Full Limited Edition Aries Cerat System Build and World Exclusive LEGEND Series!

lordcloud

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Jul 5, 2016
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Really beautiful!
 

Believe High Fidelity

[Industry Expert]
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Wow, this all looks amazing quality builds. I get the idea of how big it is in real life by the 'tiny' RCA sockets, what a beast. No compromise!

And the Kassandra LE is next?

I am waiting for my own Kassandra Ref II to land soon, can't wait. :b

Kassandra LE and Impera LE are shipping together. Kassandra LE has lots of pics from Mono and Stereo review in my signature so the Impera LE needs to have some face time
 

Believe High Fidelity

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Phase 1 Complete. All 4 crates arrived in perfect condition God bless and got straight to work. As you will see the front wall is bare with no insulation as the new wall much further back in the room has yet to be completed. So much of the 8 hours of the install was spent working with the rats nest of cables behind the rack.

Only real setback is the Aurender did not have access to the network and we could not spend any time with the DAC so all of the time listening was spent on the Impera LE with with the Transrotor and Lyra Olympus.

Having issue with photos so can't seem to upload any just yet. Standby.
 

LL21

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Dec 26, 2010
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stunning! thanks for posting. definitely interested in learning more about Aries Cerat.
 

Legolas

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stunning! thanks for posting. definitely interested in learning more about Aries Cerat.

Indeed. I can't wait to hear my Kassandra too! So the big power amps and the horn speakers to follow. This is getting to be quite an epic....

I will post my own Kassandra Ref II review later when mine lands. I changed my headphone system recently to the LCD4s and a separate headphone amp, so that will also get head time on the Kassandra.

Joshua, do you expect to run it all in? Those big caps etc. My previous 2 channel amps sounded best after about 4 weeks at least.:b
 

morricab

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Apr 25, 2014
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Indeed. I can't wait to hear my Kassandra too! So the big power amps and the horn speakers to follow. This is getting to be quite an epic....

I will post my own Kassandra Ref II review later when mine lands. I changed my headphone system recently to the LCD4s and a separate headphone amp, so that will also get head time on the Kassandra.

Joshua, do you expect to run it all in? Those big caps etc. My previous 2 channel amps sounded best after about 4 weeks at least.:b

I will be very curious as to your impressions, Astrostar, as you are coming from an already interesting DAC. BTW, the new Aries Cerat Genus integrated comes with a headphone amplifier output (I think it comes off of the input/driver interstage transformer). I am getting this to go with Kassandra II by early March, so I can report what it does with headphones as well as with speakers.
 

Believe High Fidelity

[Industry Expert]
Nov 19, 2015
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Indeed. I can't wait to hear my Kassandra too! So the big power amps and the horn speakers to follow. This is getting to be quite an epic....

I will post my own Kassandra Ref II review later when mine lands. I changed my headphone system recently to the LCD4s and a separate headphone amp, so that will also get head time on the Kassandra.

Joshua, do you expect to run it all in? Those big caps etc. My previous 2 channel amps sounded best after about 4 weeks at least.:b

Indeed it is very exciting. I was gobsmacked at what a difference just one single LE component made to the system. We listened to some Ben Webster and on these very early version of Revel speakers it sounded like you walked in to a 100K demo room from a 1,000 one. The improvement was staggering and there was no compression at all!!!!

I was hoping to get out yesterday to continue to the audio orgasms, but my client came down with the flu so this will TBD. Fly out to Nashville this week so likely won't get to listen to the Kassandra LE until sometime next week.

However I would love to share with you this screenshot of a text from Billy about the change of just the Soulution to the Impera LE (and he has heard the Impera Sig we have on demo)

IMG_4116.jpg
 

Legolas

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Ha Ha, cottage cheese? Like it. Damb, these AC boys are doing some interesting things. I think it is not just the high quality of the design, parts and the DHT thing going in. I imagine we will see more, much more as the system synergy takes hold as more AC stuff lands. I can only imagine.... keep it coming Josh.
 

Believe High Fidelity

[Industry Expert]
Nov 19, 2015
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stunning! thanks for posting. definitely interested in learning more about Aries Cerat.

Hope to have you join the club LLoyd. More fun over here :)
 

Aries Cerat

Industry Expert
May 30, 2015
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Hello there


Hope to have nice time in Au TX ,when i visit ,i suppose when the Legend amplifiers are delivered :)

Currently working on the Liquid Super copper finish for this system's Symphonia

23380240_1521082954637679_1611691122962577025_n.jpg

Cheers
Stavros
 
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Believe High Fidelity

[Industry Expert]
Nov 19, 2015
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I will be very curious as to your impressions, Astrostar, as you are coming from an already interesting DAC. BTW, the new Aries Cerat Genus integrated comes with a headphone amplifier output (I think it comes off of the input/driver interstage transformer). I am getting this to go with Kassandra II by early March, so I can report what it does with headphones as well as with speakers.

Had a tough time deciding on bringing the Genus or the Ianus to this year to the States, but in the end the vote was 2-1 and we are also getting a Genus to debut at the LA Audio Show. Was hoping that Ron would have his room done by June so I could use the Ianus and test out the Pendragons, but looks like it won't be ready by then.
 

Aries Cerat

Industry Expert
May 30, 2015
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I will be very curious as to your impressions, Astrostar, as you are coming from an already interesting DAC. BTW, the new Aries Cerat Genus integrated comes with a headphone amplifier output (I think it comes off of the input/driver interstage transformer). I am getting this to go with Kassandra II by early March, so I can report what it does with headphones as well as with speakers.

Hello Brad

The output is taken from the amplifier output, so you have full power for your cans.The output can be switched for low/high output impedance,to match you fav cans.

Cheers
 

Believe High Fidelity

[Industry Expert]
Nov 19, 2015
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ibelieveinhifi.com
Ha Ha, cottage cheese? Like it. Damb, these AC boys are doing some interesting things. I think it is not just the high quality of the design, parts and the DHT thing going in. I imagine we will see more, much more as the system synergy takes hold as more AC stuff lands. I can only imagine.... keep it coming Josh.

This is Just Phase 1. There is the room the speakers and of course the Legendary amps! Maybe even some basshorns or a sub tower...

It is just the tip of the iceberg
 

Legolas

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Hello Brad

The output is taken from the amplifier output, so you have full power for your cans.The output can be switched for low/high output impedance,to match you fav cans.

Cheers

That sounds very good. My LCD4s are quite hungry, and some other cans (HE-6 and Abyss) are even more hungry.
IMO high end headphones do take no prisoners, and I have tried a few SS amps that didn't float my boat so much. Some tube power doing it's magic will work wonders on any off these cans I bet.
 

morricab

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Apr 25, 2014
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Had a tough time deciding on bringing the Genus or the Ianus to this year to the States, but in the end the vote was 2-1 and we are also getting a Genus to debut at the LA Audio Show. Was hoping that Ron would have his room done by June so I could use the Ianus and test out the Pendragons, but looks like it won't be ready by then.

Yeah that Ianus is an interesting beast...although I was most tempted by a Collatio for my horns :). However, a happy domestic situation prevailed and I went with the "little" Aries Cerat. We have the bigger boys in our demo room (Diana and Diana Forte) along with Impera and Kassandra (both Ref models). For the moment no speakers... I am waiting for Stavros to make a two-way horn!
 

morricab

Well-Known Member
Apr 25, 2014
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That sounds very good. My LCD4s are quite hungry, and some other cans (HE-6 and Abyss) are even more hungry.
IMO high end headphones do take no prisoners, and I have tried a few SS amps that didn't float my boat so much. Some tube power doing it's magic will work wonders on any off these cans I bet.

Well my cans are happy with very little power...in fact straight off the laptop works just fine and even sounds quite good! Still, I am looking forward to seeing what they can really do with something like the Genus driving them...the world's largest headphone amplifier??? Maybe...
 

Legolas

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Well my cans are happy with very little power...in fact straight off the laptop works just fine and even sounds quite good! Still, I am looking forward to seeing what they can really do with something like the Genus driving them...the world's largest headphone amplifier??? Maybe...

It is not just voltage / volume with Planar cans, it can benefit from plenty of current / drive. My LCD4s will play off my Powerbook, but the dynamics and treble extension suffer to name other issues. They sound half asleep.

Some cans like the Utopia can more or less perform close to their best with less as very efficient and in that case a traditional cone driver (though a unique magnet design). Many planars are a bit of a monster for power, more is better. The Abyss is for example only 88dB efficient and are 33ohms. My LCD4s are more efficient at 97dB and are 200 ohms, so again are quite hungry:b
 

Believe High Fidelity

[Industry Expert]
Nov 19, 2015
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3-4 weeks to go. Had the chance to put the Kassandra LE through its paces. The experience so far can be summed up in this video by Sinead O'Connor


The worst part about the experience is that the speakers severely limited the first encounter. You know it was begging to be unleashed, but it continued to be held back because the speaker couldn't keep up. Once the Symphonia speakers arrive it is GAME ON!

I will update all of my listening impressions on the Kassandra thread here and be prepared I am going to go as deep as the rabbit hole gets with a least 2000 words to describe the experience and plenty of music to reference my findings to :)

1.jpg

2.jpg

3.jpg

4.jpg
 

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