Hi Peter. Btw, I've followed your posts over time and believe your system is tremendous! To answer your question I have to first give you a bit of history on how I listen to music and what I value in a hi-fi playback system. My family comes from a musical background. I was first exposed to lengthy constant symphony rehearsals and concerts from a young age as my mother played violin for the city's symphony for several years and I played trombone and piano. My youngest plays violin and has perfect pitch which according to her teacher is a bit of a curse. Listening to her practise in the living room puts me in a musical bliss as she is my best reference. The Dynaudio C2's strengths are tonal purity, coherence, imaging, smoothness, handling of rhythms and neutrality. I'm willing to give up some of that last siblence in the top end found in beryllium and diamond tweeters for the Esotar tweeter. The bass is enough for me as it's true accurate bass, not over-inflated in the mid-band as some manufacturers like to do. I don't have any bass traps in my room and the recent acquisition of the Torus conditioner has given me another octave in the bass region and a complete dead silence noise floor. It's almost eerie sounding that my ears are still adjusting to the added low level detail. The only 3-way speakers that sounded terrific to me are just uber expensive. As we all know, a properly designed two-way speaker can be a great option. Since my speakers are placed so far forward, the instruments just "disappear" in space. I used to own a Spectral DMA 150 amp but found it a bit lean and too clinical. To be fair I have not heard the new Spectral reference amps and would most likely fall in love with them. In the end I wanted to arrange a system with an extremely neutral pre-amp and speakers and build some warmth/musicality around it. I find the Pass just puts so much "meat" on the bones, there is so much texture in the mid range. The Luxman dac is velvety smooth. I like the organic sound of vinyl but it's not an option now. If I had collected LP's over the years I would have made the plunge on a table. Back in the mid 90's I almost bought a Kuzma Stabi Reference but I was too "scared" to trust the medium over the long haul. I guess I'm trying to mimic the sound of vinyl but with the convenience of digital. Below are some pics of some extremely rare Stradivarius violins that I was lucky enough to see up close during our recent trip to Florence.
Yes, I do agree with you Ron. You make a very valid point. I'm envious to those who have been fortunate enough to have had their rooms professionally measured acoustically and then given specific recommendations based on scientific findings.
Thanks Grade98. I'm using an extra pair of older zoethecus z slabs. My initial plans were to use the Isoacoustics Gaii 2 but they were a real pain trying to get them to thread tightly enough for a perfect fit. So I used the Gaii 2's under my components instead which made a difference.
 | Steve Williams Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator |  | Ron Resnick Site Co-Owner | Administrator |  | Julian (The Fixer) Website Build | Marketing Managersing |
