ROON + BACCH + Dutch&Dutch 8c. What else does one need?
2012 May Sold CAT JL2 MKII Signature
2012 February Bought Berkeley Alpha Audio USB
2012 January Bought Devialet Premier-D Bought Aurender S10
2010 November - Took the plunge and bought a Soulution 710 after listening to the 700 Monoblocks. Simply stunning. I am officially a subscriber of the Soulution hype. - Sold Pass Labs XA160.5, not even 6 months old
2010 October - Posted review of Audiomachina Maestro Ti-200 on my blog. See http://wslam.blogspot.com/2010/10/audiomachina-dark-horse-in-high-end.html
2010 September - Bought my first pair of Planar speakers, the Magneplanar 1.7 - Added new photos. - CAT JL2 Signature MKII arrived. - Sold Mini II.
2010 June After owning the darTZeel for nearly 4 years, I tried out my friend's First Watt J2 and was blown away by the purity and richness of the J2. But with only 25W, they simply didn't have the muscles to drive my speakers. My search ended when I auditioned the Pass Labs XA.5 series. I was never convinced by the X.5 series, but the XA.5 series is something else. They almost seem underpriced by today's Hi-Fi standards.
2010 March Maestro has received the secret Ti treatment.
2010 March Equitech 5WQ-E Wall Cabinet System
2009 August Welcome the Maestro!
2009 August Added Placette Audio Custom Made source switch Replaced EMM Labs DCC2 SE with Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC
2009 June New Room: 15.5x18x8ft Dedicated Hi-Fi & AV Room, Designed by Rives Audio Acoustic Treatment: Bass traps, absorption and RPG BAD and ARC Panels, and Soffit Traps. Added: DartZeel 18NS, PS Audio Powerplant Premier & various Home Theater related items.
2007 October Magico Mini II
2007 January: Replaced PowerPlant 600 with ExactPower EP-15A TacT RCS 2.2XP darTZeel NHB-108 model one Version B
2006 August: The arrival of the magical Magico Mini
2006 June: See my blog entry: http://spaces.msn.com/wslam/blog/cns!8D24C7C1D93F608B!337.entry
2006 May: I am now pretty much 100% using my PC as data server, SB3 as the digital front end, and EMM Labs DCC2 for all DA Conversions. PC+SB3 is imo the perfect combination for music in the PCM format. SACD, DVD-Audio, I still use my Unidisk 1.1 for a lack of a better option. Once you get to the ease and accessibility of the SB3, disc seems prehistoric, just like LP! =)
I have SOLD my Linn CD12. The DCC2 is doing a wonderful job, but my latest thought is to consider replacing the DCC2 and the ancient AVP to a Mark Levinson No.40.
2005 July: I am slowly, but surely moving towards PC based front end. I believe a PC based front end can definitely replace the transport portion of my setup. My initial experience with the SB2 has been most positive. And the keys here is ACCESS and CONVENIENCE. Yes, the Linn CD12 will beat the 300 bucks SB2 in absolute term, but because of SB2 and SlimServer, I am listening to so much more music.
SB2 will be used in conjunction with TacT and then feed into DCC2.
My goal this yr is to convert entirely to PC based. I have no use for those little silver disks...
A complete balanced power distribution system in a wall cabinet, providing clean and phase coherent balanced AC power that remains stable regardless of how they are loaded down
Frankpiet, agree with you in general on your take of the Soulution combo--well, not to that extreme but ;). However imo, their amp in itself is not bad, just the very transparent and revealing true to source kind. In my set-up, they are not at all lean nor dry sounding--quite the contrary actually. I think it is more their pre or upstream of it that's lending you the impression described. Hence, you tend to see many users partnering them with other pre's--myself including. Even then, I can also imagine whereby the 'combo' could still work great in some warmer sounding set-up/speakers.
Wslam, sorry for using up much of your space again. Would love to hear your update and thoughts on the 710, now that you have them for some months. Hope they are working great for you.
Hi Wslam, Congrats on your new purchase.. Nice system, nice room!
I hate to say this, but have to agree with Frankpiet here, and from your description, yes, I too suspect there must be something terribly wrong with the said FMA set-up. Sounds to me like front end or more likely some cabling issue, The FMA balanced connection are non standard (hot, cold are reversed) similar to Rowland. Thus if cable orientation from source is not addressed to carefully, the sound would most likely be as per your impression.
I am currently running both amps. Due to some unpleasant experiences, I decided against dealing with the local FMA importer anymore. Hence my venture to other brand--Soulution about a year ago. Really hoping that it would outperform my old amp, but sadly after about a year of trying, plus some costly cable purchases (sc and pc for the 710), I still could not get it to perform quite in the same playing field as my aging (18yrs old) 611. Simply put, the 710 presented--an honest and superb recording facsimile of the real thing, whereas, the FMA--is just the very natural and closest to live musical experience.
Note, there is significant step up in sound quality climbing from a 255mkII, to 266mkII, to 268 as well, wonder which was used during your audition? Nonetheless, still shouldn't sound quite as dreadful as you have described. Yes, I will still be keeping the 710 as second amp, it is still a great amp by any standard, maybe will compare it with the Tidal Impact Monos when my new speaker arrives. As for the FMA, they are staying. Cheers!
Frankpiet, am not aware as yet of any mkII version for 268, or was it the 266mkII that you were referring to?