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.
I am not convinced that an SACD player knows the difference between various types of software played unless it is designed like the Esoteric gear so that different circuitry is used for Red Book and SACD. I am playing the unit continuously but trying to listen for several hours each evening to get a feel for how break in is progressing.
Perhaps the best thing for sanity is to buy something and go on a vacation while it plays.
At today's prices, after buying something interesting, there is no money left for a vacation!
But I don't think continous play is the best way to break the component in. I like to turn things off and on, play different media (CDs, non-hybrids, hybrids), use all the controls, have rest periods where it's off for a couple of hours, and so on.
Unfortunately I have no clue regarding what makes one power cord better than another.
I understand the concept of power conditioning and the need to be able to deliver clean power of sufficient wattage for the task, but that is about as far as my sense of urgency goes on that topic. I would defer to the expertise of others exclusively on this topic.
I have found that new equipment burn-in is not linear. In other words, things can get worse, before they get better. Also, there may not be much change for a week, and then it changes every single day for the next week.
Unfortunately, this stuff needs 400 hours minimum before conclusions can be made. Otherwise, you are likely to be chasing your tail. Perhaps the best thing for sanity is to buy something and go on a vacation while it plays. Hey, at least you will have something to look forward to when you get back.
Mapman, The unfortunate thing is that with respect to power cords, one size definitely does not fit all or at least, I have not found one cord that works equally well with all components. Digital components generally require a different solution than analog. The Jorma Prime and Zyklops both can provide excellent results, but use different design philosophies and technology. At one point, I thought that there was a correlation between how well a power supply was designed and the dependence on power cords. Now I am not so sure. Any thoughts that you might have would be appreciated.
A few additional thoughts. I had been using a Jorma Prime to supply power to the Weizhi distribution box and then used another Prime to the XDS1. I took out the initial Prime feeding the Weizhi and substituted a Stage III Zyklops. The end result was somewhat different, a bit less of the golden glow and bloom in the midrange but more neutral overall. Note that I am still a real believer in using the Primes direcvtly feeding the front end equipment. I intend to experiment with my amps when I get some longer lengths of cables.
Many of you will know that I sold my Esoteric X01D2 about 2 months ago and have been listening to possible replacements. I was able to arrange for a loan of the EMM Labs XDS1 and finally received it on Thursday. It has been in contitnuous play since Friday morning but will still require many additional hours of break-in. Given the new rather brute force power supply, you might think that power cords would make little difference, but it is quite sensitive. It simply loves the Jorma Prime power cords which incorporate Jack Bybee's filter modules and the Weizhi power distribution system. Properly set up the XDS1 significantly outperforms any of the other digital equipment which I have had in my home including the CDSA. This superiority is particularly evident in the top octaves which are extended and completely devoid of any digital artifacts. I have always appreciated the difference between red book and SACD and other digital formats but not completely understood how wide the gap actually was with DSD. The XDS1 makes it abundantly clear how good the best SACD's can be and their superiority over red book. It also provides the best red book playback that I have heard. The bass is still not quite right but is getting better as it plays.
The Apogee Fullrange is the most fussy speaker that I have known, meaning it can frustrate you by not giving you the right sound. It took me many years to tame them. In the earlier years I had thoughts of replacing them (and I also have had several dynamic speakers) but somehow my believe in their potential prevented me from moving on to something else.
I respect your sticking to what you believe it and making it work. It's more important to get something really good and making it the best it can be than continually swapping brands and not doing the homework.
Fcrowder: Thank you. We are on. Lets schedule these visits, perhaps through PM.
The Apogee Fullrange is the most fussy speaker that I have known, meaning it can frustrate you by not giving you the right sound. It took me many years to tame them. In the earlier years I had had thoughts of replacing them (and I also have had several dynamic speakers) but somehow my believe in their potential prevented me from moving on to something else. One major factor is finding the right amp and second (and more important) is their placement. Once you figure these things out, the sound especially the bass is very rewarding. Twice, I was tempted to buy the Avalon ISIS and Von Schweikert VR5 or 7 and still sometimes get the urge to try something else. But when I come back to my listening room and listen to these Apogees, I just say "nay, this is it". The bass can easily shake my 16 by 26 room.
I have not had much exposure to horn speakers except for listening to the Avangarde Duo and a couple of other brands. I was impressed with the midrange of the Avangarde but not with their bass. I have not listened to the Acapellas but am curios. I am sure given your electronics and all other hard work you seem to have put in they must sound great. So I am looking forward to listening to yours.
I would love to hear your system and you are certainly invited to hear mine. I have yet to mount the Ortofon so am listening to the Lyra Titan i. I actually owned the full range Apogees many years ago with a pair of matched Levinson ML3's with about 10" of speaker wire, the passive Apogee crossover and ML6a's and a Goldmund turntable. The sound was the most resolving that I have ever had, but I was never able to get the bass right.
This is called total devotion! Congratulations. I can only imagine the holy sound of your spectaculat system. We ought to pay each other visits, sir. We share the same Ortofon Cartridge, by the way.
My 9 series DAC (and 270se transport) have undergone exhaustive mods by Steve Huntley. In essence, he replaces all the stock parts with higher grade parts. You'd have to speak with him about the details. As one small example, there are somewhere around 100 Black Gate caps in there now. I don't think he likes to talk about this because each 9 series makes a significant dent in his supply.
Anyway, Steve's philosophy is that Wadia makes a fantastic product, but they are constrained by realities of production and economies. He removes those constraints to make it reach full potential.
Thanks for your response. Could you detail the mods which you had done and who did them. I have a great deal of respect for the Wadia, particularly modified units.
If you are ever in St. Louis and want to hear the Wadia DAC, drop me a line. There are 1-2 handfuls of these highly modified DACs in the world. Over 1 1/2 years later, and it still amazes me.
I no longer worry about digital. Sometimes I wonder, but then I just have to listen.
At this time, my reference is the Esoteric P03/D03/G0S. I feel certain that the P01/D01/G0s is better but I have no real experience with those pieces outside of audio shows. The same is true of the DCS gear which I suspect is excellent. I have high hopes for the EMM Labs XDS1.
Is your digital reference the Esoteric P-03/D-03/G-0s matrix? It would be quite stimulating to hear it in your system :-)
Excellent recognition of imaging vis-a-vis hall location. Some day, perhaps, I'd like to present an analogue RTR tape that I had personally recorded. I would have intimate, first-hand knowledge of the performance and venue. I would imagine it to be an excellent evaluation source/instrument :-)
It is probably worth pointing out that the Audionote M9/S9 was only hooked up on the last day of Sam's visit and that his listening was very limited, perhaps an hour at most, part devoted to a test CD and part focused on analogue. As with my Kegon Balanced amp, the M9 only gets better as it is left on. The vast majority of our listening was to the Einstein preamp and single ended phonostage. As sam pointed out, the Einstein would benefit from a volume control which allowed the user to adjust the volume in smaller increments. The M9 allows such adjustments but does not have a remote. In an attempt at being nice Sam underplayed what some would consider weaknesses in my system, 1) the lack of coherency among the drivers at low volume levels and at very high volume levels. At normal listening levels this is generally not a problem; 2) the lack of truly pinpoint imaging ( the imaging is more characteristic of what one might hear 10-15 rows back in a good hall which is to say that edge definition is a bit soft) and tightness in the bass. Again I would say that the bass is full and very natural, but different from traditional transistor bass.
I am currently out of the country but the XDS1 has been shipped.
Thank you very much for hosting me, recently, and providing a wonderful opportunity to listen to your magnificent, dynamic, high-resolution system!
Forthwith, my observations:
In my opinion, your system/room offered a variety of desirable sonic characteristics :-) Evident were micro dynamics conveyed throughout the sonic spectrum and not restricted to specific frequency regions. This detail was rendered gracefully.
The Rockport/Einstein combo best yielded the timbre of instruments and tonal balance. Moreover, the music was conveyed with an immediacy, which I found very appealing and lifelike.
When listening to digital, I much preferred the Audio Note preamp to the Einstein when paired with Emm Labs. The former provided a more natural and fatigue-free presentation.
It was astonishing how the 23W Audio Note/Acapella duo pressurized the room! There is no want for SPL. Low frequency energy is prodigious more on this, later. I do not believe the amp ever clipped.
Establishing an optimal volume envelope is critical, in this system/room, to achieve the driver coherence and room integration that suits my sonic palette. In my experience, there exists volume maxima/minima that provides for the best reproduction of the source within a given room. Especially, with the directional character of the multi-driver Triolon, I was very pleased to ascertain volume levels where driver integration/coherence was outstanding! As I understand it, the Einsteins volume control produces gain and attenuation at discrete levels. There were, on occasion, instances where I was unable to dial-in my desired listening level.
Obviously, this is a reference system and I can envisage sonic improvement by implementing room treatment or a dedicated listening environment. Bass articulation may be the primary beneficiary.
Listening to your system/room has informed me of what is possible with horns. To paraphrase a proposition you had advanced in a conversation audio is a matter of trade-offs. Perhaps, you have stated the ultimate audiophile axiom :-) I am a better-educated listener for having experienced and enjoyed your superlative system.
Sam, Thanks for the kind words and the gracious invitation. I am currently in Indonesia on business and will be back on Sunday but must be at work in Houston on Tuesday. Would it be possible for you to maske it to Houston on this trip? I could provide food and lodging and a listen to my system. Fred
Your contributions esteem the audio community. The aplomb evident in your posts reflect decorum and dignity that perfectly complement your accomplishments.
I'm travelling to Dallas next week to visit Albert and rendezvous with patrons of the sonic arts :-) It would be my privilege to exchange personal regards with you.
