SFMOMA Hifi Listening room with Devon Turnbull(Ojas Audio)playing DJ

[veindoc]

Had a day off and went back to hear this really special system for a second time. The first time was the day after I saw Beck perform at The Greek theater in Berkeley, he decided to play DJ and spun some wonderful eclectic music. Most of it Vinyl. Today the builder and self- professed audiophile Devon Turnbull was the DJ and loved chatting about everything equipment or music related. The system was powered by some huge glowing tube amp that put out only 18watts/channel single ended that were originally designed around WW2. They easily filled a room that was approximately 40 x 40 ft. with 22 foot ceilings. I asked if the cost of the tubes was one or both of his kidneys. Price was high but waiting for someone who had a pair in great condition was the bigger challenge he noted. His love his horn speakers and vintage tube audio from Japan. He builds and sells DIY as well as episodic releases of some of his equipment for installations and smaller versions for residential applications thru Ssense, OJASaudio and NNNNaudio. I asked him how large the central subwoofers were-remarkable 30 inches but very easy to drive as they only need to travel 2-4mm to produce very clean bass(but not truly high PRAT). All speakers in pictures are front ported and midvoiced horns have their own separate internal enclosures. Room was very large with 22 foot ceilings. Main speakers were about 24 feet from each other and about 6 feet in from rear walls. He said he loves vintage equipment but is an outlier in that he used 2 DSP units(left 2 large black boxes in photos on right side of turntables) to help everything sound better. Room had rear floor built in bass traps to seat on and walls had very simple wall treatments. Room is usually used as an art gallery and this room setup is here for about 6-8 weeks with floor and rear elevated seats. I told him to travel to Magico and tell Alon-I will show you mine if you show me yours. Both listening rooms experiences were great and yet entirely different. Read the first picture notes to learn a little more about this system which also had a beautiful 1970s A80 Studer reel to reel.
all the best,
Nick Hyde

 

[veindoc]

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[veindoc]

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[a.wayne]

Interesting Gig , had 30” Subs many decades ago , woofers were made by EV and looks very similar to what he is using. The limitations were majestic and really only good below 40hz due to cone mass. Later went back to Hartley 24” subs much, much better compromise and yes a 30” subwoofer bass does travel and fill spaces ..