Description
The once fledgling bedroom system graduates, in some respects, to the living room where the challenges of space and budget don't exactly vanish - so the name Tight Quarters still applies in all respects. However, that name and my trusty Audience powerchord are the only things that remain from v1. I bumped up to the Unico SE from the standard Unico 80W after reassuring myself several times that if it didn't truly show me something special I would immediately and without remorse sell and repurchase the standard Unico but found that haven't looked back for one second. Feeling especially good about that, I punched up the DAC from a Bel Canto 1 to the Musical Fidelity Trivista 21. Another stunning leap forward in nearly all respects. Somewhere inbetween all of this, I migrated to XLO Reference speaker wire, power cords and ICs from cable costing about 2x the price. Used, at the prices you can still score XLO Reference these days, it's a secret I'm only now feeling like I can start to share with others. I would also advise scoring your cables first before sharing. The Squeezebox 3 pretty much trounced the Apple Airport Express in all ways (sonically, style, features) except that it has nothing close to the slick iTunes interface. Even so, if you can resist purchasing after seeing the digital VU meters in action, you're a better audiophile junkie than me, laddy. Up until now, I pretty much knew what I wanted gear-wise from the word Go, except for the speakers. Two friends have JM Labs setups, both demonstrating bass extension that makes me wonder if they're hiding subs behind the sofa. So for several weeks I was combing the ads to find 927 BEs, not wanting to deal with aluminum tweeters, which, frankly, felt a little scary since I haven't been able to audition those. Meanwhile, another friend has Sonus Faber Grand Piano Homes which I've heard plenty of times and always sounded money, but even moreso since he bought his own Unico SE. So I logged many hours refreshing the screen, waiting for a set of those to pop up. Long story short I ended up with the ProAc 2.5s for several reasons which include the idea that although I really love those Sonus, there's something not quite as much fun hobbywise in owning nearly the exact same system as your friend. Plus, the 2.5s popped up first at a fair price and I had to act quick or kiss them goodbye and continue waiting. I generally don't win many awards for Outstanding Achievements in Patience. So what you see here is likely not the end of the road but rather one of those really clean rest stops with a Sbarro and a Starbucks - meaning I'll likely be here for a while.
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