Gig Harbor - Audio System

Audio System Install in Gig Harbor

Yesterday Adam and I installed this beautiful system for our new friends and customers in Gig Harbor. For this room we chose Focal’s Aria 948 speakers.

We paired it with our new Marantz Model 40 which has become one of our most popular components and for all the right reasons. It is actually a truly amazing sounding one box, class A/B amplifier, preamp and high resolution streaming device. It also includes a high quality phono input, subwoofer outputs and HDMI ARC input for smart TV’s as well.

We cabled the system with our favorite cable and interconnect company Nordost.

You can tell by the smiles it turned out awesomely.

Another Fun System

This time in Twin Falls Idaho.

Matt flew to Boise and then drove to Twin Falls to install and calibrate this system for our new customer Norm. For the last couple months I have been working with Norm, putting together a system that would match exactly what he communicated he wanted. Norm has owned some pretty decent gear over the years but had heard all the buzz on Focal Sopra no3.

After many phone conversations, texts and emails he decided on starting with two pair of these bad boys along with Focal’s matching center channel speaker. As you can probably tell, Norm likes to feel his bass. He has tried several subwoofer systems over the years and ended up with 2 JBL twin 18 inch pro concert level sub cabinets. To isolate the center speaker from these massive woofers, Norm had purchased
4 very large dampeners that are normally used in the aerospace industry. So potential problem solved.

We moved onto upgrading his electronics and chose Anthem’s AVM 70 and MCA 525 gen2 amplifier so that we would have plenty of clean power and quality processing. Anthem’s beautiful room correction was able to harness this beast of a system and control the sound stage at all volume levels. All cabling including speaker cable, power cords, balanced interconnects and line conditioning were from our good friends at Nordost.

Norm actually hasn’t listened to his system yet! He’s debuting his system tonight and going over some of his favorite recordings. He promised to call me Saturday and let me know what he thinks. I have a feeling I’ll get a very excited call from him tonight.

Low Profile, High Fidelity in Palm Desert

This week we finished this amazing sound system at one of our good customer’s winter home located in Rancho Mirage California. Our customer knows by now what it is like to own a true high end audio system as we have done several for him over the years. This home is a beautiful original mid century modern design.

We wanted to keep the sound system low profile visually yet have a stunning full lifelike presentation that makes one believe they are at a concert. The acoustics of this space presented a bit of a challenge. Lots of tile and glass. However because of today’s modern technology we are able to accomplish all these goals. Adam installed our best Focal In-wall speakers along with JL Audio’s finest low-profile subwoofers next to the rear couch, located under side tables. We used our Nordost Heimdall 2 cabling to make sure no detail got lost in the translation between the speakers and amplifier. His preamp amplifier is from our Danish friends Lyngdorf. We employed their new TDAI 3400.

With it’s amazing “room perfect” digital acoustic room correction technology and built in high resolution streaming ability, our good friend and client can now come home from a hard day of golf and within seconds be enjoying a concert from whatever artist he chooses.

Needless to say… Life is good.

I spoke with my client over the phone after Adam had finished programming and auditioning his new system for him. He was so excited and happy he wouldn’t let me off the phone.

So life is good for us too.

The Gateway Drug (or, Why is this jazz band in my room?)

A Special Guest Post from a Happy Customer

It all began with a letter from owner Jim Lee in Spring of 2013.

I had made my first purchase on my maiden visit to Nuts About HiFi… a pair of Grado RS1i headphones meticulously selected from a grand total of two pairs that they had in stock, while I was visiting Silverdale from Ann Arbor, MI. This was my second pair of audiophile headphones: one of anything might be good, but two of them represent the start of a collection. That Grado headphone started me on a journey into the land of headphones, and I have acquired at least 50 pairs and written about many of them on the online forum head-fi.com.

I was amazed, a few weeks after my purchase, to receive a letter (remember those?) from Nuts About HiFi. It was from Jim Lee, thanking me for my purchase and hoping I was happy with the headphones. I called him in amazement to express my appreciation for his follow-up. Eight years later I moved to Poulsbo, WA.

Two weeks ago, in September of 2021, 8-1/2 years later, Matt and Adam of Nuts About HiFi completed the installation in my home of a Samsung QN82Q900RB 82 inch TV with wall mount, two Focal Sopra 3 floor-standing speakers, Focal Aria CC900 center speaker, two Focal Surround BE speakers, a JL Audio F113v2 subwoofer, Anthem AVM 70 audio-visual processor, Aesthetix Atlas stereo amp, Anthem MCA 325 3 channel amp for the surround and center speakers, a Sony UBP-X-1100ES 4K BluRay with SACD capability, a Meridian 218 zone controller, a TS-451+ NAS drive, a Clearaudio Concept turntable with moving magnet, Salamander cabinet, $4,500 worth of cables (6% of system cost), a power module, and MX990 universal remote with MRF350 RF module to control it. Whew!

System design was by Matt, who began with a Meridian Sooloos system as music source, but then changed that to Roon when Meridian froze its development of Sooloos. Nuts About HiFi bought me a lifetime subscription to Roon to compensate for the loss of Sooloos.

The upgrade from Sooloos to a Roon subscription is just one example of a whole series of customer amenities that Nuts has offered me. System design began prior to COVID, and the TV, power supply, and cabinet were installed in early 2020. We could not resume installation until May of 2021, and some manufacturers had updated their items, so Nuts updated the diagram. Adam provided excellent installation, particularly in the art of running the ARC Anthem Room Correction, wrestling with a shortage of wall height in placing the center speaker, and programming the remote so that it truly does replace the 4 remotes that we had been using.

Yesterday, I received my first SACD disk (Miles Davis – Kind Of Blue). In listening with eyes closed, I just knew that his jazz band was right in front of me… yes, right there… don’t you see it!?

Thank you, Adam, Connie, Jim, and Matt!!!

John G. Ackenhusen