Mattheus: when I follow your thread I must say you are the hardest working man in high-end audio. So many additions and replacements..You are really beating me ;) Hope you will sometime find a system you are totally satisfied with. Believe me thats a long way and will cost a lot of bucks .. Good luck!
Mattheus - how many cables did you try till current ? I always read that you´ve just inserted a new cable again.. Why don´t you try the big Shunyatas, the Ayon Audio Cables, the Jenas or the Indras and just settle down and listen to music ?? By the way: I did some changes as well ;) Happy listening!
Ayre is very smooth, detailed, holographic and transparent sounding and suits best the characteristics needed to drive ceramique transducers apropriate. As you know I did quite a lot of comparison (Hovland, Ayre, Pass, Nagra, Jeff Rowland, Accuphase, Brinkmann, ..) and the Ayre K-5xe + V-5xe combo was at least in my system the one that worked best - AND: with a few hundred bucks you can add nice mods to either of the Ayres and enjoy them even more. Best design and built quality and ease of use was of course Jeff Rowland - unmatched in the audio world (exception Boulder and FM Acoustic).
Congrats to your nice upgrade. I bet the Kharmas sound wonderfull. Have you ever compared these with Avalon Opus Ceramique or Ayon Falcons (all near the same price point)? I as well did some upgrades - I now have an all Ayre amplification (of course modded) and await an Audio Aero prestige CD/SACD-player and an Ayre C-5xe to compare it to my heavily modded DV-50 S.
Mattheus. Heard the Kraftwerk 1 meanwhile. I thinks its one step below your amp? My consideration: just try to give the Emitter 1 Exclusive a try. I personally found it MUCH better than the Kraftwerk 1. Probably the Kraftwerk 2 is a different animal but I assume their sonic signature is quite similar. I´m just waiting for my Aesthetix Calypso to compare the Ayre V-5xe/ Aesthetix combo with the Emitter to make my final choice for a long time - probably this is also a nice combo for you as you like the Kharmas and the Metronome. All the best for 2006..
Nice to hear that you like the Leonardo - beautifully build. The Netzteil Fein is not a big improvement. Prior to upgrading the power supply I would recommend the new magnetic bearing. I had this one build in my Fat Bob - if you listen to vocals and classical music you´ll benefit from both. If you listen to rock, techno, pop forget about the magnetic bearing and Fein - dynamicwise its a step back. I had your integrated at hand for a comparison with my Ayre V-5xe & Aesthetix Calypso - the pre-power combo plays in a different league - especially when you use very revealing transducers with ceramique drivers like you and I do. I currently try the combo Ayre V-5xe & EDGE G 2 to look which combo suits best my needs. If you want to stay with integrated go for Nagra or the top ASR - both are much better (and unfortunately much more expensive) than the RG 10. The Nagra is very clean and "professional sounding" whereas the ASR is smooth like a tube and powerful as anything I´ve ever heard. The DV-50 S is quite different to the AA. On vocals, piano music and classical music the AA easily betters the stock DV-50 S. When it comes to stability, imaging, baseline and depth of soundstage the stock DV-50 betters AA. Musical flow is better with AA, dynamics equal. But I only choosed the DV-50 S because of its tweakability: mine has just got a mayor mod worth US $ 1.500,00 and now plays although not fully broken in, in a different league than the AA and even outperforms the stock UX-1 as well as the Wadia 861SE - whereas the Wadia betters the UX-1 and the AA. So the mod was worth every penny. Probably I go for the full upgrade (US $ 2.900,00) in the future but haven´t decided yet.
great system! I´ve sold the Fat Bob and the Audio Aero Capitole MK II and got instead Pass X 2.5 (will be soon replaced by an EDGE G 2) and DV-50 S with the Basic mod package by Reference Audio - WOW (stunner). Cable wise I still experiment on the IC side. Power cords - nothing betters my Electraglide Epiphany. Looking foreward seeing your system grow. When will you move up to ASR Emitter or a pre/power combo (your system deserves it). Regards.
Mattheus: did you gave the Fat Bob S a try? I found it more involving and much more stable than the Leonardos. The best performance you get from a Transrotor while using SME tonearms and the magnetic drive. Best regards, Frank
Mattheus. I´ve tried some cables and must say everything is highly system dependend. TaraLabs ISM 0.8 for eg. where in my system not a real satisfaction whereas they did miracles in a complete Boulder TaraLabs system. PAD was not as good as expected in my system whereas in a complete Nagra set up they were the perfect match. Acoustic Zen works very well in combination with Shunyata and Electraglide in my system whereas in my dealers system it was exactly the opposite (except of the EG - perfect match in all systems I´ve heard except of Nagra). In my previous Rowland / Maggie set-up Cardas worked very well, in my current not. So I wish you much pleasure and patience in testing cables (remember: it´s not always a question of the price tag: even the most expensive cables often do not cost more than 100,00 per meter productionwise ;) Devide the price tag of nearly any amp by 6 or 7 - than you have the production costs of the unit ;)
Albert: aren´t you a dealer for PAD - as there is an add for buying PAD cables at a reduced price on agon under your name? But nevertheless PAD must be very good as Nagra and Verity uses them with their equippment and they build excellent stuff (PL-P is my personal fave). I´ll def. give PAD a try in my system. Just got my Audio Aero Capitole II completely modded (total different league than before - all Black Gate Caps now, tube and case damping, all parts are cryo treated, new power supply - a lot of money but well worth it). Now we´ll see which cable will work best (have currently A.Zen Silver Ref. II). I´ll def. can recommend the tol Omega Mikro cable - the best one I know but to fragile for my home and in Germany to expensive if you consider the rediciously low costs for the raw materials (as with most equippment).
Een heel kleijn beetje.. but I prefer german or english. I don´t like Nordost as they sound to thin with Speakers with Ceramique drivers. I know your digital combo quite well (was on my short list as well:) Your components should sound best with Cardas Golden Reference or Audioquest or the Shunyatas as they are all very dynamic and transparent but smooth in sound. Nordost is quite harsh. Probably you also should look at Electraglide Epiphany power cords (sounded best on all my equippment (Ayre, Wadia, JRDG, Audio Aero).
Very nice system especially your transport - dac - combo is a very very good one. Would love to hear the Kharmas in comparison to my Ayon Audio speakers. Your integrated rests among the very best available. Good Choice!
