A Listening Room Built Around the Record Collection

After roughly 20 years in downtown Philadelphia and Chicago, Ryan finally had the space for a project he'd been planning for a long time. When he and his wife moved to Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, he set out to build a dedicated listening room shaped by decades of jazz, blues, and rock.

Tubes, Vinyl, and a Classic American Sound

Two early decisions shaped the system: tube amplification and McIntosh. Ryan wanted the warmth of vacuum tubes for the music he loves most, and McIntosh's history, from amplifying Woodstock to powering the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound, made it an easy choice.

Vinyl is at the center of the room. A McIntosh MT5 turntable feeds the MP100 phono preamp, which connects to a C1100 controller. From there, the signal passes through a McIntosh MEN220 room correction processor, which digitally maps the room and corrects its acoustic irregularities. It then reaches an MC275 tube amplifier, which drives a pair of Sonus faber loudspeakers.

The same chain also serves an SACD player for discs and an Eversolo streamer for high-resolution streaming through Qobuz. An AudioQuest Niagara 3000 power conditioner keeps the system quiet, and AudioQuest cabling handles most of the connections.

Designed for Long Listening Sessions

Ryan cares about design as much as sound, and he wanted the room to feel like a warm lounge. Leather and wood set the tone, along with a cowhide rug, gold accents, and a fireplace. A classic lounge chair from Design Within Reach anchors the listening position.

The goal was a place to settle in with a cocktail and play three or four albums back to back.

Acoustic Treatment From A to Z

Working with GIK Acoustics, Ryan had the room virtually mapped, with every dimension factored in. Because World Wide Stereo had already installed the system, the team knew exactly where the speakers sat and how far they were from each wall.

Bass traps in each corner control low-frequency buildup. Panels at the first reflection points keep reflected sound from reaching the listener. Ceiling panels handle reflections from above, and more treatment covers the open walls where reflections would otherwise land.

The difference is obvious as soon as you walk in. The hallway outside echoes, but inside the room even a speaking voice sounds noticeably quieter and more controlled.

A Collection Organized for Quick Pulls

The listening wall holds about 1,250 records, well over half of them from Siren Records in nearby Doylestown. Most are alphabetized by artist, with box sets in their own section. One-step pressings, the highest-quality records in the collection, are kept separately.

Ryan catalogs everything in Discogs, scanning barcodes on newer releases to add them instantly. Guests get an iPad to browse the collection, then find their pick on the wall.

Records Worth Showing Off

Ryan's prized records are Analog Productions UHQR pressings: 200-gram records cut from the original master tapes. His favorites to play for guests are Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and Bill Evans's Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby. They aren't especially rare, but he says he has never heard anything sound better.

His first UHQR came through World Wide Stereo: a copy of Steely Dan's The Royal Scam, gifted by a friend. He has been adding to the series ever since.

Hearing Familiar Albums for the First Time

Ryan's love of music started in third grade, when his aunt gave him a Jimi Hendrix CD. It grew into classic rock, then Phish (around 200 shows and counting), and later jazz and blues in college. Prince and Bowie are the first two faces on his personal Mount Rushmore.

In this room, albums he has played dozens of times sound new again. Radiohead's Kid A and Talking Heads' Remain in Light revealed details he had never noticed. The space also suits slower, moodier music like the Velvet Underground and the Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Lately he has been playing a newly released 1990 live recording from local favorites Ween, one-step pressings of Pet Sounds and Beck's Morning Phase, and upgraded pressings of classics from the Grateful Dead, the Cars, and Dire Straits.

Built With Confidence

Before building the room, Ryan visited World Wide Stereo's showroom and listened to about a dozen pairs of speakers in a fully treated space. That made him much more confident in his final choices.

Working with Mario on the sales side and the install team, Ryan added components over time rather than all at once. Each time, the team came back to get the sound right.

"We'll continue working with them as I upgrade, inevitably, over the years," he says.

Hi-Fi Listening Rooms in Washington Crossing, PA

Planning a dedicated listening room, two-channel system, or home theater in Washington Crossing, Bucks County, or the greater Philadelphia area? World Wide Stereo designs and installs high-performance audio, video, lighting, motorized shades, home automation, and complete entertainment spaces around the way you live. Contact our system designers via the form below or visit one of our showrooms to get your project started.