In an effort to downsize the footprint of my system, I have spent the last two years revamping almost everything in its entirety. As many of my friends whom I've met through Audiogon and at the various shows know, I have had an extreme passion for music and the reproduction thereof starting in my teens, many, many moons ago! From Fisher to Onkyo to Luxman and the like, I have added, changed, and upgraded extensively. And the toys became bigger and more expensive along the way! I am pleased to say that my current configuration is producing the best sound quality I've experienced in my home environment yet.
I always get asked what addition has made the biggest improvement. I can honestly say that each piece has added to the puzzle in its own distinct way. To start, I've tried just about every interconnect and speaker cable available and the Tara Lab Zero and Omega Gold series cables far surpass anything I've ever heard, hands down. Expensive but worth every dime. Power conditioning with the Nordost Quantum QX4, QBase and Valhalla PC has added icing to the cake. A friend convinced me I had to try the Boulder stereo amp after owning many of the top notch mono blocks. I took the bait and I have not looked back. This is the most slamming, yet liquid amp I've owned since the Goldmund 60k monos! Unbelievable! The Dartzeel preamp modded by Reference Audio Mods with external batteries increased the already lush soundstage, extremely refined detail and dark, dark background. I can get over two weeks of listening without having to recharge. Having my entire library at my fingertips with the Sooloos makes access so much fun and listening so fulfilling! I can create my favorite compilation of music and listen for hours on end, uninterrupted. For more critical listening sessions, the latest addition to my system is the dCS Puccini which is unto a class of its own! The first words out of my mouth were OMG and then tears rolled down my cheeks. It's that good! After selling my beloved Talon Firebird Diamonds, I hit a couple of bumps along the road but finally came upon a little known but unbelievably spectacular speaker, the Raidho Ayra C-3. You simply cannot believe the soundstage, detail, pace, low end and front to back imaging this configuration of 4" drivers and ribbon tweeter can produce! My friends and I together are amazed!
I continue to enjoy home theater with the Halcro amp and processor, Denon Blu-ray, Talon speakers for center, surround and subwoofer with the Pioneer Elite Plasma.
Am I happy, yes indeedy!! Will I make changes....never so NO. But for now, I am very, very content and do not see a change in the near future. Time to sit back and enjoy the music! Yes, that's what it is all about!
Another amazing upgrade from Kyle Takenaga of RAM. Four high end large batteries placed in custom solid maple enclosures power the Dartzeel preamp resulting in larger soundstage and the ultimate in detail
Tara Labs Omega Gold Speaker Cable
Nothing like them. Very heavy, large diameter, spades.
Tara Labs Zero Gold IC
2M XLR between amp and preamp 17.9k 1M XLR between dCS and preamp 15.9k 1M RCA digital from MS600 to Weiss
Thanks for your comments and sorry for the delayed response. My intent really is to downsize the footprint of the system without losing the integrity of the sound quality I've been getting. Truth be told, I'm hoping this year to get rid of the tall cabinet and then custom build a low to the ground cabinet, allowing space to put a 60" plasma on the wall. I had, for over ten years, a secondary hard drive system with the Escient so was used to having my music library on that. The Sooloos was a step up and I thought might provide an alternative to the CD player setup altogether. Although it does sound great and better than the Escient, I do not believe it can replace a top notch CD player or certainly did not come close to the wonderful Esoteric separates. But in downsize mode, I had to find a really great one box player with SACD since I have a collection. I was really blown away when first hearing the dCS and not prepared for such an unbelievable musical presentation. Although I did not compare back to back with the Esoteric separates, my memory of the SQ puts them very close. Over time, I'm finding I prefer the characteristics of the dCS as it is a bit more organic while not lacking in the soundstaging, dynamics or extension as experienced with the Esoteric. I believe Meridian will continue to work on providing a higher end presentation with the Sooloos and to the average listener it is stupendous! But once you've taken a bite of the apple from the upper echelon, its difficult, if not impossible, to accept less. That is the unfortunate truth!
