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Sea Pine Cottage

--- Sea Pine Cottage --- Honey Moon Cottage --- The Sea Ranch --- Northern California ---

 

Walk-on Beach, February 2016

 

The Sea Ranch is internationally known and revered for its effort to blend man-made structures with their natural setting. This most picturesque area of California, 100 miles north of San Francisco dotted with distinctive homes, spreads for about ten miles on either side of Highway One in the coastal Sonoma County. The building design is unique in its architecture, and the challenge to " live lightly on the land" is on-going.

"Sea Pine Cottage", our remodeled Sea Ranch vacation home is looking over a large meadow to the Pacific Ocean. The wide open meadow  presents itself as a natural surrounding for deer, rabbits, wild turkeys and birds of every kind. Walking distance is about 400 yards to the rugged shore line, with steps down to a sandy cove. The ocean water is too cold for anything but wading due to its year-round temperature of 55 F (13 C), but the sea is a constant  inspiration with its ever changing wave patterns, the interplay of sun, wind, tides and fog. Miles of hiking trails meander along the coastal cliffs, through meadows and forests, there is no shortage of outdoor activity in the sunny yet temperate climate of this North Sonoma Coastal area. Even the winter storms, with their high winds and driving rains, become an enjoyable experience when watched through the window.  

 

Sea Pine Cottage, October 2015

 

Entrance to Sea Pine Cottage, February 2016

 

The LXmini plays for the living area, which expands into the dining area to the left and to the kitchen, hallway and stairs behind the viewer. The total floor area is about 625 ft2 (58 m2). 

 

LXmini setup. Here is the application for which I designed the LXmini. It sounds wonderful, plenty of bass. Good lateral imaging, speakers disappearing, but less depth than in my home in Corte Madera. Surprisingly I had to change the left to right balance and increase the output level from the right (!) speaker so that the image was not pulled to the left.
I set up the speakers with 20 inch (51 cm) distance to the wall/window behind them and 29 inch (74 cm) from the right speaker to the window on the right.  For power amplifiers I use the PLUTO LM3886 based amplifiers. Signal source is an iPod for streaming music from the Internet or my notebook PC with lots of music files, JRiver and a Dragonfly USB DAC driving the miniDSP 2x4. An old Sony receiver allows switching audio between PC/iPod, TV and DVD player

 

The added Vista Room with its view of meadow and ocean white water is my home for the LX521.4. As I have set it up it exhibits all the nice characteristics that I hear from them in my much longer room in Corte Madera. Only the bottom end required experimentation with speaker placement/orientation and sofa-bed placement. The problem was a l/4 distance at 60 Hz between a listener and the wall behind him causing a 60 Hz interference dip at the listener's location. The dip was measurable and audible on a sustained 60 Hz tone but rarely on program material. The sofa-bed acts also as an acoustic absorber, which ameliorates the dip. The white stool is for putting up the legs when seated on the sofa.
Power is provided by ten 60 W amplifiers of an AT6012. The amplifier is driven by the miniDSP 4x10HD, whose optical input is assigned to the notebook PC and its SPDIF input to an OPPO BDP-95 Blue Ray player. A 43" TV is rolled on a cart between the speakers for watching movies.  

 

The Vista Room is 17 ft (5.18 m) long and 14.4 ft (4.39 m) wide and with a 30 ft2 (2.8 m2) window seat area added, covers to a total floor area of 275 ft2 (25.6 m2). The ceiling slants down from 9.6 ft (2.93 m) height to 7.8 ft (2.37 m) at the wall in the photo above. Three down-steps lead into the room.
On the left is my office corner with printers behind the chair, a desk for my notebook PC and a monitor for photo work. I travel with 3 Windows 7 notebooks, one for work, email and order fulfillment, one for music and one for photography with Adobe Lightroom installed and for my picture files.

 

February 2016

We are spending as much time as possible in this beautiful and rejuvenating place. 
Please understand when my response to you is occasionally slow in coming. I have not retired, though I am over 80.
I love to spread the joy and excitement that comes with hearing realistically rendered sounds and music.

 

 

 

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Sea Pine Cottage had been remodeled and enlarged in 2013. We have removed it from the rental market. We now use it solely for ourselves and our family to enjoy the beauty and restfulness of The Sea Ranch.     

Check with VRBO or VacationHomes for renting accommodations at The Sea Ranch. The small town of Gualala at the north end of Sea Ranch has motels, restaurants and everything that one might need when living or vacationing on the coast. The closest larger town is Santa Rosa, about a two hour drive away.

  1990 - 2013
Here played my PLUTO and now the LXmini. The LX521.4 entertains in the new Vista Room.

The Sea Ranch is internationally known and revered for its effort to blend man-made structures with their natural setting. This most picturesque area of California, 100 miles north of San Francisco dotted with distinctive homes, spreads for about ten miles on either side of Highway One in the coastal Sonoma County. The building design is unique in its architecture, and the challenge to " live lightly on the land" is on-going.

"Sea Pine Cottage", one of our Sea Ranch vacation homes is looking over a large meadow to the Pacific Ocean. Walking distance is about 400 yards down to the rugged shore line, which is typical of Northern California. The wide open meadow  presents itself as a natural surrounding for deer, rabbits, wild turkeys and other birds of every kind. 

The privacy of this home sets the tone for your peaceful Sea Ranch vacations. You enter into a light and airy place with the wonderful rich colors of the French Impressionists and art prints of the Dutch painter van Gogh.  A lush meadow setting and warmly decorated living space have made "Sea Pine Cottage" a favorite for many repeat guests over the years. For your convenience, you will find an office corner with a writing/computer desk and printer. Even books and novels have been started here.

Relax in a lounge chair on the deck or upstairs balcony and watch the wildlife move by. The ocean may be too cold for anything but wading due to its year-round temperature of 55 F (13 C), but with three swimming pools, saunas, tennis courts, an 18 hole championship golf course, and miles of hiking trails that meander along the coastal cliffs, through meadows and forests, there is no shortage of outdoor activity in the sunny yet temperate climate of this North Sonoma Coastal area. Or, soak in the hot tub on the deck of Sea Pine Cottage on a starry night. 

Even the occasional winter storms, with their high winds and driving rains, become an enjoyable experience when watched through the window, and comforted by the warmth from a crackling air-tight wood stove, a good book and something to nibble. The excellent sound system is an invitation to listen to your favorite CDs or your iPod.

 

Location
The Sea Ranch, California, USA
View map

View towards the Pacific Ocean from upstairs balcony of the bedroom

Take a gentle stroll of 400 yards to the ocean shore

Living room overlooking meadow and Pacific Ocean

The PLUTO loudspeakers are set up for CD, SACD, DVD-A, DVD, cassette tape and iPod sound sources. 

The loudspeakers are state-of-the art and are capable of accurate sound reproduction. Here in Sea Pine Cottage they could not be optimally placed permanently so that the room boundaries would be symmetrical to the speaker and listener triangle. Frequency response wise, though, you get a good indication of their capabilities. A more optimum but temporary location is to bring them forward and to place them on the rug by lifting them with both hands under the rubber coupler. Now phantom imaging is representative of what the system is capable of as you listen from the couch. Listen also from different locations in the room and upstairs. 

Bring your favorite CDs or even your iPod and enjoy. 

Dining and office area with air-tight fireplace.
The writing/computer desk also features a printer.

 

Living room and kitchen
Upstairs bedroom with balcony has a wide view over the Pacific Ocean
Private hot tub with view to the ocean
The "Sea Pine Cottage"
facing the Pacific Ocean.

This cove is a 5 minute walk away  
from the "Sea Pine Cottage".

 

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What you hear is not the air pressure variation in itself 
but what has drawn your attention
in the streams of superimposed air pressure variations 
at your eardrums

An acoustic event has dimensions of Time, Tone, Loudness and Space
Have they been recorded and rendered sensibly?

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Last revised: 02/15/2023   -  © 1999-2019 LINKWITZ LAB, All Rights Reserved