Nope, we are no longer on the top of a mountain overlooking Boulder and Denver. We are in a plain old Eichler-style home in Palo Alto. The pluses are that there are a lot more audiophiles here and this house is similar to that which many audiophiles live in. The minuses are that we are no longer on the top of a mountain overlooking Boulder and Denver.
The LARGE SYSTEM:
Acapella Audio Arts "High Cellini" loudspeakers
Acapella Audio Arts "LaMusika" integrated amplifier
Audio Note UK "CDT Five" transport
Audio Note UK "DAC 5 Signature"
Harmonic Resolution Systems "SXR" equipment rack and "M3X" platforms
A simple system, but extremely high performing.
This is a 13 foot by 18 foot room. One wall is all glass. Yes, there is a mirror surrounding the fireplace - what can we say, this is a rental.
The hyperspherical horn, plasma tweeter and isobarically supported woofer are so well-integrated that each of these best-in-class most-suitable-for-its-task technologies is able to support its corresponding frequencies without calling attention to itself.
Speaking of magic, the DAC 5 is high resolution and yet sounds like music. More like music than any digital we have heard. No matter what you feed it. Music player? Yep. 1980's CDs? Yep. Oh, the more well-recorded the music, the better it sounds, of course, but the music is presented without emphasizing the flaws. You can all read elsewhere how they do it, but it works. No fuzziness or blurriness or muddiness. It just works.
The CDT Five transport has a special tube-buffer designed to optimally connect to the DAC 5, so CDs sound pretty good on it
The LaMusika integrated is a very good solid-state amp. Not saying much, I know, with there being so many poor solid-state amps out there But we like it and our ears are really picky when it comes to solid-state sonic artifacts.
Similarly with the rack. This isn't the new VXR, but the SXR is a very good rack, especially with there being so many poor equipment racks out there. If you can't afford these, we typically recommend basic steel and wood racks, like Mapleshade, or putting things on the floor, over the vast majority of racks that are out there.
The cables are a mishmash of Acapella, Audio Note and Belden. No conditioning. No room treatments [unless you include the carpets]. Sounds great however loud we play it, though it is still settling in after coming back from CAS 2017 [We are just so very happy with the current positioning of everything ... something just has to go wrong :-/].
At some point we are going to put the Audio Note 22 watt Kegon amplifiers on these speakers. That is why that naked amplifier platform is sitting there....
The LARGE SYSTEM:
Acapella Audio Arts "High Cellini" loudspeakers
Acapella Audio Arts "LaMusika" integrated amplifier
Audio Note UK "CDT Five" transport
Audio Note UK "DAC 5 Signature"
Harmonic Resolution Systems "SXR" equipment rack and "M3X" platforms
A simple system, but extremely high performing.
This is a 13 foot by 18 foot room. One wall is all glass. Yes, there is a mirror surrounding the fireplace - what can we say, this is a rental.
The hyperspherical horn, plasma tweeter and isobarically supported woofer are so well-integrated that each of these best-in-class most-suitable-for-its-task technologies is able to support its corresponding frequencies without calling attention to itself.
Speaking of magic, the DAC 5 is high resolution and yet sounds like music. More like music than any digital we have heard. No matter what you feed it. Music player? Yep. 1980's CDs? Yep. Oh, the more well-recorded the music, the better it sounds, of course, but the music is presented without emphasizing the flaws. You can all read elsewhere how they do it, but it works. No fuzziness or blurriness or muddiness. It just works.
The CDT Five transport has a special tube-buffer designed to optimally connect to the DAC 5, so CDs sound pretty good on it
The LaMusika integrated is a very good solid-state amp. Not saying much, I know, with there being so many poor solid-state amps out there But we like it and our ears are really picky when it comes to solid-state sonic artifacts.
Similarly with the rack. This isn't the new VXR, but the SXR is a very good rack, especially with there being so many poor equipment racks out there. If you can't afford these, we typically recommend basic steel and wood racks, like Mapleshade, or putting things on the floor, over the vast majority of racks that are out there.
The cables are a mishmash of Acapella, Audio Note and Belden. No conditioning. No room treatments [unless you include the carpets]. Sounds great however loud we play it, though it is still settling in after coming back from CAS 2017 [We are just so very happy with the current positioning of everything ... something just has to go wrong :-/].
At some point we are going to put the Audio Note 22 watt Kegon amplifiers on these speakers. That is why that naked amplifier platform is sitting there....
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