Quite a few changes since our last photo last February.
The system is now composed of...
Acapella Audio Arts
Apollon speakers, the big brother of the
Campanile speakers we had previously (in these same colors!). These have a larger horn, larger cabinet, and two isobaric woofers per speaker in addition to the four front firing woofers. And, of course, the same ION (plasma) tweeters.
Acapella Audio Arts
La Musika integrated amp (we've shown this for awhile, a large number of fine sounding hybrid watts). You may had heard these recently at Capital Audio Fest or the California Audio Show.
Audio Note U.K.
GAKU-ON amplifiers. We haven't had these amps in for a long time (we're kinda hoping they stay awhile. If you order a pair, you can wait like we had to :-/ ). These are 211 amps that kick all other tube amp's ass (in our experience). We thought these would be similar to our Audio Note Kegon 300B amps, but just sounding more like a 211 than the 300B, right? Our Kegons that we went through all sorts of shenanigans to keep with us for 15+ years (though we recently had them rebuilt). But nooooooo..... The amount of music that comes through these... call it harmonic and dynamic resolution, call it supreme but gentle applied absolute control of the signal. Call it whatever... it is just so darn WELCOMING to the listener, so inviting.... it is like it is alive...
Audio Note U.K.
M9 Phono preamplifier. 2 boxes. With the updated volume controls. This pre is kind of the secret sauce (like most excellent pre's!).
Audio Note U.K.
DAC 5 Signature. We finally have another one of these. Newer. Better. And still breaking in! You may have heard this also at Capital Audio Fest earlier this month.
Audio Note U.K.
CDT Five Transport. You may have heard this at any number of shows. This is an excellent sounding trooper that has seen more show hotel rooms...
An old used Auralic
Aries on the bottom shelf there. Yes we have Roon and Tidal and our goal is to make Tidal sound better here than digital and analog does on most other systems, anywhere. Sounds stupifyingly great going directly into the Audio Note Fifth Element and Fifth Force (after this photo was taken) which we are breaking in here these last 2 weeks. So I think we will get there
.
Emm Labs
DV2 DAC with volume control. Performing high-res duties, and sounds like Emm Lab's trademark "solid-state that sounds like music" sound. Good to have them back in the system.
Triangle Art
Master Reference turntable and controller. Very high-quality sound in an attractive package. We use their tonearm and cartridge and just wish the rack was a wee bit shorter (Neli is 5'4").
Harmonic Resolutions System
VXR equipment rack. A precision engineered no-nonsense (i.e. uses the scientific method) approach to vibration control. It is also very, very heavy. We set it up so we can stand behind the rack (Neli better than I!) and connect and tweak things, so that is nice.
As you can see, Neli put up curtains behind the system to help with the in-room reflections as well as the overall visual appearance of the system. Audiophile wives. What can I say?
What we have here, in our opinion, stuffed into perhaps a room that is a wee bit smaller than what we would want (ha ha), are speakers that seriously rivals (and to our surprise betters in most ways!) any speaker $500K and below (and if you know us, you know what we are talking about) [these are currently selling in the $165K range., but don't quote me. Neli is the one that has everything memorized]. Clearly the best sounding tube amplifier (back-in-the-day, we thought the Lamm
ML3 took the crown w/r to resolution - but no longer. Time marches on - it has been 10 years - and Audio Note keeps improving things on almost a weekly basis). Then there are the best sounding DACs in terms of something a person might actually want to listen to AND marvel at.
Blah blah blah... this is all to say we are really happy and kind of taken aback. We didn't even try and position the speakers until last week - so enchanted by the actual sound we paid no attention to the soundstage etc.. [Kind of embarrassing and I am sure Neli will smack me for saying this. But it is the only explanation I have for the fact that we listened for several weeks with one speaker an inch or so further from the wall and toed out quite a bit more than the other.....Look at the photo closely
]
Oh, and the feet? Just chillin' one fine Fall evening. I am the one on the left. ;-)
View attachment 59147
Acapella Audio Arts
Apollon speakers, the big brother of the
Campanile speakers we had previously (in these same colors!).
