I need to further break down the system by separating the source from the amps/speaker, but here is an impression from the first two visits
These sound completely different from the sound at Munich (which was bad, Brad described it accurately that at Munich the bass came with a whump) and the 2016 sound at Marriott was much worse. However, this room was fantastic, and nothing similar. We first heard with NAT Magma (on its 40w triode setting) and then the Thomas Mayer 1w 46 valves driven by 46. It sounded good with both, the higher power of the NAT made the bass a bit over but with the Mayer, the bass was more perfectly integrated. The NAT pressurized a bit too much to give too forward a soundstage, the room would have to be much larger for the NATs; with the Mayer, the noise floor dropped, the speakers disappeared, and the distance to stage seemed more normal. I can therefore understand why the bass whump happened in Munich with the 100w Ypsilon hybrid.
These were the fastest and most liquid speakers I heard across violin concertos. The inflections and nuances were better with the Mayer than the NAT, as was the rise and fall of the orchestra. You could hear minute details with great tone of woodwinds, brass, violins, cello, all individual inflections being heard and appreciated with excellent tone.
The one key point is that the analog set up and the recordings were the best I have heard, so the source is far beyond what I have ever experienced before in any system. The General has 250 - 300k vinyl, extremely clean pressings of the best performances and recordings, and these were playing off a Vyger Indian Signature with the Top Wing Red Sparrow into a Mayer 10Y, and he probably knows more about analog set ups than anyone I have met. He is also a bit bonkers, and at times buys 30 pressings and puts 29 in the skip, to find that one amazing press. These guys are working 16 hours a day understanding every pressing, performance, conductor, that exists. They have mastered the cleaning cycles at times going up to 40 minutes in KL Audio to get the dirt out of the groove.
I heard many monos across the two weeks, some of the records had grooves engineered by hand to make each groove a different size to fit the dynamics of the passage. Some had the limitter of 0 db taken off to allow for a smoother flow of music across the dynamic range (the General can explain the tehcnicalities better).
During the second visit, we replaced the Top Wing with MSL. The MSL seemed slower and had a more cart color as compared to the Top Wing
Also the speakers had mods that made them different from what was at Munich.
This was a fanatically purist approach with no caps and resistors in the path, no crossover, and a coreless cartridge. Because the speakers are so tall and vertical, unlike most other horns they do give that planar like feeling of a large tall stage and transparency. When we compared a New World Symphony Original to the Speakers Corner reissue, the system collapsed with the reissue, as it did with the Fone. The system is set to be driven by the purest of recordings, so emphasis on the source more than one I have encountered, or envisaged. It just shows the increase in range in the possibilities of analog.
Also, I expect in the newer, much bigger room the General is building, the soundstage could be mahoosive as these will spread out more. A bit like the Apogee Grands the General doesn't like
My main reason for visiting the General the second time around was just so that I could listen to Larry (astrotoy) and him discuss music and records...these chances don't come often - a person with 15k Decca and EMIs discussing with a person with 300k of all performances mainstream or otherwise. Both with deep knowledge of the music being played. I actually postponed another audiophile trip where I could have learned about new gear just so that I could be a fly on wall this Saturday.
