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Dedicated Two-Channel Listening Room in Princeton, NJ
Project Details:
Princeton, New Jersey
Location:
Dedicated Two-Channel Listening Room
Project Type:
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Integrator:
Clinton, New Jersey
Company Location:
15+ Years
Years in Business:
Two-Channel HiFi System, Acoustic Treatment, Listening Room Design, Vinyl & Streaming Playback, Dedicated Power
Project Scope:
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Some projects begin with a spec sheet. This one began with a memory. A Princeton homeowner heard a two-channel system he couldn't stop thinking about, but when he sat down with Audio Video Synergy, his requests had nothing to do with equipment. He wanted to hear his records the way he remembered them sounding. He didn't want the room to look like a science project. And his wife had to love being in the space too.
That third request shaped the entire design. Rather than building a technical showcase, Audio Video Synergy designed a dedicated listening room in Princeton, NJ that reads as a well-appointed sitting room, with Sonus faber loudspeakers, McIntosh amplification, MOON streaming, and Pro-Ject vinyl playback supported by acoustic treatment engineered to disappear into the decor. The complete system, including measurement, design, and installation, was delivered under a $100,000 all-in budget.
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The goal was never to fill a rack with flagship components. Every decision was measured against how the homeowner and his family would actually live with the room. The project centered on several priorities: reproducing vinyl and streamed music with the warmth and dimensionality the client remembered; selecting loudspeakers and electronics beautiful enough to belong in a shared living space; controlling the room's acoustics without visible foam, diffusers, or laboratory aesthetics; keeping the complete investment, including acoustic design, under $100,000; and delivering a system that sounds complete at conversational volume, not just at Saturday-night levels. Success meant a listening room the whole household would choose to spend time in every evening, and a system honest enough to reveal what great recordings really contain.
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Like every real house, the room arrived with compromises. Hard reflective surfaces and a modal bass problem sat squarely in the 60-120Hz range, exactly where the Sonus faber Serafino G2 carries real energy. Audio Video Synergy measured the room before quoting a single component, because an untreated room will lie to the listener, and no amount of equipment fixes that.
The budget conversation posed a second challenge. The homeowner arrived wanting flagship everything: the largest monoblocks, the top turntable. Roughly $15,000 was reallocated from amplification the speakers didn't need into acoustics and design, where each dollar returns several times its value in sound quality.
The third challenge was aesthetic. Every bass trap and absorption panel had to be invisible, engineered into surfaces that look like a well-appointed sitting room rather than screwed to drywall.
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These are the core solutions that transformed a compromised room into a dedicated two-channel retreat the whole household now uses every night.
Acoustic Treatment Hidden in Plain Sight
Room measurement revealed strong modal buildup between 60 and 120Hz alongside harsh first reflections from hard surfaces. Rather than mounting exposed foam and diffusers, Audio Video Synergy engineered bass traps and broadband absorption into fabric-wrapped panels color-matched to the room's finishes. The treatment controls low-frequency decay and tames reflections while reading as interior design rather than laboratory equipment. It was the least glamorous line on the proposal and the most important one: the acoustic work is why the system sounds complete at conversational volume.
Sonus faber Speakers That Read as Furniture
The Sonus faber Serafino G2 was chosen as much for the living space as for the listening position. Nine layers of matched-grain wood finished in nine coats of lacquer allow the loudspeakers to read as furniture, satisfying the homeowner's request that the room never look like a science project, and earning his wife's approval of the space. Sonically, the Serafino G2 delivers the warm, dimensional presentation the client remembered, with enough low-frequency authority to justify the careful bass control built into the room.
McIntosh Tube Warmth, Quad Balanced Power
A McIntosh C2800 vacuum tube preamplifier paired with the MC462 Quad Balanced stereo amplifier gives the system its voice: tube warmth at the front of the chain, with 450 watts per channel of effortless solid-state reserve behind it. The pairing softens the honesty of a treated room, keeping brightly mastered recordings listenable while letting great ones bloom. And the iconic blue meters glowing in a dim room became part of the nightly ritual, the one indulgence the design never asked the homeowner to give up.
Streaming and Vinyl Given Equal Weight
Digital and analog playback received equal attention. A MOON 681 Network Player serves as streamer and DAC, bringing high-resolution digital sources to the system with the refinement the loudspeakers deserve. For vinyl, a Pro-Ject Signature 10 turntable fitted with an Ortofon Cadenza-series moving-coil cartridge delivers the record playback that started the whole project. The first track played at handoff came from the client's own collection, and his first question was 'where is the sound coming from?' The speakers had disappeared.
AudioQuest Cabling and Clean Power
An AudioQuest ThunderBird loom of ZERO speaker cables and XLR interconnects connects the chain, while an AudioQuest Niagara 3000 conditions power for the source components and preamplifier. A dedicated electrical circuit feeds the system, isolating it from household noise. None of it is visible, and none of it was on the homeowner's original wish list, but the clean-power foundation is part of why the system holds its composure at every volume and why the noise floor sits low enough for late-night listening.
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System Design Summary
This summary outlines the primary components selected for the Princeton listening room and the role each played in the finished system. Every product was chosen to serve the same three requests the homeowner made on day one: sound he remembered, a room he was proud of, and a space his wife loved too.
Solution
Brand / Component
Purpose
Loudspeakers
Sonus faber
Serafino G2 floorstanding loudspeakers in matched-grain wood; the warm, dimensional voice of the system and the visual anchor of the room.
Preamplifier & Amplification
McIntosh
C2800 vacuum tube preamplifier and MC462 Quad Balanced stereo amplifier delivering tube warmth with 450 watts per channel of reserve.
Streaming & DAC
MOON by Simaudio
681 Network Player serving as streamer and DAC for high-resolution digital playback throughout the system.
Turntable & Cartridge
Pro-Ject / Ortofon
Signature 10 turntable with Cadenza-series moving-coil cartridge for reference-grade vinyl playback.
Cabling & Power
AudioQuest
ThunderBird ZERO speaker cables, ThunderBird XLR interconnects, and Niagara 3000 power conditioning on a dedicated circuit.
Typical Investment Range
Projects of this type are shaped by room dimensions, acoustic conditions, source preferences, and the level of finish work expected in the treatment design. This Princeton system was delivered under $100,000 all-in, with roughly $15,000 deliberately reallocated from surplus amplification into acoustic measurement, bass control, and design. For dedicated two-channel listening rooms of similar scope and finish, investments typically fall within the following ranges:
Solution
Typical Investment
Loudspeakers
Loudspeakers & Amplification (Sonus faber, McIntosh): $45,000-$48,000
Preamplifier & Amplification
Digital & Vinyl Sources (MOON, Pro-Ject, Ortofon): $19,000-$22,500
Streaming & DAC
Cabling & Power Foundation (AudioQuest): $9,000-$11,500
Turntable & Cartridge
Acoustic Measurement & Treatment: $8,000-$12,000
Cabling & Power
Listening Room Design & Integration: $5,000-$8,000 | Estimated Total: $90,000-$98,000 all-in
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Final Experience
The homeowner expected his favorite moment to be playing the system loud. The opposite happened. Because the room is controlled, the system sounds complete at conversation volume, and the listening room became the nightly room rather than the Saturday room. Evenings now end with a record on the Pro-Ject, the McIntosh meters glowing, and, the acceptance test no invoice line captures, his wife staying for the whole side.
The system is also honest. A treated room strips the fog off everything, so great recordings became astonishing while a few old favorites revealed their mastering flaws; the warm voicing of the tube preamplifier and Sonus faber loudspeakers is what softens that trade. At the first listening session, the client cued a record he knew by heart, asked where the sound was coming from, then pulled out a second record, and a third. Nobody left for two hours.
Most importantly, the room delivers exactly what he asked for on day one: his records sound the way he remembers them, the space never looks like a science project, and it became a room the whole household loves being in.
Explore Audio Video Synergy
Audio Video Synergy is a Clinton, New Jersey HiFi and home technology integration firm serving discerning clients throughout Hunterdon County, Princeton, and the greater tri-state area. From its Main Street showroom, a destination for audiophiles across the region, the team designs and installs two-channel listening rooms, home theaters, whole-home audio, and automation systems built around how each client actually lives. As an authorized dealer for McIntosh, Sonus faber, MOON by Simaudio, Pro-Ject, and AudioQuest, Audio Video Synergy pairs premium components with the measurement, acoustic design, and documentation discipline that make them perform. Every project begins with listening: to the room, and to the client.
