My new listening room - see it develop over the next few weeks

I just relocated from Sydney in Oz to Surrey in the UK. Last week we finally moved into our new house after a few weeks in temporary living. The day after we moved in I received my air-shipment. For International relocations my company pays for a small air-shipment and the rest of our belongings go onto a 40ft sea container. The air-shipment is supposed to help your family survive for the first month or two until your sea shipment arrives.

Naturally I used the air-shipment allowance (and then some) for my system and some essential favorite CDs. You might ask yourself how I get away with it but I do have a very understanding wife and the promise of an extended shopping trip upon arrival usually gets me out of the dog house.

Over the next few weeks I want to share with you how my new listening room develops and I might ask for your suggestions and help along the way.

To get us started I will post a few pics from my old listening room in Sydney. You will see that the set up, dimensions of the room etc are all completely different which will make for a nice challenge.

 

Where are the pictures ? Sounds very interesting .

 

Sydney Listening Room

My listening room in Sydney was 4m x 5m, very high ceilings and solid double brick walls.

 

I'm a bit slow today.

 

The airshipment has arrived and gets a first inspection from my chief engineer.

 

As mentioned earlier, a few 'essential' CDs got the air treatment as well. Just enough for propper system testing and set up.

The moving company was kind enough to special order these cartons for me, each holds 40 CDs and I can use them again for future moves.

 

I'd definitely like to talk to you one day about how the mechanics of your move went. We are considering the same thing when my daughter goes to college. Looks like you are very organized!

 

You will find my system details in my profile, since my tool box is still on the ship I don't yet have an exact measure of the room but it is about 6.5m x 9m, the ceilings are regular hight (not sure what that is in the UK but I guess about 2.3m).

I will take a few pics of all sides of the room shortly, one of the challenges are the large glass doors in the back of the room. The walls are drywall and we have parket floors.

 

Have done it about 5 times in the last 10 years and had to learn the hard way - feel free to pick my brain when the day comes.

 

Hey Smiley,

Having heard your system in both rooms now, there is a big difference between the Sydney and UK rooms. Sydney there was lots of bass and the sound easily filled the room. The UK room, at the moment, could do with a bit more bass - it was slightly light. There is a bit more space to fill with sound in the UK as well and a little harshness in the room as well. It will be interesting to see it develop over the coming weeks.

Tonepub - I recently did the move from Sydney to UK as well. Just make sure you have all your original packing boxes and all should be OK. I sent my main hi-fi system in my sea shipment and my second system in my air shipment. All arrived safe and sound.

Cheers

 

The Wilson Sophia Mk2 in the box ...





... and out of the box.



I had asked my Sydney audio dealer to have some of his guys box them for me, with a net weight of 75kg per channel and a total shipping weight of 205kg it is not a one man job.

Not a single scratch.

 

Excellent. I look forward to seeing the new room fully fleshed out.

 

You're slightly ahead of my picture story , but yes, there will be quite a bit of work to do. When we listened to it the bass was light, the mid-range not as detailed and the trebbe harsh - not to mention the echo in the empty room with no large carpet.

 

Me too.

 

The SET in the box ...





... 845s still in one piece ...




... and working!

 

Last but not least, the 555 is coming out of its box.





PS: Obey this warning.

 

Impressive !
No intentions regarding room treatments, absorbers etc. ? Make sure you cover the main part of the wooden floor with a fine persian rug or something as large, sofas shelves and regular furniture can always be used to get the acoustics right....Guess you know more about all that than me...
Top stuff, bet sounds like a million bucks - Where is your Turn Table or are the records for decoration only ? :
Let It Rock !!!

 

Are you moving any vinyl? I've never made a move of this magnitude, but when we have relocated within the states that has always been my biggest worry--that my vinyl would suffer damage. FWIW, it has always gone very well.

Looking forward to more pics of the new room as it develops.

 

A first set up on my new temporary IKEA self. Somehow I manged to have my system self end up on the ship together with all the CD shelves.



As Lontano mentioned earlier, all is up and running, nothing got damaged during the move, but it doesn't quite play music yet.

I have still to move the speakers into the right position, a few adjustments today brought back the bass and reduced some of the harshness in the treble range. However, I will wait for my furniture, carpets etc to arrive before I start further finetuning of the room. Sorry if the above pic is not the best - Lontano will help me to make some better shots and get pics of the room layout as well.

That's all for now but please feel free to drop some feedback and set up tips.

 

I have a large Persian rug on the ship, once all is set up I will sure add some free standing room treatments (bass traps etc). I saw some nice stuff during the recent audio show in London.

No vinyl play back - all just decoration. I will not get back into vinyl until I'm back in our house in the US, the weight is a killer and you can't really put it on the ship. You can say about CDs what you want but most of my CDs have travelled around the world with me for the last 10 years without the slightest impact.

 

Cool stuff, man. I eventually want to get a pair of JBL 4344s or 4348s from Kenrick Sound (link is in my signature) in Tokyo, Japan. If they pack 'em right and ship via air freight, will they get here to Las Vegas ok? And do you have to pick them up at the airport, or will they deliver to your place?

 

I have around 50 records that I use for decoration in the room but I have the same concerns (aside from weight). However, forum member Lontano just moved quite a bit of vinyl from Australia to the UK with no problems at all - he might want to charme in with his special solution.

Talking about weight, I completely underestimated the weight of my CD collection, was hoping to get it on the air-shipment but most of it had to go by sea.

 

I bought a load of new vinyl in Sydney and when I moved back to the UK was very careful how I packed it. I bought a load of DJ cases. All the vinyl was in plastic sleeves already and I added an extra bit of cushioning into each case.

Not one crease in any cover or any damage. All shipped in my sea container.

Here are the cases I used with my new vinyl ready packed to go - my old vinyl went into cardboard boxes which I wrapped in bubble wrap and that all arrived fine as well.

 

Shouldn't be a problem as long as they are in a good wooden crate and go by air. My Wilsons went from the US to Australia to the UK. The original Wilson crates are filled with foam and snuggly fit around the speakers so they cannot get damaged during transport. Wilson mandates air-shipment, which is wise as you would not want to have you speakers in extreme conditions on a ship for over 6 weeks.

For all my other stuff I keep the original boxes and ask the movers to build a wooden crate around it for me.

 

Ok, cool. Thanks! I'm also concerned about customs...they don't mess with the speakers, do they?