- Bluenote Bellavista Signature
Dual plinth, non-suspended, dual speed, belt driven turntable. Handmade in Italy. Origin Live Silver 250 tonearm. Upgraded to Benz L2 MC cartridge
Vector Model 3 unipivot tonearm. Superbly machined to very fine tolerances. Excellent sound & was a HUGE upgrade from my Origin Live Silver 250 Mk1 tonearm. Bettered that tonearm in each & every department.
Benz L2 - 0.3mV (practically measures ~0.4mV)
- JRS Scientific Instruments MOD-1
30"X24"X5.25" active vibration isolation table. Transmissibility curve says ~25dB attenuation at 5Hz & 40dB attenuation at 10Hz. Active isolation upto 100Hz & passive beyond.
Wadia 860 player with 1-upgrade effectively making it an 861 player. Upgraded to SE + GNSC Reference Level modification Using Golden Sound medium ceramic cones rather than the stock metal feet & a DIY roller block isolation platform. Marble tile (over a cork sheet) on top of unit for added vibration control. Using Virtual Dynamics Revelation I power cord to very good effect. The GNSC Ref mod has made this player an even better playback CDP. Wadia seemed to concentrate on the details of the music while the GNSC mods concentrated on bringing out the emotions in the music. This mod meshes the best of both worlds. I'm afraid much more time gets spent spinning that Al disc than before! :-oo
1st introduce in 1984. A digital synthesizer tuner with the equivalent of 5 gangs and 4 3-pin ceramic filters. Good sound, with nice solid bass. Very quiet unit that has reception capability that may not be far off from a TU-919.
- Convergent Audio SL-1 Renaissance
Tube preamplifier. Stock model. Uses Soviet 6N23 instead of 6922 & Telefunken 12AX7. Per Ken Stevens, the CAT design is optimized for Sovtek 6922 & EI 12AX7. Against Ken's advice, the CAT is decoupled from the rack shelf by brass spikes (I think that it was every bit worth it) & plugs directly into mains outlet using a Virtual Dynamics Revelation1 power cord.
Latest version of the flagship 250W/ch pure class-A amplifier now called the Kraft 300. Appears to be a sliding class-A design hence the modest sized heat-sinks (compared to the Krell KRS series, Pass Labs X & XA series, Threshold series, etc). Warm, life-like, tight bass, music flows effortlessly, excellent high frequency extension, does not call attention to itself.
- Apogee Acoustics Scintilla
3-way floor-standing full-range ribbon loudspeaker. 1-Ohm impedance version. Manual says that frequency range is [lessthansign]25Hz --[greaterthansign] 25KHz. 140 lbs/speaker Taupe colour (not my favourite by a long shot but did not have a choice!). Midrange is spooky real. Plenty of bass from the ribbon planar. Love it! :-)
- Audio Magic Liquid Air Illusion
1m RCA interconnect between CDP & preamp. Simply superb!
- Audio Magic Liquid Air Socerer
8' speaker cable connected to the bass panel of the Apogee Scintilla. Very flexible. Superb sound. Long time to break-in (& still breaking in).
- Audio Magic Liquid Air Illusion
8' pair. Non-metal, conducting liquid polymer based cable. Superb sonics, dynamics & very low noise floor.
1m RCA interconnect. Used from tuner to preamp
5' power cord used for power amps & 6' for the RGPC 400S. Excellent power cord - even better than the original in that the emphasis in the mid-bass is gone.
- Virtual Dynamics Revelation 1.0
Original Revelation power cable used on the Wadia CDP. This cable is like a component upgrade! The Wadia's playback sound has been rachetted up a few notches. It's sound is now a......err.....Revelation!
Latest Nite 3 power cord used on the CAT preamp. Replaces the ESP Essence. Overall improvement in dynamics, clarity, overall tonal balance. A superb & worthy upgrade.
2 7" spaced & 2 10" spaced audio rack with black MDF shelves.
4-outlet power conditioner. Mk 1 vintage. Per RGPC, the Mk2 version has only cosmetic changes & circuit is unchanged. Used to plug my source components only.
16-in & 12-in diameter traps - each 35-in tall - used thru-out room to contain mid-bass boom/overhang.
Amp stands for smaller amps - 20" wide max X 14" deep max, 65lbs max.
Large (1") ceramic cones under TT sandbox & CDP.
2 dedicated 20A lines installed using 10AWG romex wire. Wires drawn thru wall in a specific direction/orientation after I listened to both orientations. The orientation I have chosen has better image depth & height.
Cryo'd 20A duplex outlets bought from Chris Venhaus. ALL Olin #688 brass construction that does not introduce any brightness/edginess.
PS Audio P300 AC regenerator with Cullen Circuits Signature Mod (Multiwave 2 oscillator board, gold series capacitors, PS Audio Ultimate power cell, latest all-copper hookup wiring). No fan. TT, CDP & FM tuner plugged into P300. TT motor speed can be adjusted in 1Hz steps & fine adjusted in 0.125Hz steps. Totally awesome! I can come oh-so-very-close to exactly 33 1/3 RPM. Gave it 100+ hrs to break-in. Does not seem to have a sound of its own. Runs a little warm but I have plenty of open space all around it for very good ventilation.
