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My goal is looking for a natural and realistic sound that replicates the dynamics and realism of direct music in an auditorium. The scale, calm, yet strength of different instruments playing together, combined with the refinement and little details and nuances of solos and slow movements or pieces.
Decided to change the system and take it to a higher level, since I was able to achieve very fine music, details and rhythm, but the real thing was elusive.
It's been since that moment 3 to 4 years or so.
First thing I did was get proper room acoustic treatment after some time wasted (and a bit of money) with isolated solutions offered that proved useless at best.
I hired an acoustic engineering company that came home and took measurement. They then designed a treatment with products from Viacoustic. They simulate the response with different treatments, and through different iterations come up with the optimal set of elements. They took care of the installation and fine tuning of the bass traps for optimal response.
That was a great improvement in itself and something I recommend highly to anyone.
Second step was to decide on a set of speakers. Tried as many as I could including top models from Magico, Wilson Audio, Sonus faber and others. To me the TAD R1 were clearly the best for my taste, room and goals. Actually the second best were the TAD CR1... These speakers are really fantastic.
I went on with amplification. Also tried several models. As many as I could. After much listening went with the TAD M600. They are very natural, and transparent to a point that is beyond imagination. Needless to say they perfectly combine with the R1s although I would recommend anyone to listen to them regardless of speaker brand. I have not listened to a more natural and true set of amps, yet with th dynamics, punch and bass extension when needed.
After that I went on for a preamp. I use to have the great ARC anniversary. However for the system I am building up an my goal, I felt that although very easy to combine, it felt a bit short in transparency and details. Here the decision was simple in my case: went on with the TAD C600; this is a remarkable preamp, and combined with an all TAD system gives all the goods of a tube preamp, in terms of saturation, music flow and so on, combined with the advantages already described of the TAD gear.
Last change I made recently was to swap the fantastic Esoteric P02/D02/G01, with the new Esoteric Grandioso 5 pieces P1, 2 mono DACs D1 and the clock G01. This is quite new, and still early times. But I can say already that this has been the greatest upgrade just right after the speakers. The quality of sound of this source is beyond imagination. And still improving.
As cables I am using Siltech for all analogs, both power cords and interconnects plus speaker cables. I am moving on from lower series to Double Crown models. Almost there. I have pending the speaker cables and the interconnects from preamp to amps. May consider here the DC or TC if I can listen to them and see is worth it.
For the Esoterics I am currently using the Mexcel 9500 power cords which are the ones they voiced the Esoterics with. Same for clock cables.
Another change that help big time was to take out power conditioner and replace with a good power bar. It is connected to the dedicated line that goes directly to the breaker panel. The gains here are also relevant. Better flow of music, more natural, with no downsides.
Lastly for now I am using the Tripoint Troy grounding system. This deserves a very special mention. You connect it to the groun post of all the devices, and to the mains with a very heavy PC only with earth connected. It really cleans up the sound. Gets you much closer to the real music sensation. This would deserve a full page in itself but all I can say here is that I strongly recommend it. You don't know the noise you have until you get rid of it.
Not many tweaks in the system. Or any really.
Still have some things in mind, but for the most part I am there for now.
Really enjoying the system and looking forward to getting more hours on the 01s. In any case the sounds I am getting now are really the best I have heard, and very close to the real thing I was looking. Always room to improve and looking forward to it but the level of joy this system gives right now has no precedent in my particular case and experience.
Thanks for reading and looking at it.
Best
