The system has evolved over a 20 year period and will probably continue to evolve. It is in a dedicated room that is approximately 19' by 27' by 10' with oak floors and oriental carpets. I also use a minimal number of diffusers on the wall behind the speakers and eight of the 16" ASC Tube Traps. The room has 5 dedicated circuits for the audio.
There have been a number of evolutionary changes over the last year, primarily with respect to the power cords, speakerwire and interconnect and one rather dramatic change, the replacement of the EMM Labs XDS1 with the Esoteric P-02/ D-02. This yielded lower noise and increased detail and bass control while maintaining the musicality of the EMM Labs. I would consider the Esoteric pieces breakthrough products. Funny how you sometimes deviate from your plans. My system seems to go through extended periods without major changes, then have a number at the same time. I do have my eyes on a new cartridge and perhaps a new preamp.
I purchased an early Sirius from Andy Payor thinking that I had purchased the ultimate turntable, only to spend the next five years updating. The updates have included the air isolation base, a series of different motors and tonearms, an outboard power supply for the motor, a 50# platter, new arm wiring and a variety of different belts culminating in a custom aramid fiber belt. As currently constituted, I think that it combines the high definition of the Sirius II without its tendency toward coldness.
Einstein The Tube Mk II
Similar in many ways to the CTC Blowtorch but harmonically richer and more complex with greater dynamics and significantly better image density. Phenomenal bass, ultra quiet, very extended upper octaves.
Yamaha CT-7000
Ebony with black faceplate. Particularly nice top end coupled with an ability under the best circumstances to recreate a three dimensional soundstage. After owning a number of Magnum Dynalabs, this has been a real eye opener.
Acapella Triolons
The Triolons are an imposing sight. Two woofer towers, each 14" by 28" by 7' tall, each weighing 650# plus a cross piece holding a plasma tweeter attached to the woofers and a sword bearing two horn loaded speakers, one horn 30.5" in diameter, the other 18.5" in diameter. The Triolons can be driven by a single amps of 18 watts or higher power but must be triwired and have an efficiency of 97 db. Each side weighs 850# total. The crossover points are 200, 700 and 5000 hz. The sound from 200 hz up to 40,000 hz emanates as a spherical wavefront. The Campanile Highs are similar but crossover to their woofers at 700 hz, use the plasma tweeter plus a single horn and are much lower in efficiency (92 db). The Triolons are typically a 6 ohm speaker but have an impedance at 30 hz of 28 ohms. The same is true of the Campaniles. Neither is a particularly easy load for an amp to drive; however the greater efficiency of the Triolons does open up the possibility of driving them with the right low power amplifier. Unlike the ribbon tweeter of the Magnepans, the Acapella's tweeter does not over shadow the other drivers. Extremely dynamic.
Jorma Prime
The Jorma Prime, either in balanced or single ended configuration is superb, particularly between amp and preamp but also on other inputs. I still use the balanced 7N Mexcel on the X01 and the Valhalla on the TT but otherwise have switched to the Jorma Prime.
Finite Elemente Pagode Master Reference
5 shelf version installed as well as the amp stands. Again a nice and very audible improvement. Amazing the things that you blame on the equipment until you solve the resonance problems. Basically a no brainer. More improvement than changing a major piece of equipment.
Jorma Prime
I have been mildly dissatisfied for a number of years with my JC-1 amps when used to drive the Acapella speakers but have yet to find something that combined the ability to drive the speakers and give me the other characteristcs that I desired although I have been much taken with some tubed amps (small, single ended or OTL within their power limits. Let's just say that the insertion of a combination of Bi-wire and single wire prime has cused me to re-think the amp question. The Primes are simply the most musical natural top to bottom cables that I have ever encountered.
System edited: Acapella makes a custom version of their Fondato Silenzio isolation base for each of their speakers composed of various materials including aluminum, lead, sand, bitumen and felt. The intent is to isolate the speakers from floor borne vibrations. You would think that a speaker that weighs 650 lbs. and includes significant bracing, as well as lead sheets would already be dead, but the weight does result in very intimate coupling with whatever surface it rests upon which in my case is an oak hardwood floor on 2 by 12's in tar on a concrete slab. Anyway, the proof is in the end result which in this case was better focus (better defined images), more diminsionality, better mid bass definition, lower distortion and a more seamless melding of the drivers. All in all a very nice improvement. Installing the bases required dismantling the speakers and then reassembling them on the bases.
Two recent changes to the system: i) Lindemann D680 replaced by Exemplar Audio Denon 2900; more transparency, more liquidity, hangs together on complex passages, very sensitive to power cord and A/C filterring but excellent, see generally TBG's (Norm Luttbeg's comments); ii) the Cabasse Saturn 55 Active subs finally arrived after 10 months of delay and are breaking in even as I write.
First, a description: 21" concave woofer with extremely low moving mass and a massive magnet (3" voice coil diameter), heavily braced dead enclosure (450# per side, 37.5" by 33.5" by 28.5", 11.5 cu. ft. internal volume, 1200 watt amps, 24db per octave low pass filter, parametric EQ with variable Q, continuously variable phase, maximum peak level of 135.5 db, flat to below 20 hz in my room.
What does this really mean? Over the years I have owned a number of different subs, including various designs by Demian Martin for Entec. I have heard at length a number of other subs, including 24" Hartley's in Levinson enclosures. Each had its own strengths and weaknesses. The Entecs were extremely fast, servo controlled with 4 10" woofers per side and were servo controlled. As you might expect they were fast and very well controlled, but unable to energize a room in the way that the Hartley's could, but the Hartley's clearly sufferred from overhang and were almost impossible to mate with very fast drivers.
In my system I am using the Saturns with Acapella Campanile Highs which utilize a plasma tweeter and a midrange horn and are extremely fast and transparent. The Saturns are about 5' behind the Acapella's along the back wall and in from each corner about 5'. The Saturns are extremely dynamic and capable of energizing the room in a way that anything other than the Hartley's has never equalled, but with a seemless transition from the subs to the Acapella's.
In practice, what does all this mean? excellent bass, with the ability to move massive amounts of air when called for, more low level hall information, increased depth, more image specificity, better soundstage, less tendency for sounds to localize on the midrange horns with absolutely no loss of tonality or timbre. Overall an excellent result, but these damn things are really big. If it matters, furniture quality finishes.
Further comments as they break in. Approximate gain of 4 db in efficiency over the first two weeks as they have been played. Wish that I had room for a pair of these in a video set up.
my wife & i were able to listen to fred's system recently, the most recent additions being the pagode rack and some additional isolation & power tweaks (notably to the lindy 680).
to be extremely critical, i noticed a slightly diffuse center image w/ imaging drawn to 1-2ft inside the horns and getting more diffuse as you moved to the center. also, w/ the TG speaker cables, i noticed a slightly whitish character to the upper mids / lower treble.
NOTE: i am being extremely critical in the above comments. to be more practical in my evaluation, OMG! my wife stated that this was the best she ever heard recorded music, and i heartily agree. recorded dueling pianos were just wonderful, with all the venue info you could ask for.
stage & tone (given aforemention nit-picking), PRAT, dynamics, venue, attack / decay, inner detail, etc etc etc---fred's real close to the end of the line.
and i stand by earlier comments: the accapella tweeter is the standard in high frequency reproduction in home audio.
The stand that you purchased is in Natural Maple. The Cereballs were designed to go under equipment. The Cerebases were designed to go under equipment stands, speakers and very large amplifiers.
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. If an equipment stand is very utilitarian and "butt-ugly", then I would hope for it to disappear. If the Stand has the build quality with a beautiful finish as does the Finite Elemente Pagode stand, then it should be treated as an important piece of furniture.
Aside from the looks, if I had not been present, I would not have belived the transformation of sound. It made me sick to my stomach simply because I can't afford to buy one for myself.
The Pagode which I purchased uses a clear blonde finish on the maple shelves which I find attractive, but which others may not.
Recent experience, first with the Neuance shelves and now with the Finite Element leads me to believe that low mass coupled with rigidity and some damping may be a more effective approach to control of mechanical resonances in a stand than high mass. The greater the mass, the higher the potential energy storage.
I have also begun to question my priorities with respect to power cords, interconnects and speakerwire and am beginning to think that the first requirement for any wire, including power cords, is that it allow the system to create a three dimensional image and not that it be tonally right. While I would disqualify any wire with gross tonal anomalies, the use of after market feet, footers and other tuning devices can and will allow one to tune the sound; however, these products will never allow a wire product that is not dimensionally correct to be fixed. It also follows that better mechanical isolation allows you to hear what the wire is really doing.
Unlike Fred I think the Pagoda Master Reference stand is fairly ugly, but don't know many stands or systems that can be incorporated into a room and disappear....The big thing is the thin maple shelves as have done some playing with 3/4" maple shelves versus the 3/4" MDF and feel the improvements at Fred's were on account of the maple more than the design of the stand, but more work has to be done to be certain. Fred also went back to the stock feet on the bulk of his gear getting rid of Mana frames and Neuance shelves......Thin maple shelves seem to add life without brightness to most anything and allowed Fred's system to open up to the point that the monoliths known as Accapella speakers disappeared completely, a real trick......In looking over the stand I noticed a clamp-on ferrite bead on the umbilical to the power supply to the Lindemann and told Fred to get rid of it. Five minutes later it was history (it just clamps around the umbilical) as was the cold and lifeless sound of the Lindemann.....It still reminds me of the other top of the line CDP that incorporate SACD with redbook, such as the EMM Labs, but not having any hardness in the upper midrange is probably a good thing for digital reproduction......I just like a little more bite in the upper mids which I hear with real instruments......Bottom line is the Pagoda stand is a worthwhile addition to a big system for those with a free standing turntable.....
The Finite Elemente Pagode Master Reference arrived Thursday and several friends helped install the shelves on Thursday night. This takes two people and a considerable amount of time. The Pagode was well packaged and arrived safely. The entire system was unplugged for a six hour period. The Pagode replaced a very heavy Mike Fredricksen stand in which I had mounted Mana frames topped with Neuance shelves and DH ceramic cones.
First, the stand is absolutely gorgeous visually, easily fine furniture quality. All tools are provided as are good instructions. I opted to replace the spikes with Uniball feet (similar to ceraballs but much heavier). All this resulted in a much cleaner hook up with everything off the floor except the power conditioner.
The sound, a major improvement in all areas, particularly image focus and background noise level. Tonality also improved with better control of the lower registers, somewhat more warmth, and additional air around instruments. Ability to hear into the stage and three dimensionality also improved.
A golden eared friend (who I shall refer to as "Big Bob" or "BB" for short) who is an audio manufacturer of cables, power cords and other equipment came over to listen this weekend and was very complimentary of the stand. As some may remember I have spent a significant amount of time trying to optimize my Lindemann SACD player. With BB help I had arrived at using a composite footer comprised of methacrylate and alminum. The Pagode almost makes the stock feet acceptable but the compsite feet are still audibly better. Anyway, BB felt that the Lindemann still lacked the bite of live music in the upper midrange and continued experience some anomalies in the bass. In looking at the stand, BB noticed that the cable connecting the out board power supply to the Lindemann had a ferrite bead on it and recommende removing it. What a nice imrovement that made. Hopefully BB will address the stand and the Lindemann later in this thread.
In summary, the Pagode Mater Reference is excellent and probably worth the price.
System edited: Two changes to the system, one to arrive in early March (the Finite Elemente Pagode Master Reference) and the other ( a pair of the Cabasse Saturn 55 subwoofers) to arrive at the end of March. I heard the Cabasse subs at CES and was amazed at the amount of air which they were capable of moving. Think 24" Hartleys but with much greater speed and without overhang.
Fred have very nice system.I put my Acapella very far each others about 4.8 m outside, listening distance is 5 m.acapella is so that i see very little inside my listening place.my listening room is little difficult because it is 6.9 wide and 6.6 deep. speakers are long wall.i like acapella very much, my system is acapella campanile, audio aero prestige sacd, transparent ref xl cables and powercords and transparent isolator 4 and isolator 1, audio physic digitalmonoamp, acapella fondato silenzio, and velodyne dd 18 sub.happy listening tapsa
just listened to fred's system yesterday. as time has passed since he upgraded from the ESL-63 w/ crosby mods to the acapella speakers, his performance has gone up and down and every way between. in the past year, i believe fred has changed amps (wolcotts to the JC1s), speakers (as noted), digital (the G&D/entec setup to the lindy), ICs (to TG high purity), and all sorts of other stuff. well, its finally come together and just sounds wonderfully musical. the most recent change to the TG high purity ICs has finally given him the missing stage density / height / fill that was one of the most persistent problems he was having. those monstrous speakers almost, almost, vanish completely---a remarkable feat.
every component fred has is absolute SOTA and his system is finally sounding that way, through much experimentation with isolation & cabling. given the performance he's getting, it'd be hard not to issue a blanket "thumbs-up" recommendation on every individual component he's using (though a few words: the lindy needs coaxing to really sing, but sing it will; also, i can only assume that reviewers for BFS and TAS never heard the JC1s fully broken in, as these amps are NOT thin in the least--they're complete). in sum, a wonderful combination of unetched detail with liquid musicality. yup, i could live with it.
Finally, Fred's system is coming together and the horns have all but disappeared....It took different speaker wire and interconnects to fill in the middle....The Lindemann is an acceptable high end source and never thought it would get there, but it was all in the isolation and interconnects used....The Titan cartridge just plain does everything right and looks like I need one.....Damn!
Nice room and awesome black horns on your Acapella Campaniles! It looks like your room is slightly wider than ours and that your speakers are closer together than ours (and farther from the side walls but the same distance from the rear wall). I am beginning to think that these speakers sound good in almost any configuration and with almost any amplifier.
The Titan continues to break-in; however, unlike earlier Lyra cartridges, the Titan has never sounded bad (at least after the first hour of play). This is unusual in my experience.
It has been almost a year since Fred received the Acapella Campaniles and they are starting to work pretty well, but have not disappeared yet.....Closest they have come to a proper stage was with the Nordost Quattrofil ICs between the preamp and amps. The Valhalla that replaced the Quattrofil is much cleaner and will not allow a proper stage to replace two huge monoliths at the other end of the room there.....This is about to be cured and have great expectations that the system will come together nicely in the next couple of weeks....
The Lindemann CDP has been a nightmare to isolate properly....The entire character of the unit can be changed with different feet from horribly dull to unlistenably bright....Fred has detailed what works there so no need to go through that again....After five months of messing with the unit I can say that it can now be considered a high end source....
More to come in a couple weeks when the new interconnect arrives and is inserted into the system and we'll see what occurs, but expect Fred will be done for a while....
The pursuit of an absolute can be very frustrating, particularly when you make large commitments of time and money but are still not completely happy with the results. What makes the pursuit worthwhile are those moments when everything finally seems to come together. I have experienced two of those moments recently. The first resulted from replacing a Lyra Helikon with a Titan. I have owned a number of different cartridges in the last fifteen years, including various Vandenhuls, Lyra's and Clearaudio's. All good, some excellent, but I always wished for one cartridge that would exhibit the best features of the others. The Titan may be that cartridge. Listening to an old Merle Haggard recording yesterday, I was struck by how good it sounded. This is not an album that is likely to make it onto any ones "Recordings of Merit" list but with the Titan it was quite enjoyable. Maybe that is what makes a cartridge or perhaps a system special, the ability to make something other than an audiophile recording musically enjoyable. Anyway I am finding new enjoyment from older recordings.
A second instance involved involved my Lindemann SACD player. As some will remember, I have found the Lindemann to be very sensitive to isolation. The sound improved succesively with the addition of a Mana stand and a Neuance "Bad Boy" shelf but still lacked something. On Saturday two friends visited, one in the early afternoon, the other in the evening. During the afternoon visit, we substituted TG Audio "Pointy Things" (delrin body/ aluminum point) for the feet that are provided with the Lindemann. A clear improvement particularly with respect to air and top end detail. Later in the day Bob Crump came over with his own bag of tricks, including some custom 2" diameter delrin pucks that Bob developed for the CTC BBQ amp and some aluminum "pasties". After listening to various combinations, we ended up with the aluminum pasties sited on top of the delrin pucks under the Lindemann and some short aluminum cones (TG Aluminum Pointy Things) under the outboard power supply replacing Aurios on a 2" thick piece of granite. Anyway, the combination worked giving the Lindemann a midrange bloom that it had previously lacked as well as nice bite in the upper mids and good extension at the top.
The Acapella Campinale Speakers are broken-in, the Parasound JC-1's are broken-in, the Lindeman CD player is broken-in and the Lyra Titan cartridge is breaking in. What an intresting and often frustrating developmental process. The sound has progressed from very good to utterly outstanding. Of all the components, the Lindeman was the most problematic. The CD portion of the unit had to break-in and then the SACD portion had to break-in. The Lindeman and its power supply are the most susceptible to positioning and isolation devices that I have ever seen(heard). Last night Bob Crump worked with the Lindeman and with his help, it has evolved into a great sounding piece of equipment. The sound stage is very good, the detail is great, and best of all it sounds like music.
As the Titan Cartridge breaks-in, it is becoming more and more obvious that this is going to be one of the really great cartridges - ever!! I have heard detail from this cartridge that I have never heard before on records and with much authority. The midrange/vocals are full and natural sounding and the bass-Wow!!
Congratulations Fred. With you patience and determination(and with help of Bob Crump's Magic Wand), you have developed one of the best if not the best sounding system available.
The Titan reminds me of the Clavis DC as respects dynamics.....Nice cartridge and wish I could afford one as will go with the Helikon SL when my Clavis DC goes to it's reward....Sound at Fred's was very good the other night, but still don't think he has solved the isolation thing for the CDP.....
Installed the Titan last night in my Rockport, replacing a Helikon. The Titan's titanium body is heavier than the Helikon and has a much shorter cantilever which is boron coated with diamond particles. In addition to readjusting for tangency, it was also necessary to use a heavier counterweight. With the Helikon, a lighter weight was used but required that the weight be at almost maximum extension from the pivot (longer than I would have preferred). The arm always seems to work better with the counterweight as close as possible to the bearing.
Initial couple of cuts were extremely bright with little bass but by the end of the first record things began to settle down. By the third record, several things were apparent, phenomenal speed and detail, equal to an earlier Vandenhul Grasshopper that I owned, significant improvement in these areas over the Helikon, also a significant improvement in the bass. I always felt that the Helikon was somewhat polite in the bass (at least in my set up). This is clearly not the case with the Titan. Extreme bass slam! The walls were sucking in and out by the end of the evening playing the Holly Cole Temptations double album. Transients are also very well handled, particularly the leading edge, perhaps at the expense of the tail. At this point still a bit analytical but it clearly needs additional break-in.
The improvement over the Helikon in my system was substantial. I still wonder if part of what I am hearing is a result of a much better match with the tonearm and getting the counterweight much nearer the bearing.
Many thanks to Bob Crump who did the cartridge installation but left shortly thereafter.
I have been priviledged to hear this system on various occasions. It is truly an ultimate system. The Acapella Speakers are outstanding. The John Curl Parasound JC-1's are also exceptional.
Hard to comment on the best show as I have mainly attended CES. I think that which show you attend may be a function of whether particular products in which you are interested will be available for audition at a particular show. I would expect a different product mix in Montreal than in San Francisco or Vegas. Vegas probably represents the most variety.
I certainly appreciate the offer. I was in San Antonio for a business trip and the plane stopped briefly in Houston. If that ever happens again I may consider it.
Which is the best show to go to? I was at the CES show but there is one coming up this month in Montreal and the Stereophile show in June. Too much fun and so little time.
