I built this system with pure musicality and soundstaging in mind. I've been building it over 10 years. Conrad Johnson gear works wonderfully with the Vandersteen speakers. Lots and lots of tweaks and upgrades.
I've also used quite a lot of Dynamat on the underside of the shelves in my Salamander rack. Gives nice aesthetics of Salamander rack with vibration control of more expensive, non-wife-aesthetics-approving racks. Vibration control *dramatically* improves the sound BTW...
Wonderful Vandersteen 3A Signature Speakers.. smooth, natural, detailed, incredible soundstage, live recordings are incredible
Conrad Johnson Premier 350
The single greatest solid state amplifier Conrad Johnson has ever made and one of the best sounding amplifiers at any price. Read the reviews... A reference grade amplifier with stunning detail, imaging, and lifelike timbre.
Conrad Johnson PV-14L
PV-14L Series II. Extensive mods by Bob Backert, who works magic with Conrad Johnson tube gear (~$1500 in mods) takes a strong performer and puts into ACT-like levels of performance.
PS Audio PerfectWave DAC w/ Network Bridge
PS Audio's top of the line DAC, includes Network Bridge to stream lossless/high-bit-rate audio from NAS/DLNA server? Mine includes the Mark2 upgrade
PS Audio PerfectWave Transport
PS Audio's top of the line transport, mates with PerfectWave DAC via I2S interface
Analysis Plus Solo Crystal
After 5 days on the cablecooker, put these back in my system replacing AntiCables. Soundstage, imaging, and time coherence of low/mid/hi frequencies is exceptional. Anticables are gone, AP cables are back to stay. With caveat that they need a ridiculous amt of cooking/burn-in to sound their best
Analysis Plus Solo Crystal 8
If you survive the soul-crushing 500 hour break-in, the sound, imaging, detail, and naturalness will enthrall you.
PS Audio Power Port
You wouldn't think that a $50 outlet could make the dramatic difference this makes. If you do nothing else, replace your $3 outlet with this... you'll be amazed.
PS Audio xStream Statement
3 of these cables power Ultimate outlet, Amp, and P-300
PS Audio xStream Plus
3 of these power preamp, CD player, DAC, and headphone amplifier
PS Audio Quintet
Exceptional passive power conditioner with no constraints on current flow. Moved to this component after buying 350 wpc Conrad Johnson Premier 350
@Raytheprinter.. I need to get off my duff and sell my MF-2500A along with its $400 of upgraded HiFi Tuning Gold fuses.
It took a very good (though still far from inexpensive!) price on a Premier-350 to replace it! The price/performance ratio on the 2500A, particularly with the upgraded fuses, is very very good...
@Invenio78... thanks for the 411 on the Conrad Johnson owners site!
I just read the book "Get Better Sound". *sigh* I have some work to do on placement, with some painful, if not intractable discussions with my wife on how I'd like to rearrange things in the room. At a minimum, I pulled the speakers out in the room some more (as far as I could without getting yelled at) and pushed the rack back, which helped quite a bit.
System edited: Previosly retired these cables to a bedroom system. On a lark, replaced my AntiCables with the Cardas Neutral Reference. What an improvement with the Vandersteens! Imaging and time coherence of signal with Cardas cables is way better than the Anticables. Imaging and realism of soundstage with my Vandersteen 3A Signatures is spectacular. Kicking myself for not re-inserting the Neutral References in my system sooner...
argh.. should preview before posting.. meant to type:
Update: I put my Analysis Plus Solo Crystal IC's on my Nordost CBID-1 cable cooker for 5 days and re-inserted them into my system, replacing the Anti-IC's (with Eichman plug upgrades).
In my system, the Analysis Plus Solo Crystal IC's sound better than the Anti-IC's, with better detail/imaging and more balanced bass/mids (Anti-IC's were a little bright in comparison even with cable cooking and many hours of burn-in). I'm still running the AntiCables speaker cables with true bi-wire (4 independent cables per speaker).
This combination of IC/speaker cable is the best I've heard to date in my system...
Vandersteen 3A Signatures have been an absolute joy... even more so with latest change.
Update: I put my Analysis Plus Solo Crystal IC's on my Nordost CBID-1 cable cooker for 5 days and re-inserted them into my system, replacing the Anti-IC's with Eichman plugs.
The Analysis Plus IC's sound better with better than the Anti-IC's with detail/imaging and more balanced bass/mids. I'm still running the AntiCables speaker cables with true bi-wire (4 independent cables per speaker).
This combination is the best my system has sounded...
Anti IC's are smooth, neutral, and detailed with strong bass and excellent soundstaging. They'll sound unimpressive at first, but will improve dramatically until broken in ~300 hours.
I wouldn't have kept them in my system if they didn't sound fantastic (I have had much more expensive cabling previously in my system). Make sure they don't touch the floor or carpeting. They are stiff and relatively easy to keep separated from other cabling and cabinet corners without touching.
Cable and equipment break-in is a painful and patience-testing experience...
Signature 3's are spectacular... soundstaging you can taste after you get them positioned properly. Real nice match with my Conrad Johnson tube preamp and 250Watt Conrad Johnson MF-2500A solid state amp.
System edited: Just replaced Cardas Neutral Reference bi-wire speaker cables with Analysis Plus Solo Crystal. Cardas cables were quite good, but the AP cables are better after full break-in. Faihtful and balanced reproduction of the full frequency spectrum, excellent soundstaging depth and width. Soundstage is deeper with AP cables than cardas.
