Welcome @speleofool! Although I have to say you are totally not welcome if you keep posting photos of amazing looking equipment that causes me to get my credit card out. 
Having said that, Iāve already ordered a VO (in āregularā wood, but still gorgeous), stand and Pendant, so youāre only enticing me to buy a stabilized wood VC. Must resistā¦
Out of interest, which custom wood did you select for your Pendant? Iām still picking mine out.
Uh, oh. That could mean trouble for me. 
No peeking! 
When I asked Zach about options he suggested Desert Ironwood. Itās expensive and was an additional upcharge beyond the regular wood chassis, but given the density / mass, it seemed like a good option for an amp chassis to help it stay put. It turned out beautifully; I think the dark wood is a good complement to the black features of the amp.
I looked and looked, but you seem to be missing a turntable.
Itās right there under the Stax. Er, well, thatās where it will be someday. 
Iām playing a long game for vinyl since I donāt have a massive collection. Most of my music started out as CDs. Iāve ripped (most of) those using dBpoweramp and put the digital media on a NAS. I use Roon to stream to a number of endpoints throughout my house.
The convenience of digital has so far outweighed the ritual appeal of vinyl. Having heard world-beating systems with both analog and digital chains at RMAF, I remain unconvinced that either format is inherently superior. Both present different challenges for controlling variables to optimize playback quality, and both can be sublime in a properly tuned setup. However, digital affords me the massive convenience of access to an almost unlimited selection of source material, and so Iāve concentrated my efforts there.
My theater setup has been evolving over 15 years . For much longer than I originally envisioned, the heart of that setup was a B&K AVR507 receiver, which sounds wonderful, but is fundamentally a digital theater component; it has no phono preamp. A couple years ago I finally graduated to McIntosh separates. The C2600 tube preamp sitting atop the stack to the left of the center channel has virgin MM and MC connections just waiting for some turntable love. But Iām still not quite ready for that.
The last couple years have been dominated by exploring headphones and IEMs. I feel like Iāve sort of won the day there now, so an inflection point may be coming. The next big thing on the horizon for me will be a Holo May DAC to add some R2R magic to the mix. Given the price and capabilities, itās really gotta go in the loudspeaker setup so I can experience R2R sound in room-filling glory. Fortunately, thereās a nice May-sized hole just below the Staxā¦
Of course, it would be a tragedy to miss out on hearing the May with Susvara and VC, so itās highly likely that the Pendant will end up joining that whole setup as well. That and the Stax can migrate to the right side of the setup; the 360s will retire and my Series X consoles can occupy the bottom right shelf. At that point, the top left shelf (furthest from the subwoofer) will be open for business.
Iām still undecided on what I want for a turntable, but I expect it will be something in the $1k - $few-k range to fit with the level of gear I have in the rest of the system. Perhaps the McIntable with the fat green platter to complement the rest of their gear? But I donāt know yet. Iāll dig into options more when the time nears to make a decision.
So, yeah, missing a turntable, but havenāt overlooked a turntable. 
Man after my own heart 
I see glad to see you here! I check my DMs here more often as well
Also, The Dude is one of my all time favorites!
Iāll admit that vinyl has itās drawbacks. Itās like well, libraries. All of those books - which can be torn, or burn, or smell funny, or host silverfish, on all of those shelves. Such a waste of space, compared to my Kindle Keyboard (gen 3 - electronic ink is so readable).
Iāve got about 15 or so linear feet of vinyl, mostly in the attic, as I have no room in the living room for more than a foot or two of vinyl. So I do a rotation trek. I agree with you that (finally) neither format is demonstrably superior. But I do have at least a few albums that I have yet to be able to find anywhere in digital format.
I know those speakers, but I canāt read the label. I know that I auditioned them. Bugs me that I canāt just come up with the brand and model. They look like Sonus Faber Aidasā¦
Simply stunning. Beautiful setup.
My name is Paul, a 37 yo from the Netherlands. Iām an it teacher specialized in data science. I currently run an HD 599 and FiiO e10k from my computer. I mainly listen to music via Spotify (Plini, Dave Matthews) and play videogames (Apex Legends, Witcher 3).
Thanks! Now that Iām set up over here Iāll aim to stay in touch with you here.
Itās just a different means of consumption. To me, the strength of vinyl is the ritual aspectāthe ability to hold your music, to read the gatefolds as the table spins, to look at large form factor physical art, and occasionally fancy colored wax. Itās also the incentive to consume an album at a time instead of buffet-style digital radio. I grew up on LPs, tapes and CDs and still gravitate toward listening to albums in their entirely. And I still appreciate albums that are arranged as a continuous listening experience vs. merely a collection of songs.
Similar, but much further down the line, lol. Theyāre Sonus Faber Cremonas (OG, not the Cremona-M revision that came later). One beautiful thing about the Cremonas is they were marketed with a matching center channel and sub. Because I love both music and gaming / movies, I didnāt want to compromise between 2-channel and surround, so I didnāt. I went with 4 full towers plus the matching center and sub.
Iāve copied my gear list from HiFi Guides to my profile here, so full details on the theater setup and my headphone / IEM / DAC & Amp collections are listed in my profile.
Thank you. I consider that to be my personal shrine to music and gaming. Iāve been refining it since 2004, and it has evolved into a masterpiece of form and functionality. Apart from the turntable mentioned earlier, thereās not much Iād change. I added the McInstack in late 2018, and the pic I posted was taken in early 2019. The only thing that has changed in that time is the selection of XBoxes on the rightmost stackāthe Day One system has been replaced by a second X1X, and my Chinese X1S has joined the party.
Welcome @Paul_Hiemstra! Do you have thousands of Dave Matthews live shows? I once tried to compile my own best of āDave Matthews Liveā by selecting my favorite interpretations of each individual song, but I gave up because it was too difficult, and anyway, it was more fun to listen to each of the shows.
Dave Matthews is very prolific :). Focus on a few, but have not had time to check out all of them.
Welcome to this weeks new members, enjoy!
Ditto, for all this weeks new members!
Welcome to all new members!
welcome to the community @Paul_Hiemstra, @speleofool, @tomasmestre , @BrutalMoose , @alekc and @Dhananjeyan_Nataraja
