By Juan C. Ayllon If you are in Chicago's northwest suburbs and fortunate enough to walk into Jeff Kenton’s sprawling listening room, you can’t miss them: standing 65" tall, 27" wide, 15” deep, the blonde oak Infinity RS- 4.5 dipole speakers employ ribbon tweeters and dual 12" drivers covered in sheer black grill cloth to flood the serene, sea foam green-tinted space with a luscious, vivid wall of sound, wrapping you in a velvety aural blanket that’s deep, detailed and natural, not harsh, inviting you to lounge and listen for a spell. Ensconced in a well-crafted addition that he built with his brother-in-law in this woodsy, riverside community, their rustic allure is timeless and undeniable. Heavily modded, unlike their original state each speaker has a large, rectangular opening cut into the inside top quarter, resembling transparent electrostatic panels, and are no longer sealed, but now sport rear ports, making them “more musical,” Kenton says (you can read an old Stereophile review on these speakers HERE) These modifications, suggested by a trusted audio guru-friend, absolutely terrified him; the thought of taking such drastic measures on his 40 year-old treasures seemed risky and counter intuitive. These were the works of the late, great speaker designer, Arnie Nudel, after all; surely he knew exactly what he was doing when he made them. However, mustering up the courage, he implemented the changes, along with a new set of crossovers his friend made (enclosed in wooden wine bottle boxes, they are affixed atop the woofer cabinet in the rear), and the resulting improvements were “like a blanket was lifted.” Seated roughly a third of the way from the front wall atop thick, brass spikes on carpet, they are toed-in towards a pair of overstuffed chairs 10 feet back under a large projector and a pair of hunter green GIF acoustic absorption panels overhead. A pair of overstuffed chairs on the left face a flatscreen TV and sound bar for casual watching on the right, while, upfront, a large projection screen on the wall is partially blocked by a four foot tall Michael Green Audio Pressure Zone Controller Floor Stander (a resonant plank held together with hexagonal bolts that can be adjusted--or tuned--with Allen keys and has a thin acoustic absorption cushion affixed to its backside) atop a component stand that comes down when the projector is used. To either side of the screen are a pair of black quadratic acoustic diffusers (“They made a huge difference,” Kenton says), some smaller Michael Green Audio pressure Zone Controller blocks along the wall/ceiling juncture, and rigid foam rectangular skyline diffuser panels atop barstools in the corners. Additional treatments are carefully placed about the room and several smaller surround sound speakers are affixed on the walls high to the rear (connected to a 5.1 processor strictly for TV watching, they play no part two channel listening, he assures). There’s a highly modded Technics 1200 turntable and two of Drobo five bay enclosures that, like saltine cracker bins, hold stacks of terabyte drives warehousing his massive collection of ripped SACDs and vinyl, DSD and other digital recordings sitting alongside amps, preamps and other electronics on hardy shelves that Kenton built to the right, along with a computer desktop where he manages his digital library. Then, there are shelves upon shelves of vinyl, CDs and SACDs. A Notre Dame University flag hangs on the right wall and a skylight and translucent honeycomb treatment covered windows provide plenty of natural light in what is clearly his sanctuary. Although his wife sometimes joins him for listening, she’s made it clear that this is his domain -- and it’s one that he is constantly tweaking. “I have changed out all of my front end components at least five to six times,” Kenton says. “With the construction of (this) dedicated room 30 years ago and proper room setup, the help of an audio guru, using revealing electronic component links--including acoustic treatments of mainly diffusers--I am extracting detail, nuance, decay, quietness , broad soundstage, timbre, bass, imaging in both depth and height,” Kenton claims. “This allows me to follow the artistic intent of the recording.” Moreover, the highly revealing Infinity speakers pinpoint the exact impact of each and every component change on his system. Recently, a family friend was over and, hoping to get a clearer view of the football game on the projection screen, he thought about moving the RS-4.5s to the side but was warned that “Jeff will probably kill you.” Recounting the story, Kenton laughs, adding, “Yeah, I probably would have!” A retired businessman, nowadays, Kenton enjoys tinkering and, as of late, is especially chuffed with the convenience and wonder of discovering new music afforded by Roon Labs, with its playing similar music to your selections after they’ve played, and Qobuz, where new music pops up on their menu almost daily. When I drop by Monday afternoon, we stream a series of selections including Michael Franks’ Passion Fruit, Milton Nascimento’s Angelus, Pat Metheny’s The Way Up and a string of songs by Diana Krall’s guitarist, Anthony Wilson on Qobuz. The clarity, the depth and the natural timbres rendered are incredible. It’s as if the electronics step aside and simply channel the music. Voices -- Franks’ soothing, nasal sambas, Nascimento’s rich and sonorous tenor, James Taylor’s buttery, mournful crooning, Peter Gabriel’s gravelly intonations -- have a rich, organic, bigger than life quality to them. The French Horn on “Alone at Night”, the airiness of cymbals in The Way Up wafting in the air, Metheny’s and Wilson’s guitars -- are all enchanting in their vivid detail. A Mac Mini acts as his media server, while a Sonic Euphoria passive auto transformer preamplifier and a pair of BEL Mk II amps are the work horses used to deliver the goods and a pair of REL Ti9 subwoofers hold down the lower end (you can view a comprehensive list of components that Kenton provided in the appendix at the end). Kenton reminds that his primary DAC is out being serviced and the one playing is the SMSL Sanskrit 6th 32Bit/192kHz USB/Optical/Coaxial to Audio Analog Decoder available on Amazon for $107 that’s plugged into an iFi Power 9 volt power supply. However, he quickly adds that it’s all the quality power sources employed throughout the chain and various electronics upfront that ensure that a noiseless signal is fed into the DAC that makes this level of playback possible. And like many audio devotees, he uses a dedicated line for his stereo, medical receptacles and a large transformer residing in the crawlspace below, resulting in very clean power, a low noise floor, and a nonpareil platform for enjoying his digital media. “I play all types of media including files and have become a recent convert to high resolution streaming via Qobuz,” he says, adding that he was fortunate enough to get in on a discounted lifetime Roon subscription several years ago. “I told my daughters that I wanted that for Christmas,” and splitting the cost, they purchased it for him. Beaming, he says that every so often, he thanks them again for the wonderful gift. For that, he is truly grateful. Appendix Jeff Kenton Stereo 2020 Infinity Ref 4.5 speakers heavily modified with reverse mirror imaging: BEL internal wiring-Woofers ported-new passive crossovers for midrange tweeters and ribbons-front baffle partially removed- loaded with 100 pounds of bagged lead shot- TeknaSonic vibration dampners, brass cones 2 BEL 1001 stereo amps for bi-amping bass & mid/tweeters using BEL interconnects and speaker wire - Tice power cords Marchand Electronic Crossover 2 way: control for Infinity dual woofers 2 REL T9i Stereo and .1 subwoofers BSG Signal Completion Unit Sonic Euphoria autoformer passive preamp PS Audio Phono Converter for phono playback and digitizing vinyl > Sugarcube SC-1 pop and click remover Technics SL1200 MK5 modified: new bearings, aluminum/Delrin platter, Cardas tonearm rewire, KAB outboard speed controller, strobe disabled, tonearm damper with silicone bath, rewired with BEL interconnect, steel cones, Sumiko headshell, AudioTechnica 150 MLX cartridge (alignment by Brian Walsh) Oppo SE-83 Special Edition: CD, Blueray, and SACD disc playback Oppo 103: extracting ISO and creating Dsf. files from SACD for computer playback 2012 I7 MacMini modified: UpTone Audio MMK fan speed controller, 240Gb solid state HD, 16gb ram, powered by: Uptone Audio: JS-2 Linear Power Supply USB out for files >Curious USB link> PS Audio LanRover powered by UpTone LPS 1 > UpTone USPCB A>B adapter > UpTone ISO Regen powered by UpTone LPS 1.2 with > UpTone USPCB > Singxer SU-6 USB Bridge with UpTone ground shunt power supply via SPDIF>SMSLSanskrit DAC with IFI 9v power supply Files stored on 2 DROBO 5 bay devices Preferred music players: Amarra and Roon (sometimes with HQPlayer) Multi-channel file playback with MiniDSP USB to SPDIF converter > 3 stereo SMSL Sanskrit 6th DACs Power conditioning for front end with isolation transformer, Richard Gray Power 400 Pro, ISOBar Room treatments primarily DIFFUSION! 5 MGA RoomTunes PZC’s, GK Acoustics 2D and 3D, and other brands.
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