The Desert 🌵 Sessions 4.0 – An Update

This is an update on a post about our Desert 🌵 Sessions’ stereo. The Desert 🌵 Sessions is my catchall term for all things musical (listening to music, blogging/posting about music, concerts, etc.) when my wife and I are snowbirding in Phoenix (we summer in our hometown of Minneapolis).

I think of myself as a “humble audiophile.” What I mean by that is that I have a quality stereo, but it is modest. I belong to the Arizona Audio Visual Club (AAVC), which exposes me to some over-the-top systems here in the Valley (the term the locals use for the Phoenix metro area). I am proud of my system, modest as it is. I think of myself more as a musichead than an audiophile – a nice stereo is a necessary tool to enjoy music – gear is not the goal. I recognize that most musicheads are more than happy to enjoy music via a pair of earbuds or a Bluetooth speaker.

This is our fourth winter in Phoenix. Here is a quick summary of how the Desert 🌵 Session rig has evolved (a longer description of 1.0 and 2.0 can be found in this post).

• Version 1.0 January through May 2022—We first moved into our Phoenix home in January 2022. The first rig comprised an extra Croft amp I had, a Schitt headphone amp I borrowed from the Minneapolis rig, a turntable I borrowed from our daughter, a Dragonfly DAC (that I hooked to my iPhone for high-resolution streaming), and some old headphones (AKG K240 and Grado SR80). At first, I set this rig up on the floor, then upgraded to a folding table, and finally upgraded to a used media cabinet. I also purchased a Bluesound Node to stream music. Because I did not have any speakers, I listened on headphones. Near the end of Desert Session 1.0, I picked up a pair of inexpensive Klipsch bookshelf speakers.
• Version 2.0 November 2022 through June 2023 – I retired on 12/31/22, allowing more time to enjoy the Desert 🌵 Sessions. Some health issues kept me home, but the silver lining was more time to listen to music. Enhancements included a new Rega turntable, a couch, and a coffee table (before this, we used a combination of lawn furniture and cardboard boxes for furniture), and we brought down some Paradigm speakers that were underutilized in Minneapolis (the Klipsch bookshelf speakers went back to Minneapolis at the end of the season). I also brought down about a hundred duplicate LPs I had in Minneapolis – why do I have a hundred duplicates? See this link for the answer). Back in Minneapolis, I bought another Schitt headphone amp, and the Schitt Vali 2 found a permanent home as part of the Desert 🌵 Sessions.
• Version 3.0 November 2023 through May 2024 – Enhancements for this season included new HiFiMan headphones and Crosley record racks.
• Version 4.0 November 2024 through May 2025 – The significant enhancement for this season was a CD player and external DAC connected to the CD player and Bluesound Node. We also got another record rack.

I have learned that the room is one of the most significant audio components. The best equipment can sound terrible if the room does not support the equipment. In Minneapolis, we live in an open-concept apartment-style condo. It is not conducive to playing music out loud, so I mostly listen via headphones. For the Desert 🌵 Sessions, we have a dedicated music room. The room is nearly square (13′ x 14′), carpeted, with no windows but a large opening on the left side to the rest of the home. I was concerned that the open side would allow too much noise from the rest of the house and that my music would bleed into the rest. It turned out that it was just tucked away enough to not cause noise problems either way. Because the Croft amp has separate left and right volume controls, I can do some primitive “room correction” to solve for the opening (a slightly higher volume on the right channel does the trick).

One of my rules for the Desert 🌵 Sessions is that physical media, what I call albums (vinyl records and CDs), can only travel one way. If I bring an album from Minneapolis to Phoenix, the album stays in Phoenix, and vice versa. More albums are flowing from Minneapolis to Phoenix than vice versa. I discovered some great record stores in The Valley and enjoyed my first Phoenix Record Store Day at Stinkweeds in the spring of 2022.

Another key component of a listening room is furniture—you can’t have a listening room without a proper listening chair in the room’s sweet spot. We chose a sofa rather than a recliner because we felt it would be more welcoming when we had guests. The sofa is also great for napping (this is when I typically use headphones as I am out of the room’s sweet spot when prone and sideways).

I love the Crosley record racks my wife procured for the Desert 🌵 Sessions. They give the room a record-store vibe. There is nothing better than crate digging in your own home. CDs are stored in the media cabinet.

The room is decorated with concert posters from shows in The Valley.

The Desert 🌵 Sessions 4.0 sounds fantastic! A lot of equipment does not sound good unless cranked, but I listen to music at low to medium volume, and the Desert 🌵 Sessions rig is sympathetic to this. The room has a great visual and sonic vibe; I look forward to many hours of listening in the desert 🏜️.