The Ultimate McIntosh Listening Room in Washington Crossing, PA

Project Profile: Washington Crossing, PA

The Ultimate McIntosh Listening Room in Washington Crossing, PA

After 20 years living in downtown Philadelphia and Chicago, Ryan finally had the space to build the room he'd been imagining for years. Tucked into his home in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, his dedicated listening room brings together a lifelong love of jazz, blues, rock, a collection of more than 1,250 records, and a system built around the warmth of vacuum tubes.

We worked with Ryan to design and install a two-channel McIntosh system tuned to his room, making sure every component, speaker position, and acoustic panel worked together. The result is a warm, inviting space made for sitting back with a cocktail and listening to album after album.

Project Scope & Team

Dedicated two-channel listening room
McIntosh MT5 turntable and MP100 phono preamplifier
McIntosh C1100 tube preamplifier
McIntosh MEN220 room correction with full digital room calibration
McIntosh MC275 tube amplifier
Sonus Faber loudspeakers
SACD playback and Eversolo DMP A8 streamer for Qobuz hi-res streaming
AudioQuest Niagara 3000 power conditioning and AudioQuest cabling

High-end audio listening room with floorstanding speakers, vinyl collection, and McIntosh components in a Listening Room, Washington Crossing, PA

Luxury listening room with wood-finish speakers, vinyl collection, and McIntosh audio system in a Listening Room, Washington Crossing, PA

Stereo listening room featuring a floorstanding speaker and McIntosh audio components in a Listening Room, Washington Crossing, PA

McIntosh MT5 turntable with illuminated green platter and MP100 phono preamplifier in a Listening Room, Washington Crossing, PA

Close-up of vinyl records organized on custom wooden shelving in a Listening Room, Washington Crossing, PA

McIntosh MP100 phono preamplifier and MT5 turntable in a high-end audio system in a Listening Room, Washington Crossing, PA

Black leather lounge chair and ottoman positioned for music listening in a Listening Room, Washington Crossing, PA

Close-up of custom wood furniture detail with vinyl records in the background in a Listening Room, Washington Crossing, PA

McIntosh MP100 phono preamplifier and MT5 turntable in a high-performance audio setup in a Listening Room, Washington Crossing, PA

Books and vinyl storage on custom wooden shelving beside a floorstanding speaker in a Listening Room, Washington Crossing, PA

Vinyl record collection organized with letter dividers on custom shelving in a Listening Room, Washington Crossing, PA

Close-up of McIntosh MT5 turntable tonearm and illuminated green platter in a Listening Room, Washington Crossing, PA

1. McIntosh MT5 turntable with tonearm above the illuminated green platter in a Listening Room, Washington Crossing, PA

A Room Years in the Making

City living never left room for a project like this. When Ryan and his wife moved to Bucks County, the dream he'd carried since his early days listening to jazz, blues, and classic rock finally had a place to come to life.

His love of music started early. In third grade, an aunt gave him a Jimi Hendrix CD, and a deep dive into classic rock followed. An older brother introduced him to Phish, and he's since seen the band about 200 times. In college, jazz and blues took hold, and the quality of those recordings is a big part of what led him to build a room like this.

Built Around Tubes and Vinyl

Ryan knew early on he wanted tube amplification, and McIntosh was the natural choice. The American brand has been building amplifiers since 1949, from the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound to the stage at Woodstock.

The signal chain starts with a McIntosh MT5 turntable feeding an MP100 phono preamp, then flows into the C1100 tube preamplifier. From there, a McIntosh MEN220 room correction unit, calibrated to a digital map of the room, fine-tunes the sound before it reaches the MC275 tube amplifier and a pair of Sonus Faber speakers.

When he's not spinning records, Ryan plays discs through his SACD player or streams in CD quality or better from Qobuz through an Eversolo DMP A8 streamer, feeding the same chain. Friday mornings, when new music drops, are his big streaming days. The rest of the time, about 90% of his listening is vinyl. The entire system runs through an AudioQuest Niagara 3000 power conditioner with AudioQuest cabling throughout, keeping everything quiet and clean.

Designed for Long Listening Sessions

Ryan's passion for design is as strong as his passion for music. His lounge chair anchors the room as a classic companion to any vinyl setup. Around it, leather and wood, a cowhide rug, gold accents, and a fireplace create a warm, lounge-style retreat made for settling in for three hours and letting the albums play back-to-back.

Acoustics, A to Z

Bass traps in each corner control low-end buildup. Panels at the key reflection points and on the ceiling stop reflections before they reach the listener, and open wall sections are treated to catch the rest. The difference is easy to hear. Step in from the echoing front hallway, and even a speaking voice sounds noticeably quieter and more controlled.

A Collection with a Story

Ryan's wall of more than 1,250 records is organized alphabetically by artist, with box sets on one side and his one-step pressings, the highest-quality vinyl in the collection, set apart on the other. He catalogs everything in Discogs, scanning barcodes to add new pressings instantly. Guests get an iPad to browse the collection, then pull the record straight from the wall. Well over half the collection came from Siren Records in nearby Doylestown.

His most prized records are a series of UHQR pressings from Analog Productions. These 200-gram records are cut from the original masters, and his favorites include Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and Bill Evans's Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby. His first UHQR came from World Wide Stereo, a gift from a friend: Steely Dan's The Royal Scam.

What's on the Turntable

Prince and Bowie top Ryan's all-time list, and the room has breathed new life into albums he's heard dozens of times. Hearing Radiohead's Kid A and Talking Heads' Remain in Light in the space for the first time revealed details he'd never noticed before. For slower, moodier nights, he reaches for the Velvet Underground or the Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Lately, he's been spinning a newly released 1990 live album from local favorites Ween, St. Vincent's live orchestral album from London, and one-step pressings of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and Beck's Morning Phase. He's also upgrading older pressings of favorites like the Grateful Dead's Workingman's Dead, the Cars, and Dire Straits to hear them the way this room allows.

The World Wide Stereo Experience

When Ryan began researching the area, finding a McIntosh dealer was at the top of his list. Before the room was even built, he visited our showroom, where he auditioned close to a dozen speakers in a fully furnished, acoustically treated listening room.

“Being able to hear different speakers in a fully furnished, acoustically treated room made the process so much easier. It gave me a lot more confidence in the choices I was making for my own system,” Ryan says.

From those first auditions to adding components and fine-tuning the system over time, our team helped him bring the room to life.

Interested in transforming your space into the ultimate listening room? Contact us to start planning your dream system today.