Last night Mikej invited me for an extended audition of the Gen VIII. Music through the Gen VIII was utterly relaxed but tremendously dynamic as well. Certainly captures the soul of a performance. If you closed your eyes, you would have no clue that you were listening to a pair of speakers in boxes. Granted the Vandy 5A's are not ordinary box speakers but when used with the Gen VIII in the front end, you could certainly be fooled into thinking you were listening to a pair of large dipoles. They were completely transparent and holographic when the source permitted. The source material was revealed to the very last detail. If something was on the recording, you certainly were going to hear it. However, I wouldn't call it analytical in the least. Musical nuances were always revealed to the fullest but the soul of the performances were always preserved. Possibly the most revealing comparison was with the "River of Tears" cut from Eric Clapton's One More for the Road DVD. We switched between the Gen VIII and the Superior Dacs on the CBIII and the difference was astonishing. By itself, you probably would find little fault with the performance through the CBIII's Superior Dacs but the Gen VIII revealed the microdynamic subtleties of Claptons picking technique to a degree that simply did not get across with the CBIII's Superior Dacs. We had a marathon 4 hr listening session in which we also listened to Nora Jones, Susan Tedeschi, Pink Floyd's The Wall, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Rachmaninoff on piano, Hugh Masakela, Rimsy-Korsakov's Scheherazade, Bill Evan's Waltz for Debby, Kodo drummers etc. I could have listened all night. Thanks to Mikej for the experience.

jimburger May 24, 2005 15:04

Thanks to Mikej for letting me participate in the audition of the Citadels. It was also the first time I had an opportunity to hear the system with the Theta CBIII and Vandersteen 5A's. The system definitely rocked the house with the Citadels in the loop. Along with tremendous dynamics and bass drive, the soundstage was HUGE! There was lots of air which gave a sense of the recorded space. We wondered if the Citadels were creating an effect or simply revealing the space recorded. Hard to say. Still the effect was intoxicating. I say bring it on! Imaging extended vertically as well as horizontally and the system displayed layered depth. You could even tell on the live Zeppelin cut that Jimmy Page had his Marshall cabs side by side rather than stacked! Quite a contrast from the Bels, which presented a smaller but somewhat more precise stage but still a very dynamic sonic picture. The Citadels did sound much better with balanced interconnects than it did single-ended. The resulting sound was more open and detailed. All in all, it was a great evening. We listened to selections from Brian Wilson's Smile, some James Taylor, the Who Live at Leeds(Young Man Blues was tremendous!), and lots of Zeppelin.

jimburger December 10, 2004 00:34

Finally had a chance to hear the Levinson 37 in Mikej's system. Wow! It definitely added authority, pace, and overall realism. And the previous transport that I heard in the system was a Levison 31.5. Add me to the list of people who think that the 37 betters the 31.5 in the magic of playing tunes!

jimburger March 31, 2004 00:11

My jaw dropped when Mikej inserted his Levinson 37 into my system. Aside from the Lens and the TLC, my 2 channel music system consists of the Rotel 1070CD(transport only), Theta DS PRO Basic IIIa DAC, Classe DR 5 line preamp, & Classe 25 poweramp into Maggie 1.6QR with Vandersteen 2WQ subwoofer. The 37 elevated my system to an incredible level. It simply rocked, cajoled, sweettalked, and just took command of my music system. It left me wondering how I was going to beg, borrow, or steal enough funds to get my own 37. It is THAT good! It is truly magic. I have not heard it at Mikej's yet but I am looking forward in the near future.

jimburger December 23, 2003 00:18