My main demonstration system at my dealership. Depending on a customer's needs, will move different pieces in/out. Am always open to suggestions for upgrades and/or products that might have good synergy with this gear to possibly represent as a dealer.
The DA-218 uses the latest 24/768 KHz Up and Over-sampling Technology that is programmed by new sonically advanced DA-218 software.
Blue Circle Audio BC3000mkII GZpz
tubed, dual-mono preamp
Blue Circle Audio BC206
balanced hybrid stereo amp; 120wpc; 6922 tubes in the input stage.
Focus Audio FS888
New Signature Series; 4ohm, 90db
Oracle CD1000
CD Transport using Philips CDPro12.4 transport mechanism. BNC and AES/EBU digital output
Acoustic Zen Absolute
Excellent extension both high and low, incredibly balanced through the whole range.
Acoustic Zen Hologram II
Excellent speed and balance. Great clarity.
TAOC AS-4
Each shelf is multi-layer constrained with an iron-powder core. All shelves are individually isolated on mini-spikes.
Eighth Never Adapt
Theory is based on eliminating "corner distortion". Has been the only off-the-shelf treatment that has made significant improvements in my room (admittedly, a very tough room acoustically)
System edited: Added a Slim Devices Transporter network music server as a transport to feed my Dodson DAC. Music is stored as .WAV files on my Mac in another part of the house.
System edited: I just moved to a new home, and my system is now located in a dedicated "Man-room" in my basement. The room is 41ft wide x 19ft deep x 8ft tall.
The internals of the CD1000 and CD2000 are identical; the only difference between the units is in the suspension system. Since I started using the TAOC rack, I've found isolation devices to make far less difference than with my previous rack (Billy Bags), so I had a hard time justifying the price difference in my setup...
The speakers are about 3ft from the back wall, and about 5ft from the side walls (about 9ft between the speakers). The room is 19ft wide by 16ft deep, and the system is along the long wall.
System edited: I've recently re-arranged a number of things in my room. Specifically, I've moved the equipment racks between the speakers, allowing me to move the speakers apart about 2 feet (total space between speakers is now about 9ft center-to-center). The improvement in sound has been dramatic...the overall impact and dynamics have been greatly improved. Congestion in the lower midrange has been eliminated. Still have some work to do to improve the bass focus (with large openings in the room, it forces the bass to be somewhat diffuse), but it sounds like a whole new system.
An update: for what it's worth, I've removed the bi-wiring from my system and am now just using the Acoustic Zen Hologram II's and a copper jumper called the Gecko from Empirical Audio. The change came a large part from demoing to customers who would comment that the system lacked some body/weight. Removing the bi-wiring added the body/weight into the sound; it did lose some of the "air", but perhaps it sounds more natural now? My room does present some acoustic challenges, having openings into large adjacent rooms which causes some bass suck-out. So going to the single-wire setup to add the body/weight gives an overall presentation that seems to work better in this room.
sorry...forgot to respond to your question about finishes. All of the finishes for Focus speakers are the same price; there is no additional charge for the wood finishes.
There are many theories/opinions regarding the benefits/consequences of bi-wiring; to my ears and experience, the FS888 is definitely sensitive to bi-wiring. Whether it is a benefit or not depends on the wires you choose and how you wire them into the posts. As you can see in the picture of my system, I use Audience Au24 cables on the highs and Acoustic Zen Holograms on the lows; to my ears, this has been an excellent combination. Some (including the folks at Focus Audio) believe that you should use the same kind of wire for highs/lows to maintain time alignment/coherence, but I don't feel as though the combination I have selected has compromised the sound (or at least the benefits far outweigh the negatives)...or perhaps because the Au24 and Holograms both use OHNO copper, maybe it's technically "the same kind of wire".
When we were setting up for HE2004, we were using all Au24 speaker cables, and we did experiment with different bi-wiring methods; one set of wires to highs and another to lows, positives on both wires to highs and negatives to lows with jumpers on both, etc). Each combination definitely changed the sound. In all cases, I believe that we achieved better clarity with bi-wiring over single-wire. That said, I also believe that single-wiring with a much higher quality speaker cable will perform better than bi-wiring with lower-quality cables.
The Audiocircle.com gathering was fun! We do it every month at a different person's home, and it has been really great seeing/hearing how other folks put their systems together. The most recent one was last weekend...check out pictures/discussion from the other gatherings here:
I've spent a lot of time going between the BC206, BC28, and BC26mkII. Have not spent significant time with the BC8.
It's been very interesting comparing these amps; basically, the BC206 has the same general characteristics as the BC28, but does everything significantly better (as it should for more than double the price)...more body, more detail, better bass accuracy, more soundstage, handles complexity much better, etc. To my ears, it is clearly worth the price over the BC28.
Compared to the BC26mkII, the value is more of a question mark; to my ears, the BC26mkII has a somewhat different sound. It has much faster/tighter bass (as you would expect from a solid state amp) and more muscle than the BC28; from the perspective of speed and body/weight, it is much closer to the BC206 than I would have thought. It doesn't have the same character of harmonic richness that the BC28/BC206 have (as you'd also expect with those being hybrid amps).
So basically if you want the character of the BC28 at a higher level of performance, the BC206 is the way to go. If you are looking for more speed/muscle/body and are willing to sacrifice some of the richness in sound, the BC26mkII is a great option at half the price of the BC206. I've not spent enough time with the BC8 to make a credible comment, but I've been told that the BC8 has a sound along the lines of the BC26mkII at a higher level of performance.
Of course, this is all my own personal opinion based on my own tastes, ear, and associated gear (listed above)...
I was in NYC, but recently moved to NJ (still close to the city; about 10 minutes north of the GW Bridge). Would be happy to have you over; depending on the timing, I could help arrange transportation. Shoot me an email ([email protected]) if you'd like to arrange something...
Personally, I think the FS888 is a steal at its pricepoint. I've yet to put a component in my system where the FS888 hasn't easily exposed the strengths/weaknesses in that component, whether it be a cheap modded CD player or a $8K DAC. I've not yet found the limits with this speaker.
Admittedly, I think the speakers do like to be fed some power...they are best driven with an amp with good current capabilities. Overall they let me enjoy my entire music collection, not just certain types of music. They match terrific with BC gear, and the BC3 is no exception....
(and of course, if you are in the US and don't have a dealer near you, please get in touch with me...! ;-) )
Yep, I'm a dealer (home-based), and this is my demo system. Sorry if it appears to be an advertisement (I guess it is!), but as a home-based dealer, it is also my personal rig I spend all my time listening to, and I'm always looking for ways to improve (yes, it is the disease called "audiophilia"!). I'm relatively new to Audiogon, and saw the "Virtual Systems" option on "My Page", so I went for it...if this is against the rules, my apologies...
