Just thought I'd resurrect this thread which has been dormant for over 6 months.
Blue58/Barry has become a really close friend of mine since I first met him some 5 years ago, and I've always admired his sound, and indeed been somewhat envious of the results he's achieved.
Certainly he's been more focussed and indeed practical than me in getting the kind of end result that is to be hugely admired.
His system has always been based around his decade old pair of AG Duos Omega horns. I've heard plenty of criticisms of these spkrs, but tbh the results he's achieving puts a lot of much more expensive spkrs to the sword. Yes, deep bass can be a little discontinuous, but this is not a barrier to me (or him) personally, and the dreaded tube honk that others hate is not apparent to me (us).
They're beautifully complemented by Barry's own design and made custom 45 tube amps. Now I'm no expert in the world of tube amps, and I've heard criticism that these tubes can be overly warm and wallowy, but again we LOL don't subscribe to this, certainly when the magic of these amps lights up the Duos.
Sablon cables have been a mainstay, from the Corona and Panatella initially, to the current Reserva, w some other changes planned soon. I'm a proud Sablon Reservas owner too, and the revelation in tone and texture is a thing to behold.
Barry's main areas of change have been in going from the Audio Aero as cdp/dac/preamp 5 years ago, to the T&A Dac8 performing similar duties via the SGM server from 2015, to running the Java Triple Shot preamp from 2017, to his current setup that I heard for the first time today, comprising the SGM into new Aqua Formula XHD dac into Java Triple Shot.
The Aqua is 200 hrs into an advised 400-500 hrs burn in, w SR Blue fuse burning in too. I'm awaiting Barry's email to remind me specifically what we listened to, but we got in a good selection of classic jazz vocals in F Sinatra and B Holliday, Americana in Ryan Adams live, big classical Aaron Copeland, Miles Davis classic quintet, some other jazz, and some prog rock in Rush and Genesis.
I'm still collating my thoughts, but my abiding opinion after my 3 hr drive home was that Barry has absolutely hit a home run w this current setup.
His system has always been open, immersive and dynamic, but counterbalanced by some attributes that detracted from total success.
His Audio Aero was a little dark in tone, and soundstage recessed well behind the front wall.
His T&A as digital player/preamp was msybe a little grainy, and his T&A thru the Java was a little too sparse and cold.
But put the Aqua Formula XHD in the mix, and things are transformed.
There was always the possibility that the fantastic dynamics of the Dac8 might be lost, but tbh this really hasn't happened.
What has emerged is pretty much what Mike Lavigne reported from his short Formula ownership, a real "space" machine. The Aqua absolutely opens up air and dimensionality. This is not a kind of artifice of the machine, it's a true representation of the space the artists are recorded in. I can tell it's not a player artefact because it totally varied depending on the recording - Yes Relayer didn't have much air, Sinatra and Copeland had it in spades.
But even more impressive was the timbral accuracy, vivid texture, and "as close to analog as you can get" tonal color and density. This was startlingly lp-like and absolutely helped suspend disbelief.
This combination of density and color, timing, space and delicacy produced zero fatigue, maxxed immersion, and revelation after revelation.
For me this truly was digital coming of age, playing so much in analog territory, it was a startling education.
The only thing that in the end "gives the game away" that this was still digital, is a slightly processed sound on one or two tracks (which could be more a mastering artefact than the fault of digital), and absence of the last degree of what I call "elasticity", a kind of flow that I still only hear from lp, but even here the Aqua was v good.
Credit also goes to Barry's Java preamp, it v much convinces as a dead neutral open window to allow the Aqua to strut it's stuff.
Concluding, Barry absolutely has excelled, his taking a punt on Java and esp Formula has taken his sound to a very special place, where digital really steps on the toes of the best analog.
I'm having a little cry now LOL, in a stroke he's leapfrogged my sound in leaps and bounds. Bravo.