Gone are the audiophile adjectives, along with all barriers to musical reproduction. What remains is beautiful, clean, rich, majestic, energetic, palpable, live, natural music.
After almost a year, I had the chance to listen to Rtn1's system again yesterday. It has so much energy now, it is truly remarkable. On every recording it sounded like the musicians were fresh and inspired, and putting as much into the music as they had. I haven't heard anything like that before, and I have heard quite a few systems. The other thing that really struck me was the fact that though you could hear differences in recording quality, none of them sounded bad. I have heard systems that are excellent with good recordings, yet put a cd on with less resolution and it loses every reason for why you would listen to it. That was not the case here, it was still musically involving and pleasant to the ears.
I am very appreciative for the opportunity to hear this system, it is one that I would be extremely apprehensive to change at the lowest levels. A true piece of art, congratulations!
Interesting assessment on the direction of the fuse Knghifi. Did you do this test when you first got the fuses, or after they had played for some time? If they had played for some time, did the reverse direction sound better or worse?
On the fuse situation, I have liked the new Furutech fuses over the HiFi Golds I used to have. Have not heard the Supremes.
I am sure about that, I was very impressed with the immediacy in dynamics! There was no hint at all of any lack in availability of current, and that is extremely impressive given the amount of current that each amp, as well as the rest of the system, draws. I am helping my father build his dream system starting in January, and both the Spartan and TROY are planned to be at the base of it.
I had the pleasure of visiting Rob and listening to his system a few weeks ago. I am very familiar with the Wadia 9 series front end with the GNSC mods, though everything else was new to me. Though the system was not perfect to me, unlikely to ever find one that is of course, we tried different cables and different isolation feet in the course of our listening. This was so revealing! It is a common topic to speak of synergy, though this is likely the first system I have encountered that has been so responsive and demonstrated this so pointedly. I was in the market for speakers when I arrived, and I knew that Avalon was for me by the time I left. I previously was considering Verity Audio, which I had also heard with the Wadia 9 series, but in comparison, I felt that the Avalons were much more natural, more full bodied in a certain way. Rob's system played strings as I had never heard before, except live. Violins are have sweetness to their tone, even when they get aggressive, that I have never heard in any system before, and I was hearing it! There was a certain clarity, a transparency in the full timbres of all instruments, however, that I was missing at first. In the course of trying different cables, we heard that come in though the bass energy increased so significantly as to make it very uncomfortable. The overall was better with his original cables, but hearing that the clarity was possible made me a sudden believer. No doubt, the BAT REX and Pass Labs are not to be excluded from making the system what it is though! Within the next two weeks, I was able to trade in my then speakers for a set of Avalon Indras, and am now very confidant in that portion of my personal system for a long time. I had the pleasure of attending RMAF this year as well, and had a lot of recommendations from people as to systems I should be listening to. Now, a show is a hard time to make any judgements, and I always feel sorry for the newer manufacturers as they have not yet acquired the best room treatments and experience for dealing with hotel rooms, but there were only a handful of rooms that sounded anywhere near what Rob has put together, or even what I am now enjoying. The Avalon room was one, and the other room of note was Studio Electric with Benchmark.
I digress. In short, I enjoyed Rob's system thoroughly, and if anyone is shopping (who isn't in this hobby) around, they would not do poorly to mimic this system! I am sure that a lesser Wadia with a lesser BAT and lesser Avalons would still bring you much of the same character.
Bravo Rob, and keep us updated with your further forays into audio perfection...
