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Building a Compact Reference System | Part 2: Implementation

building compact system

Part 1 of this article described the demographic changes driving audiophiles of a certain age to seek smaller, more manageable, and more urban living quarters. These downsized dwellings impose a surprising number and variety of constraints on an audio system—a fact I learned from my own experience when moving from a single-family home in the suburbs to a city townhouse. Building a reference-class audio system in my new environment meant hewing to a set of requirements that, in many ways, ran afoul of today’s reference gear. This gap is what makes it challenging to build a compact reference system. But just how hard is it, and what options are available to down-sizers? That’s the subject of this installment. 

Requirements Refresher

First, let’s briefly revisit the requirements that an audio system must meet in order to fit and function comfortably in a home whose list of luxuries, while potentially long, does not include a dedicated listening room:

•Modestly-sized components. Most reference gear is unapologetically—even proudly—gargantuan. But in this new context, where systems will be located in shared-use spaces like family and rec rooms, there’s no place, physically or aesthetically, for such extravagance.    

•Multi-functionality. Modestly sized components only get us half the way there; due to space constraints, we must also limit the number of components that comprise the system. Separates, normally the coin of the reference realm, are too space inefficient. The more functions a given component can perform well, the more suitable it is for use in a compact reference system. 

•File-based sources. Physical music libraries are space hogs. There’s no better way to save space on source material than to replace a wall of CDs and SACDs with their streamed or NAS-based equivalents, which take up virtually no room at all.   

•Near-wall speaker placement. No more can speakers be a third of the way into the room. In a downsized home, the multi-purpose nature and typically smaller dimensions of the listening space will relegate speakers to a position near the wall behind them. They need to sound good there.  

•Performance at low volume levels. Higher-density urban homes typically have shared walls. Since adjacent neighbors don’t take kindly to bleed-through, playing-volume will have to go down. Yet performance shouldn’t suffer at these lower levels.        

•Décor-friendly aesthetics. Because our new listening space will be shared with other people and purposes, the system needs to blend in with the room’s furnishings and be pleasing to the non-audiophile eye. Further, components are more likely to find themselves in an attractive media console than on a row of equipment racks.  

•Intuitive ergonomics. Due to its central location in the home, a compact reference system will beg to be used by all members of the household. Therefore, rather than a bank of intimidating controls, the system should offer an intuitive user interface, preferably on a handheld touchscreen device.

If you’re thinking about building a compact reference system, this list of requirements could be initially discouraging. After all, few audiophiles would describe today’s reference gear as modestly proportioned, multifunctional, décor-friendly, and intuitive to use, with speakers designed to work best against a wall. Yet that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to build a compact reference system; you just have to shift your notion of what a reference system looks like.  

Are “Compact” and “Reference” Mutually Exclusive?

While it’s true that most reference gear is size XXL, it’s also true that virtually every company that makes Goliaths also offers down-scaled Davids. Thanks to trickle-down design and economies of scale, these smaller models often deliver a surprisingly high proportion of their larger sibling’s performance.

For instance, the prestigious Japanese turntable manufacturer TechDAS offers the Air Force Zero, which is so voluminous it makes records look like salad plates. But the company also makes the Air Force V, which is barely larger than an LP itself, yet doesn’t sacrifice TechDAS’s trademark air suspension, vacuum hold-down, and CNC’d solid aluminum base. Similarly, you can buy hulking monoblock amplifiers from Constellation, Pass, Soulution, CH Precision, Boulder, and many others. Yet, each of those manufacturers offers reasonably sized stereo versions that, in my experience, deliver 90% of their monoblock’s sonics. To my mind, that’s still reference territory.

Speakers, too, benefit from trickle-down design and materials. If you don’t have room for a Magico M6, for example, the lithe M2 offers the very same diamond-coated beryllium tweeter, Elliptical Symmetry Crossover, and multi-layered carbon-fiber enclosure in more down-to-earth dimensions. Virtually all high-end speaker manufacturers follow a similar practice. 

Of course, physics decrees that smaller speakers can’t reach the bottom end of the bottom octave. But you’d be surprised how low many of them can go. For instance, thanks to its thin carbon-fiber enclosure, which permits more internal volume than a similarly-sized non-CF cabinet, the aforementioned Magico M2 is rated down to a remarkable 27Hz. Even the far-less-expensive Wilson Audio SabrinaX hits 32Hz, which I would argue is plenty ample for most music and rooms.  

In sum, with a little investigative digging, you can find audio equipment that is both high performance and suitably sized for a smaller environment. Let’s move on, then, to the other requirements.

Deploying Multifunctional Components

If a system were to support all the usual sources, it would need the following functions: turntable, phonostage, linestage, CD player/transport, USB and SPDIF DAC, streaming DAC, and power amplification. Using all separate components, that would mean seven pieces of equipment. Problem is, there may only be room for two or three. 

One way to address this dilemma is to reduce the number of physical source formats. If you decide, for example, to go all digital, you no longer need a turntable or phonostage. You’ll also save a lot of space previously devoted to LPs. Personally, I wouldn’t go that route because there is no space-saving sonic equivalent to analog records.    

The digital domain is different. There, you can replace physical CDs and SACDs with identical—or better—high-res files. These can be accessed via streaming services like Tidal and Qobuz, or via a NAS drive. As with LPs, ditching physical CDs and SACDs removes the need for players of those formats, and frees up the space previously occupied by all those jewel cases. However, if you go this route, you’ll need a networked, streaming DAC. And since we’re building a reference-caliber system, the DAC should also support MQA and Roon. Fortunately, these days there are a plethora of suitable DACs, most of them no larger than the CD/SACD player they would replace. 

For many, this won’t be enough digital sources. Say you download and store a lot of music on your PC. Now you need a DAC that supports USB. Or perhaps, since your TV is right there, you’d like to pipe the sound from your Blu-ray player through the system. That requires TosLink,  SPDIF, or HDMI support. In these cases, you’ll need a more comprehensive digital front end, without adding lots of boxes. 

Thankfully, the industry offers a good variety of multi-functional DACs. Several of them, such as the ambidextrous dCS Rossini DAC and the modular MSB Reference DAC, are unquestionably reference grade. To units like these, just add a worthy stereo power amp—both the Rossini and MSB have excellent volume controls, so no need for a linestage—and speakers, and you have an excellent system from just two boxes of electronics.  

But what if LP is to be a source? To the above system we’d have to add a turntable, phonostage, and linestage. This results in too many boxes. Obviously, we have to make room for the turntable. In the worst-case scenario, there may be space for just one more component. And this holds true whether the system is all-analog or a mix or analog and digital sources.  

What’s needed in these scenarios is a “universal amplifier,” a term coined by Swiss electronics manufacturer CH Precision. Such a device would perform all needed functions in one chassis: phonostage, traditional DAC, streaming DAC, linestage, and power amplification. Ideally, the amp would be modular, so you could configure it to your specific needs. Assuming upper-tier sonics, then adding just a turntable and speakers to this device would yield another stellar two-box system—this one able to support both analog and digital sources. 

But do beasts like this exist? Only a few years ago, the answer was no. To be sure, there were integrated amps aplenty. Then, it became de rigueur for integrated amps to include a built-in DAC, though not necessarily of the streaming variety. That was the status quo until CH Precision got the universal-amp ball rolling with its I1. The I1 can be configured to serve as everything from a basic integrated amp to a proverbial Swiss army knife, all with the company’s hallmark sound quality. 

For several years, the I1 stood alone in the field of universal amps, ahead of its time. Recently, it has been joined by the Dan D’Agostino Progression integrated, a unit I’m scheduled to review soon. There may be others in this category of which I’m not aware. Hopefully, given their extraordinary usefulness in building compact reference systems, more are soon to come.       

The Speaker Predicament

So far, there’s been a way to meet every compact reference system requirement we’ve encountered. But we haven’t yet faced the inconvenient truth that very few high-end speakers are designed for the near-wall placement they’ll encounter in a downsized home. The Wilson Duette 2 is one such speaker, along with…not much else.  

Generally speaking, any speaker can be made more near-wall friendly by simply reducing its bass output. For instance, a floorstanding model normally populated with two woofers would work better near a wall if it were shorn of one woofer. Of course, the sensitivity of the midrange driver and tweeter would have to be reduced to match the level of the single woofer, but the woofer could be tuned to the same frequency as before, and the woofer’s enclosure could be reduced by half. Note that the resulting product would have the same bass extension as the original, but there’d be less low-frequency output. That’s good, in this case, because the wall behind the speaker would compensate by contributing low-frequency reinforcement. 

So why, if it’s so easy to do, aren’t there more high-end near-wall speakers? The answer, posited in Part 1, is that there simply hasn’t been a demand for them. But now there is. Hopefully, as with universal amps, the industry will respond. In the meantime, our compact reference system is going to have to make do with general-purpose models that, nonetheless, work well in a near-wall position. 

What does a speaker like that look like? I found several high-end speaker companies who felt they had offerings that would be appropriate in this application. Wilson Benesch suggested that its ACT One Evolution, with its carbon-fiber construction and downward-firing bass port, would work well. Alon Wolf of Magico indicated that the M2, given its size and lack of external ports to contend with, would fit the bill. At a lower price point is the similarly sealed YG Carmel 2, which YG’s Dick Diamond told me had been successfully tested in near-wall environments. Finally, the folks at Stenheim felt that their Alumine Three, with its front-firing port, would be a good choice.

Time and trials will tell if these prognostications prove correct. However, my optimism is high thanks to an experiment arranged for me by Wilson Audio and carried out at my local Wilson dealer, JS Audio of Bethesda, MD. There, I was able to audition a pair of Wilson Sabrinas (this was just before the Sabrina X was released) in both their normal position, out in the room, and just inches from the wall behind them. I must say that in both positions the little Wilson thoroughly charmed me. 

Out in the room, I didn’t hear a lot of low bass from the Sabrina; yet, within their range, there was a wealth of low-frequency timbral information. Still, I wished for more solidity. On the other hand, I had no qualms at all about the speaker’s prodigious ability to create depth and spot-on imaging.

In the near-wall position, I immediately noticed two differences. First, I actually preferred the Sabrina’s bass with the speakers just a few inches from the wall. There, they spoke with more low-end authority, which lent greater realism to instruments like kettle drums and upright basses. The tradeoff was a more two-dimensional soundstage, though images within it remained perfectly sharp. I listened carefully for other casualties of the near-wall placement, but could find none. 

Needless to say, I was encouraged (and relieved!) to have found a high-end speaker that, with the sole exception of soundstage depth, performed superbly in an emulation of a small-space environment. Perhaps further fine-tuning of the Sabrina’s position could yield better results in that area. I’ll be trying other speakers in my new home and will report on their near-wall performance.

The other speaker requirement for compact reference systems is the ability to sound good at lower listening levels. As with near-wall placement, it’s hard to predict which speakers will excel in this regard without listening. However, historically, there have been two design characteristics associated with speakers with this trait. The first is low-mass drivers which, having less inertia, need less volume to get moving and to preserve subtle dynamic variations at power levels. The second is simple crossover networks, which pose fewer electrical hurdles and require less power to achieve peak performance. 

There are multiple examples of speakers that demonstrate the validity of the above, but Exhibit A has to be the speaker that is perhaps most famous for low-volume musical integrity: the Quad ESL-63. It’s no coincidence that its driver was virtually mass-less, and it had no crossover whatsoever.

Playing Nice with Others 

The only requirements we haven’t yet covered are those concerning aesthetics and ergonomics. Here, we audiophiles have to admit that what’s attractive to us isn’t necessarily appealing to our Significant Others. My wife, for instance, ruled out “industrial” motif components, equipment racks of all stripes, and stand-mounted speakers with wires dangling from them. When shopping components, I had to bear in mind that I wasn’t going to be the only one living with these things for hours on end. 

Fortunately, so long as you know your constraints, the high end can probably meet your needs, at least in terms of components. In fact, many of the pieces I’ve mentioned in this article are aesthetically quite smart. The YG Carmel 2, for instance, is svelte and subtly curvaceous, while a CH Precision I1 has an understated grace that will fit many décors. 

Where the industry lets us down is on the matter of where to house the system. Equipment racks, which wouldn’t normally be found in a family or rec room, seem to be the high end’s only answer. What we need is something more like a piece of furniture, such as a media console, yet with the build-quality and technology that confer the sonic benefits normally achieved by good stands.  

When it comes to ergonomics, manufacturers are already moving in the right direction. Front-panel controls have largely given way to remotes. But now those non-intuitive, button-festooned aluminum chunks are being replaced by Graphical User Interfaces based on touchscreen devices.

One of the best ways I’ve found to make a system more user-friendly is to implement Roon for streaming. That requires a Roon-ready DAC (not hard to find) and something on which to host Roon Core, such as a PC or Roon’s purpose-built Nucleus. For the effort, you’ll reap a truly intuitive user interface that can seamlessly access both your local digital library and online high-res services. 

Now and Later

In going through the process of building a compact reference system, I’ve learned that creating a system that is, in fact, both compact and of reference caliber is eminently do-able. Trickle-down technologies and materials, along with recent strides in multi-functional components, have made this possible. However, that’s not the whole story. 

The real challenge in building such a system arises when trying to make it compatible with the downsized, urban living environment to which Baby Boomers are migrating. A system that respects the décor and shared-use nature of its surroundings, that invites non-audiophiles to enjoy it, that doesn’t peeve those living beyond thin walls, that sounds good even when the speakers aren’t turning the listening space into a slalom course—now that’s a taller order. At least it is for now, while the industry is still operating under outdated assumptions about where reference gear gets housed.

That situation is bound to change as the industry adapts to the demographic changes I’ve described. Yet, even now one can build a compact reference system that meets every requirement I’ve mentioned. That system won’t look the way reference systems have looked for the past 50-plus years, but it will still sound amazing, facilitate and enrich our love of music, and blow away everyone who hears it.

Tags: BUILD COMPACT LISTENING ROOM

By Alan Taffel

I can thank my parents for introducing me to both good music and good sound at an early age. Their extensive classical music collection, played through an enviable system, continually filled our house. When I was two, my parents gave me one of those all-in-one changers, which I played to death.

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