Joshua Slone's Listening Room

Joshua Slone doesn't just listen to music — he builds rooms around it. His home setup is a carefully assembled ten-piece system where digital precision meets tube warmth, and every link in the chain was chosen for a reason. The foundation: Focal Chora 816. Up front, a pair of Focal's Chora 816 floor-standers carries the main load — rich, detailed, and big enough to fill the room without breaking a sweat. The low end: REL HT/1205 Mk II. A single REL HT/1205 Mk II handles bass duties, adding depth and weight the mains alone can't reach. Tight, musical, properly integrated — not the boomy afterthought subs can be. The digital front end: Matrix Audio mini-i Pro 3 + 2012 Mac Mini. A 2012 Mac Mini runs Roon Core, feeding the Matrix Audio mini-i Pro 3 — a balanced Roon endpoint and DAC that keeps the digital-to-analog conversion honest. The tube touch: Schiit Saga with Shuguang CV-181 Treasure. Before the signal hits the power amp, it passes through Schiit's Saga preamp, fitted with a Shuguang CV-181 Treasure tube — a dose of warmth and vintage character in an otherwise modern chain. The muscle: Classe Sigma Amp 2. Classe's Sigma Amp 2 does the heavy lifting, driving the Focals with the control and headroom a system like this demands. The unsung heroes. Shunyata's Venom PS10 power conditioner keeps the electricity clean; Pine Tree Audio speaker cables and hand-picked interconnects carry the signal without loss; and GIK Acoustics panels tame the room itself — because the room is a component too. Ten components, one philosophy: nothing in the chain is an accident. Published with Joshua's permission. Questions about Joshua's setup? Leave them in the comments — he's happy to talk shop.

Room: Listening Room