy the music. I must remember our forum member and good friend of mine, flanker for helping me source some of the gear. The NAK is my favourite piece of gear (never thought that I'd be able to own one, someday), the technics TT was something even my dad always wanted to own (but never did) and of course, the NAD pre/power which were on my wish for a very long time.

As per the original design of the room, we planned to have a 3+1+1 sofa set, the 3 seater on the side of the the left channel and the 1+1 on the side of the right channel. A lazy boy with side tables was planned for the central listening position and a centre table (possibly with a built in fish tank) was planned with a carpet for the center area (not sure if this is a good idea as it can upset the acoustics). The 2 speaker corners were to have 2 long racks (as high as lintel level) which was to hold rock n' role memorabilia, an Oscar statuette and a Grammy statuette. Was planning a life-size portrait (painting) of myself with my guitar (from my college days) on one of the side walls. Also planned to get 2 or 3 framed platinum discs (at least one of Michael Jackson which is wify's choice), was planning to frame vinyl of different sizes and speeds and lastly, had also planned a storage facility for vinyl and a little display rack for displaying some antique audio equipment. All this is on hold as I have to save up a bit for these. Also, the overall acoustics of the room and w.a.f. will decide what goes in and where

Hey, thanks a lot for the surprise, really appreciate your kind gesture. Think it would be appropriate for you to choose. Let me tell my wife and ask her where she thinks these will go up.

On another note, that vintage table on which my gear sits belonged to my dad. I think I would have been about 2 at the time, but I clearly remember, my dad had a HMV calypso record player perched on it, below he had an old ferguson radio chassis which had a EL33 based amplifier and a huge horn speaker. And we used to enjoy Mono bliss.

I have managed to locate the exact picture of the chassis and this is exactly how my dad had this on the bottom level of that table, back in the day:

Here is the original link to the restoration project of the very same model that my dad had then (inherited from my grandfather):

http://www.radio-workshop.co.uk/ferguson454.shtml

 

[reubensm]

Lovely house Reuben. Getting it completed in God's own country is a remarkable achievement by itself. I am sure you will have endless hours of listening pleasure in there. All the best and God bless.

Many thanks gopib, for the kind words and the prayers. Its always very special to hear from you. Yes, construction (or as a matter of fact, setting up anything) in the God's own country is always a challenge. I spent quite a lot to keep labour unions happy, close to 1.5L over the course of the project, to be precise. Nevertheless, my wife and I knew that at the end of the day, we were going to really enjoy our new home and that was what saw us through the saga.

 

[reubensm]

Sharing a few more pics which I clicked earlier tonight, with some vintage temporary furniture thrown in:

Room from the listener's perspective:

Similar pic with the speaker grills removed:

Left speaker without the grill:

Right speaker without the grill:

And on popular demand, a closer view of the front elevation, on the inauguration night: