During my trip to Southern California I also had the pleasure to visit KeithR and hear his system. Meeting Keith was a delight, and I was immediately impressed with his system.
We mostly listened with the LTA power amp, an OTL design and, as it would turn out soundwise, a steal for the money, as has also been emphasized in the past in several posts on WBF. Preamp was Keith's recently acquired Nagra which, if I understand correctly, has filled in some richness.
We started with digital streaming. Keith first played some modern classical tracks, partially film music, that I found very interesting and enjoyable. An open sound and great dynamics were readily evident. Following these tracks, I requested streaming of some tracks that I was familiar with. Joni Mitchell's voice on her album "Blue" was remarkably open, transparent and pure, while also sounding with appropriate and inviting warmth. The presence of voice was excellent, as was expressiveness, aided by wonderful micro-dynamics -- subtle volume changes within or between sung phrases. Micro-dynamics on the piano in the song "The River" were fantastic as well. Guitars and dulcimer also sounded great, with fine detail. Other voices sounded great too, for example, a track with Sting singing in a much lower register than he usually does. Even though the crossover of the Fyne speakers is at 750 Hz, I could hear no discontinuity in the midrange, none.
Midrange magic extended to one of my crucial test tracks for orchestral strings that I use because it is so well recorded. It is Stravinsky's Apollo, with Robert Craft conducting the London Symphony Orchestra (label Naxos, Redbook 16/44 file). The violin and viola sections were just gorgeous, with exquisite, believable silk on them, and incredibly pure. Possibly this was the best I have heard them so far. The low strings sounded very good as well, and with weight.
"War Pigs" by Black Sabbath sounded effortless, and there was very good weight and control on drums and bass. At the same time, guitars had appropriate menace. Ozzy's voice sounded open and present.
At some point our friend Jeff also joined and we all had a wonderful time, including at the closing dinner. Jeff brought some LPs as well. The LP of Billy Harper's "The Believer" (a favorite of Jeff and now of mine) sounded very nice on Keith's system, with engaging musical flow along those extended journeys of musical improvisation. The sound of Billy Harper's saxophone was great, and so was the sound of the other players (drums, bass, trumpet, piano).
An LP of Curtis Mayfield, Live, from Keith's collection showed off the funk and great rhythm & timing capabilities of the system, in an earthy rendition. The LP of Mozart string quartets that Jeff brought, with Quartetto Italiano on Philips, sounded very enjoyable as well. While the sound of that LP is just a bit on the bright side it was still immensely captivating. Timbral micro-detail was reproduced at a high level, and micro-dynamics were simply stunning, allowing the great expressiveness of the Quartetto Italiano's playing to shine through, in wonderful service of the music.
The solo violin of Rachel Barton Pine playing Bach (digital streaming) sounded excellent as well, with tons of timbral detail and solid tone. A vast amount of effortlessly presented detail was also evident on Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall (Part 1).
Overall, the sound of Keith's system was the kind of sound that I love, great detail, great micro- and macro-dynamics, liveliness and presence, and convincing tone. Everything also sounded very clean and effortless without ever falling into the trap of being too polite or even sterile.
The system doesn't have the spatial depth that I am used to, but that is a function of the speakers being quite close to the front wall. My only slight criticism might be a bit of lack of weight in the low midrange, which affected the left hand of piano and perhaps the low register of violin as well. Keith said that's fair, and he would play with the Presence knob on the speakers. I love adjustable speakers; you also can adjust treble output on the Fynes. We listened with treble at neutral, which sounded fine to me and which is also Keith's favored setting, but other visitors prefer treble to either be slightly down or up.
Congratulations, Keith, on arriving at this very musical, enjoyable and impressive sound!
