Seowfun,

Now it all makes sense - thought that I recognized your name. So glad to be of help.

The Bello stand is really is "Bella" (nice in italian) - it's rare to see wood and metal so nicely intergrated. Going to have to check that out some more. Looking at the pictures again, it's clear you took a lot of care to match the looks with the sonics and it really shows. The V4M CC is really rather tasty too. A little hard to tell from the lighting - is the finish Rosewood or Maple?

Back to tubes . . . Sounds like the MF tube buffer is a good place to start. You may want also want to check out the Eastern Electric BBA - my sources tell me that it is quite a good product and you can order it from the HK distributor (the HK Vaccuum Tube Club on Pottinger Street in Central). Pricing will likely be very good given the proximatey to the factory just over the border in ZhuHai. Check it out here: http://www.eeaudio.com/eeaudio_009.htm

Right now I am using the Primaluna Prologue 2 and the ACs sound very nice indeed.

If you ever get a chance go back to HiFi Tone, ask to hear the V3Ms with the Raysonic CD-128 and the MingDa 300B monoblocks - just lovely. Just when I thought it couldn't get better, they dropped in a matched pair of Shuguang 300Bs and it was sheer magic. I'm still drooling thinking about it :)! If I didn't already have far more equipment than necessary, I would have bought them (the MingDas w/ Shuguangs) on the spot.

Good luck and all the best.

Cheers,
Garry

garryh April 20, 2007 04:16

Seowfun,

Congratulations on a beautiful system. Super clean layout, good colour - very warm and inviting. Nice equipment rack to - is that purpose built for HiFi or a piece of furniture?

I, too, have the V3Ms and absolutely love them for the very same reasons you stated. Can't agree more about the ribbon tweeter - this is really their strong suit. Superb build quality at this, or any, price level and pretty looks are the added bonus. At risk of cliche, pictures really do not do the ACs justice.

Only two thoughts - tubes and subs . . .

Not sure how you feel about tubes, however, my experience with hearing the ACs via a tube amp really makes a difference. All other things being equal, any decent tube amp will demonstate to you the soundstage depth and dissappearing act the V3Ms are capable of. They'll also further highlight how beautifully the ribbons can handle their portion of the mids - truly magic. A few of my friends play in the local philharmonic and they were absolutely smitten by the ACs - even more so when they caught the price. If you haven't already done so, and you get a chance try tubes in the mix some time, you'll be happily surprised.

Your Mirage sub is very nice indeed, especially with HT. My system has the V3Ms matched with a REL sub and, after some fine tuning, the two work together very well. RELs tend to be "fast" subs which tend to be better suited towards music vis a vis other subs. With the speed of the ACs, especially its tweeters, this helps and the two blend together well in that respect. Have you tried a high level connection or moving the sub to another location . . . perhaps inside one of the speakers along the wall? I've found that just this can make a bigger difference than one might think.

Hope that you get this worked out, as a properly integrated sub adds a lot to the listening enjoyment and gives the music a more firm foundation. YMMV.

Cheers,
Garry

garryh April 19, 2007 00:33