Onhifi.com with Wes Phillips, February 1, 2002 Dynaudio Evidence Temptation Loudspeakers "If you think you're boring your audience, go slower not faster," said master conductor Gustav Mahler. In the rough'n'tumble world of high-end audio, sometimes the best way to make yourself heard is to whisper. Not a week goes by that I don't receive a press release announcing a new audio product that re-establishes the state of the art. New products are "orders of magnitude" better than old ones. Minor circuit changes challenge "the bleeding edge" of what's possible. And I'm the queen of Roumania. So you can understand how different it was when Dynaudio unveiled its $85,000 Evidence Master loudspeaker at Chicago's HIFI 99. Other than publishing the speaker's specifications (20Hz–26kHz, +/-3dB), Dynaudio made no claims. They didn't need to -- the speaker spoke for itself. Even under show conditions, the Evidence Master sounded special. Best speaker in the world? I don't know. One of 'em? Without a doubt. So I wasn't surprised to see the Evidence Master anchoring the Dynaudio display at the Home Entertainment Expo 2001 last May. After all, when you've got something that works, you stick with it. But when I asked Dynaudio's Mike Manousselis for a price rundown of the demo system, he told me the speakers were $30,000. Wait a minute! I thought the Evidence went for over twice that. They do. What Dynaudio was demoing was a speaker designed to offer all but the last iota of Evidence performance at a fraction of its price: the Evidence Temptation. The Temptations are slightly smaller than the Masters and lack some of the Masters' labor- and material-intensive modular construction (not to mention having slightly smaller woofers), but their performance is embarrassingly close to that of their more expensive siblings. In some rooms, in fact, they may even work better. There's no question about it: They're the best loudspeakers I've ever lived with -- and by a wide margin. God delights in our temptations The Dynaudio Evidence Temptation is a tall, slender, but deep tower (78.5"H x 7.9"W x 19.3"D) that houses two 1.1" soft-dome tweeters, two 6" polypropylene-cone midrange units, and four 8" polypropylene-cone bass drivers with 3" voice coils and hybrid magnet systems. The five-way first-order crossover (300Hz, 500Hz, 2.3kHz, 8kHz) -- in concert with the mirror-image woofer, woofer, midrange, tweeter, tweeter, midrange, woofer, woofer driver array -- makes the speaker's vertical dispersion uniform over its entire frequency response, which is said to be 29Hz–25kHz, +/-3dB. The crossover is stuffed with polypropylene capacitors; large-gauge, multi-wire air-core inductors hand-wound to a tolerance of less than 1%; and zero-compression, low-inductance, low-capacitance, wire-wound resistors with high heat stability. The individual components are arrayed upon double-thickness, multi-layered, fiberglass-reinforced printed circuit boards with thick copper traces. Internal wiring consists of high-purity, matched-crystal, oxygen-free, silver-coated copper. No detail was too small for Dynaudio to obsess over. Dynaudio is almost unique among speaker companies in that it designs and manufactures its own drivers. The Temptation's drivers evolved out of Dynaudio's six-year R&D for the Evidence Master. The 1.1" soft-dome tweeters are nakedly exposed on the speaker's aluminum center section -- protected only by a single titanium-wire "guard." They employ pure-aluminum-wire voice coils with magnetic-fluid cooling, vented pole pieces, 72mm neodymium magnets, and aluminum-alloy rear chambers designed to disperse heat. The 6" midrange cones are molded from single pieces of polypropylene and sport 38mm pure-aluminum-wire voice coils. The four 6.8" woofers are, again, cones molded from a single piece of polypropylene, driven by a 75mm pure-aluminum-wire voice coil with massive neodymium magnets. The Temptation sits upon a square steel plinth outfitted with adjustable spikes. The bottom woofer cabinet sports a super-sturdy pair of WBT binding posts, which were a joy to use. The speaker's cabinet is solidly constructed, with separate internal chambers for the various drivers. The center module (the speaker is not modular like the Evidence Master, but is constructed from separate modules bonded together at the factory) is milled from solid aluminum, carefully chamfered for superior dispersion. The casework and finish quality on the speaker towers is first-rate -- my pair came with side panels of beautifully finished Birdseye Maple veneer with black lacquer contrasts. Including the steel plinth, each Temptation weighs 249 pounds. It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptation There's a frequent mistake committed in high-end audio reviews when we assume that first-rate components are all that it takes to create first-rate products. Oh, it helps -- just as it helps to use the freshest, purest ingredients when cooking. But, the most memorable meals you've ever eaten probably have more to do with your physical and emotional surroundings than the quality of the ingredients. Mine sure do -- they include supping on cold water, canned sardines and saltines while sitting in an underground chamber after a five-mile crawl through a streambed, gazing at fossil evidence that the Blue Ridge mountain cave I was in was once under water, and the cava and chocolate cookie "lunch" I wolfed down with my new wife after my lunch-hour wedding, before returning to work. Designing a good loudspeaker has far more to do with the judgment of the designer than it does with its parts list. Loudspeakers, even more than other components, require a complex series of compromises in order to achieve a balance of elements. You could even claim that the deliberate choice of performance tradeoffs is the equivalent of the setting for memorable meals -- it's what puts the sound out where you can consume it. Seriously flawed designs can nonetheless express certain levels of musical truth that transcend their shortcomings. The classic examples of this sort of "compromised" performance are the original Quad ESL 57 and the venerable LS3/5A. The Temptation is an even rarer speaker -- not only does it sport an impeccable list of ingredients, its compromises were so astutely chosen that they seem to fade to insignificance. It's rare in another sense, as well. We all know of loudspeakers that sound far better than they measure. Well. The Dynaudio Evidence Temptation measures almost perfectly -- and it sounds even better than it measures! I never resist temptation . . . the things that are bad for me do not tempt me Despite the Temptation's actual size, its apparent size within a listening room is not that overpowering, thanks to its narrow width and its ability to be placed nearer to the side walls and front wall of the listening room than most full-range loudspeakers. In my listening room, I ended up placing the speakers 26" from the side walls, with the speakers' back panels 40" from the front wall. The Temptations were toed-in to the point where I couldn't view their side panels in order avoid the first side-wall reflection points. As long as I kept the toe-in adjusted so I could see only the face of the speaker and not the side panels from my listening position, I could adjust my distance from the speaker from a relatively close-in 8' to a comfortable 15'. My perspective changed, but not the quality of the soundstage or imaging. What the speaker delivers is detail, detail, detail. Not some details at the expense of the others, but -- seemingly -- all of them. I've never heard a more seamless top-to-bottom presentation of music. The degree to which an instrument's sound was informed by its environment was remarkable. I never heard the instrumental sound superimposed upon the room sound, as the popular cardboard-cutout-in-front-of-a-painted-background analogy; rather, the two were indivisibly intertwined. And yet, for all of my sense of infinite detail, I never felt as though the Evidence Temptations were "ruthlessly revealing" or some sort of audio microscope. I've heard audio products that seem designed to reveal just how hard it is to make a good recording. You could be sitting there entranced by the performance and they'd practically elbow you in the stomach, pointing at clumsy edits or loud breathing or fretting noise. Oh, you can hear all that through the Temptations all right -- just as you would were you present at the event -- and just as though you were present at the music making, it's such a minor part of the experience of enjoying music, its importance is insignificant. No, the Temptations aren't an analytic instrument, they're a musical instrument. That is not a trivial distinction -- it harks back to the design choices made in the speaker's genesis. Dynaudio got the balance right. The best way to get the better of temptation is to yield to it Maybe it's a character flaw, but when confronted with big, honking speakers like the Temptations, I dig into my record collection for performances I reckon will, ahhh, challenge them. Recently, my weapon of choice has been the CSO/Barenboim Le Sacre du Printemps [Teldec 8573 81702-2]. From the opening bassoon notes, I knew I was in for a treat -- they floated in space like a zephyr. As other instruments join in tentatively -- a sustained note here, some twittering and chirps there, the piece builds an incredibly living picture of a world awakening. As sound builds upon sound and rhythm beats against rhythm, that world becomes wild and explosive. It was pure theater -- I was as engrossed as if I was present at the concert. Conventional measures of audio greatness seemed meaningless. There was the music and there was me. Speakers -- what speakers? And the ritual dance of the chosen one? I was jelly. The sound buffeted me with wave after wave of pounding, penetrating rhythm -- all completely informed by its Orchestral Hall acoustic. What's that almost meaningless critical phrase? I was transported. No, really -- my room just ceased to exist. To tell you the truth, after listening to La Mer and Notations VII, I was ready for something a lot less challenging. To me, I mean; the Temptations hadn't even raised a sweat. So I pulled out Together at the Bluebird Café by Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, and Guy Clark [American Originals AMO 4006-2], thinking that solo troubadours would be a welcome emotional contrast. What was I thinking? The Temptations beamed life-sized Guy/Townes/Steve into my living room. And, while you laugh a lot at these guys' concerts, they aren't exactly up kind of guys -- and listening to a seemingly alive, seemingly present Townes Van Zandt was an emotional wrench of a completely different sort. But that's life with the Dynaudios. They are an intensely communicative loudspeaker -- and what music communicates most of the time is emotion. If that's not what you signed up for when you bought your hi-fi, you won't like the Temptations because you can't turn it off. With most speakers there's a specific loudness where the "real" pops into focus -- this is what prompted Peter Walker's famous comment that there is only one correct volume for any given record. Nobody bothered to inform the Temptations of this, however, and when you turn them down they don't relinquish their emotional stranglehold on you. I offer this for what it's worth. Maybe it's a sign of how low their inherent distortion is, or perhaps it’s a sign of their complete lack of music-sapping resonances. I couldn't even begin to guess. If you want background music, though, you'd better play a radio in some other room -- the Temptations are hard to ignore at any volume. In my case, ignoring them was the furthest thing from my mind. I wanted to hear everything through them. If it wasn't for deadlines -- which are as implacable as Death his own self -- I'd probably never have left my listening chair. Oh, I just got it! That's why they're called Temptations. I can resist anything but temptation So there you have it. In a world filled with claimants to the throne, the Dynaudio Evidence Temptations are as close to the perfect loudspeaker as I have ever experienced. If they have a flaw, it's that I can't afford them and will therefore have to live without them. (I will confess that I contemplated cashing in my IRAs and worrying about my old age sometime later -- but after Enron, I'm not sure I could actually swing a pair.) If you can afford them and you relish the emotional intensity of experiencing live music on a daily basis, I wouldn't even think about it. Just buy 'em. But make sure you have the strength of character to continue going to work and spending time with your family -- listening to 'em is as addictive as crack cocaine. Only a lot better for you. ...Wes Phillips

The Messenger Reference tube preamplifier The Messenger is the finest preamplifier in the world - period! What this unique preamplifier does is to literally extract much more information from the source and transmit it to the amplifier without any loss of subtle harmonic or dynamic information. If this sounds impossible, just listen for yourself. All of a sudden the bass now has detail, depth and impact, the mids and highs have body without being bright or hard sounding, the instruments are now distinct and not blurred together, and the soundstage is huge with incredible presence and all without a trace of listening fatigue. Up to now, there hasn't been a preamplifier in the world that would allow all of the recorded information to pass through it. All current preamps take what they can handle and reject the rest, leaving a great deal of information behind, or at worst, displacing it to another place in time destroying the texture of the music. Unfortunately, what ordinary preamps reject is the subtle and not so subtle detail, harmonic structure, ambient information and dynamic impact that gives music life and emotional content. But now, The Messenger unleashes the full potential of all playback sources. For the very first time, hear all of the music! Sit back and be astounded. Contact: .. Elliot Midwood at Acoustic Image....818-762-1501... [email protected] Winner of CES

Paul Bolin wrote about the MB-450 Signature in April 2004 Stereophile (Vol.27 No.4): Since Chip Stern's update on VTL's second-generation MB-450 Signature back in October 2002, the amplifier has undergone further changes and improvements. It now features a completely redesigned input stage that incorporates advances made during the development of VTL's mighty Siegfried monoblocks. The '450 now has a true balanced input stage, the asserted benefit being superior common-mode noise rejection without the use of an input coupling transformer. Despite these improvements, the MB-450's price remains unchanged: $10,000/pair. The new differential input stage consists of a high-gain 12AT7 tube to provide broad voltage swings, with B+ regulation and a constant-current source to maintain equal drive between the two phases even as the tube ages. Sez VTL main man Luke Manley, "This stage offers 60dB of common-mode rejection to external noise and other interference, and will accept also a single-ended signal on either phase, and will develop a signal on the opposite phase to drive the next stage." The input stage is capacitor-coupled to a 6350 tube, this comprising a differential phase-splitter driver stage. The two halves of the tube form a long-tailed pair with a constant-current source, providing high voltage swing with equal drive to both phases of the push-pull output stage via series capacitors. The output stage remains unchanged—why mess with a good thing? Each amp still has eight 6550C power tetrodes and produces a very robust 450W into 5 ohms. Switch over to triode mode and you still get approximately 200W. As Rolls-Royce used to put it, power is "sufficient." Evaluative listening was done principally with the Halcro dm10 full-function preamplifier and VTL's own TL-7.5 Reference line stage, fed by an Aesthetix Io Signature phono preamp. BAT's VK-51 SE line stage also put in an appearance. Speakers were Focal-JMlab Nova Utopia Be's. Classé's superb Omega SACD/CD player decoded the digits, and vinyl was handled by my regular analog rig of SOTA Cosmos Series III turntable, Graham 2.2 tonearm, and Dynavector XV-1S cartridge. Signal wiring included Nordost Valhalla, Siltech Classic, and Acoustic Zen Silver Reference. AC was provided via Shunyata Anaconda, Anaconda VX, and Siltech SPX-30 cords, with Shunyata's Hydra 8 conditioning and distributing the power. The MB-450s sat, as amps usually do chez Bolin, on Grand Prix Audio Monaco stands. I've said it before: There's something really special about a great, massively powerful tube amplifier. The sensation of seemingly unlimited reserve power at any sane listening level let me relax totally into the music—the VTLs were not going to run out of gas no matter how hard I drove them. Dynamics were consistently first-class. The Minnesota Orchestra's colossal dynamic swings in Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances (CD, Reference RR-96CD) flustered them not a bit. Even during the most intense passages, the '450s never sounded even mildly stressed. Forceful music was always re-created with exceptional ease and refinement. The MB-450's sonic character was big and luxurious, but not overly "tubey" in the old-school sense of the term. There was the natural musical warmth that tubes do so well, but nothing in the amp's character could ever be called "loose" or "unfocused." Images were always cleanly delineated, but in a way that called to mind the traits of live music far more than it did those of hi-fi. Inner orchestral voices—such as those in the performance of Schumann's Piano Concerto by pianist Byron Janis, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and the Minneapolis Symphony (LP, Mercury SR90383)—were revealed in precise place and proportion. Janis' piano rang clean and true, every note differentiated cleanly and distinctly. With Emmylou Harris' "I Ain't Livin' Long Like This," from Spyboy (CD, Eminent EM 25001-2), Buddy Miller's smokin' guitar solo was superbly articulated and left me shaking my head in awe at his masterful playing. The '450 was suave and satiny at the top of the spectrum, with good extension, and detail retrieval that was definitely better than average. The VTL's midrange showed excellent transparency and detail. Timbre was what one might reasonably expect from an outstanding tube amp; the MB-450 was harmonically generous and true to both voices and instruments. Bass control can be a concern when tube amps are paired with such large drivers as the ported 13" units in the Nova Utopia Be's. The VTLs put those high-tech, low-mass woofers in a bear hug—definition was excellent, and extension left no room for complaint. Daryl Johnson's rumbling bass on Wrecking Ball on Harris' "Where Will I Be?" set things abuzz in my room. That potent bass was cleanly articulated and showed convincing bloom. Soundstaging lived fully up to expectations: capacious, cleanly delineated, and enveloping. With the VTLs, I always felt myself a part of the environment created by the recording, not a disconnected observer of an event happening elsewhere. Backgrounds were as quiet as the best I've heard from tubes, namely the Lamm ML1.1, and that is very quiet indeed. Switching over to triode mode brought a degree of voluptuous roundness to the VTL's presentation and moved the musicians an inch or two closer to me. There was also a jot or two of extra sparkle in the lower treble—perhaps a touch of romanticizing—and top-treble detail retrieval, while still very good, was not quite as evenly illuminated as in pentode mode. Bass became a little loosey-goosey at times in triode as well, but not so much that it could ever be described as "mushy" or "ill-defined." While triode mode was excellent with orchestral music, its particular strengths perfectly suited smaller-scale music. Simon Nicol's remarkable vocal on "The Deserter," from Fairport Convention's XXXV (UK CD, Woodworm WRCD038), fuses moral passion and muted anger in quite an astounding way, and Rickie Lee Jones' take on "Walk Away René," from Girl At Her Volcano (LP, Warner Bros. 23805-1B), was even more heartbreaking than the Left Banke's immortal original. Triodes do, it seems, bring an extra level of emotional directness. Ultimately, triode giveth extra warmth and touchability and taketh away some ultimate bass definition and dynamic slam, as well as the last few squillionths of resolution that pentodes provide—a fair trade. That both are available at the flip of a switch (after being sure to turn the MB-450 off) gives the MB-450 owner a mighty appealing set of choices. The VTL MB-450 Signature offers a boatload of performance and power in a thoroughly engineered, straightforward, solidly built package. It will drive any speaker I can think of in pentode mode, and will drive nearly any speaker in triode mode. Its sound is open, inviting, and truthful in revealing both the artifacts of recordings and the essences of music. It is one very fine amplifier that should be heard by anyone shopping at this end of the market.—Paul Bolin Article Continues

michell Gyrodec SE Mk. II turntable as reviewed by Brad Morrical BRAD MORRICAL'S SYSTEM LOUDSPEAKERS Infinity IRS Betas, Audiostatic ES100, and STAX ELS-F81 electrostatics. ELECTRONICS Golden Tube Audio SE-100 and Simaudio Moon W-5 amplifiers. Cary SLP88 and Jolida JD3000b Ppeamplifiers. Behringer Ultracurve Pro 8024 equalizer. PS audio Phonolink phonostage. SOURCES Cambridge Audio Diskmagic transport, Monarchy DIP, and Monarchy Audio 22B SE DAC. Michell Gyrodec SE with a Rega RB 300 arm, Ortofon Vero II cartridge. Pink Triangle Tarantella, Rega Rb250 and Denon DL103 cartridge. CABLES Loudspeaker cables are XLO reference 6a on panels, Kimber Kable 8VS on subs. Interconnects are Cardas Cross. In this digital age, many of my friends and colleagues view the fact that I own a high end turntable as a bit strange, at least until they hear one of their favorite jazz or rock records on my system! Analog has come a long way from what most people remember, with their toy automatic changers or cheap players from the likes of Sony and Technics. Time and again, people ask "Isn't it inconvenient to change sides?" I reply that while it is a minor irritation, it is worth the benefit in sound quality, and besides, they are a bunch of lazy couch potatoes. This usually elicits one of two responses: (1) a look of total incomprehension that says I might as well be discussing molecular biology or global financial markets, or (2) a knowing understanding between like fellows (even, occasionally, women) who value quality over quantity and convenience. In the quest for excellence in reproduced sound, I have been living with the Michell Engineering Gyrodec SE Mk. II for approximately a year and a half, and every time I look at it I smirk a little, as it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever owned. One look at this living, breathing work of art and you know that it was designed with no stone left unturned in the pursuit of excellence. When I drop the needle into the groove, my smirk turns to an ear-to-ear grin. I have seen a plethora of high end tables, some massive and some wispy, but all of them claiming technical superiority for one reason or another. Unlike most other audio components (with the possible exception of loudspeakers), it is possible to observe exactly how a turntable is functioning. Its function is relatively simple, but the devil is in the details, and the ability to execute a design well is what separates the best from the also-rans. A turntable has to rotate at a constant speed while imparting into the music as little of the vibration that the turntable itself generates. If we take a look at the construction of the Gyrodec SE, we learn very quickly that its striking form does in fact follow function. There is not a purely aesthetic attribute on this table except the gold-plated name badge. From the inverted oil pumping bearing that constitutes the heart of this animal to the acrylic/vinyl copolymer of the non-resonant platter, all aspects of the Gyrodec have been thoroughly refined through successive generations. The Gyrodec SE (Spider Edition) retains the subchassis, bearing, platter, and motor of the Gyrodec MKV, but eschews the large acrylic plinth of the standard Gyrodec for a triangular plinth, also acrylic, that reminds me of those three-pronged boomerangs I had as a kid. The SE is now in its MkII iteration, the biggest change being the replacement of the AC motor with a DC version. The copolymer platter has gold-plated brass weights that hang underneath. Beautiful you say? Of course, but they’re highly functional as well. By placing extra mass at the periphery of the turntable, the inertia of the turntable is increased, and hanging most of that weight below the bearing adds even more rotational stability. Making an inverted bearing without the use of materials that wear out easily required an ingenious method of bringing the oil to the bearing. In this case, the bronze bearing housing has spirals on the inside of its surface. As the bearing housing turns, these spirals lift oil up to the ball bearing that is sitting on top of the bearing shaft. The oil is returned to the reservoir by a small hole drilled into the bearing shaft. This proves to be simple and very effective, but it requires very close machining tolerance. While this is quite practical in the age of CNC machinery, it nonetheless requires a high level of technical competence to accomplish. The subchassis is made from cast aluminum, and is weighted with lead to counterbalance the tonearm. Along with the motor housing, it is the only thing breaking the beautiful symmetry of the design. In contrast to some earlier suspended designs, the springs of the Gyrodec SE are being extended (i.e., pulled down upon) by the subchassis, as opposed to being compressed. This accomplishes two things. First, there is less tendency for side-to-side rocking. As anyone who has tried to compress a spring knows, it has a tendency to want to "squirt" out from between your fingers. You are in effect storing a large amount of energy that is trying to go somewhere. The hanging, extended spring tends to exhibit a more perfect, harmonic-oscillator-type motion. This design also effectively puts the weight of the subchassis below the suspension and the bearing (because it is inverted), increasing overall stability. Some assembly of the turntable is required, meaning that it is similar to IKEA furniture (in construction, definitely not in quality), and you get to put it all together by following the enclosed instructions. The instructions are clear, and things become more obvious once it starts going together, but someone who is not familiar with mechanical construction will find it a bit daunting. The manual was written by engineers who assume some knowledge on the part of the person doing the job, and this could lead to confusion. I suggest that if you are not mechanically inclined, allow your sales representative to assemble the table for you. It took about thirty minutes of assembly time, and then the fun task of leveling the table began. It is imperative that you have the top of the platter level, or you can eventually damage to the bearing through uneven wearing. Once the suspension is set up, it should bounce vertically, without any side-to-side motion. While in principle this sounds easy, in practice it took some effort to get it right. Take your time and refrain from getting frustrated, and keep in mind that once you get it right, it stays right. A Tale of Four Cartridges I conducted many months of informal listening with four different cartridges, a Roksan Corus Black (essentially an OEM Goldring), a Lyra Lydian, a Denon DL 103, and an Ortofon Vero II. Many different amp, preamp, and speaker combinations were in and out of the system during this time, but with the exception of a two-month visit by a Pink Triangle Tarantella, the Gyrodec was the heart of my system. The first cartridge that I used with the Gyrodec was the Roksan. This is a high output (6.5mV) MM design, and is an excellent "starter" cartridge as it is relatively inexpensive and the performance, in my opinion, is superior to that of any other moving magnet cartridges in its price class. The first thing I noticed with the Corus Black was that everything sounded very dynamic and punchy. This was especially true with LPs from New Order (Substance, 1987) and Moby's latest album, 18. Bass was crisp and taut, with propulsive dynamics. The midrange was clean and crisp, with good articulation. However, the top end was a bit hard sounding, with some rather bright edge coming on as the volume was increased. At low listening levels, this manifested itself as a subtle increase in clarity, but at more normal listening levels, the top end was a bit too sharp. Still, the Gyrodec SE with a Rega RB300 arm and Roksan Corus Black cartridge really served up music, with a sense of excitement that made listening to rock and up tempo jazz albums a lot of fun, as long as they were well recorded and not given an excess of "engineering" in the control booth. Since my phono stage had facilities for MC cartridges, I decided almost from the beginning to explore the fascinating world of these very exotic and potentially bank-account-wrecking devices. After doing much reading and price shopping, I settled on Scan-Tech's Lyra Lydian. This is a low output (0.3mV), medium compliance cartridge with a 300-micrometer boron cantilever and the tiniest diamond I have ever (not) seen! Under a microscope (I took it to work one day), the shape of this thing is quite lovely, and it is still amazing to me that something so small can be shaped with such precision. This is one serious, high-tech design, and I opted from the beginning to leave the aluminum body off, to reduce mass and resonance. Setting up the Lydian on the Gyrodec proved to be not too difficult because of the threaded holes in the cartridge. With some care, initial alignment was completed in about fifteen minutes, then refined over the course of the next two to three weeks. (The Lydian is INCREDIBLY sensitive to setup.) Was there a difference, and if so, how much? Yes, there was a difference, and it wasn't small. First, almost nothing was lost in the way of dynamics and punch. Second, the soundstage opened up, and musicians in well-recorded jazz took their places on stage. Much more fine detail was being retrieved, especially ambient cues, but not at the expense of adding brightness, as this increase in detail and definition was occurring at all frequencies. Finally, the high frequencies, which were the source of the greatest annoyance with the Corus cartridge, sang very sweetly and delicately. This made the cymbals on such classic jazz albums as Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus (DCC reissue), and the bite of Miles Davis' trumpet on the incomparable Somethin' Else (Blue Note reissue), take on a very realistic character. This turntable/tonearm/cartridge combination had me spinning all of my favorite jazz albums far into the night. On " St. Thomas," the first track of Saxophone Colossus, there is a drum solo about four minutes or so into the song. The Gyrodec/Rega/Lyra very nicely captured the initial attack, then the decay of the skin along with the longer, rounded resonance from the body of the drums. Cymbal crashes were likewise extended and delicate. The next song "You Don't Know What Love Is," features Sonny front and center, and this turntable combination captured all the breathiness of his playing, giving me the feeling that he was right in front of me. In addition, his movements closer to and further away from the microphone were startlingly captured. Strangely, rock music was not quite as well served with this arm/cartridge/TT combination. It was enjoyable, but I think that this ultra-revealing cartridge was revealing all the nasties of modern studio production and letting me hear perhaps too deeply into the recordings. Also, I found that the harmonic colors were ever so slightly washed out compared to live sound. I had heard something similar with the Roksan. A final observation with this cartridge was that record noise was substantially reduced, with an extreme quiet between tracks. Many friends commented that they were surprised that vinyl was so quiet, and not at all what they remembered. I live in Zürich Switzerland, and this affords me the opportunity to hear live music nearly every night if I want to take the time and money to do so. I often go to hear live, unamplified jazz and classical music, so getting calibrated to what real music sounds like is relatively easy. As a result, this is what I strive for in my music system. The Gryrodec/Rega/Lydian system got me very close to a live feeling on those well-recorded classics from the late 50s and 60s, and only that slight thinness in the lower midrange sometimes spoiled the illusion. I have never felt that rock recordings were live sounding, as the recording engineers squeeze and squeeze and squeeze until all that sound fits into a boombox. When you hear it live, there can be so much power it’s downright scary, but when recorded, it always to me seems a shadow of itself. In my opinion, CD sounds no worse for rock music, so I buy rock LPs sparingly. One example, the most recent Red Hot Chili Peppers album, By The Way, is a very clean recording, but is it compressed!!! For a time I used an inexpensive solid state amplifier when I was between amps. This amp had power meters, and during listening sessions, I would continually be amazed that the needle was only fluctuating between 2 and 10 watts. Given my speakers’ approximately 86db sensitivity, this means the sound level was only between about 89 and 96 dB (at 1 meter), and this is only an approximately 7dB dynamic range! How could it sound anything but terrible when a boombox is being used for the final mix? End of rant against compression, on with the review. I was getting somewhere in characterizing the sound contribution from the Gyrodec/RB300 combination. Or was I? From my listening with these two cartridges, I had determined that the table/arm combo provided good dynamics, with a propulsiveness that gave a strong, muscular feel to music with a powerful beat. I had found a bit of leanness in the lower midrange, which at times seemed to rob the lower registers on a tenor sax or on a male singer’s lower range. Another thing I had determined was that the surface noise on good vinyl depended on the cartridge being used. With the Lyra, surface noise was nearly nonexistent, while with the Corus Black it was much more noticeable, yet in both cases the noise seemed diffuse and not attached to the music, and this went a long way in making it possible to ignore what noise there was. I was curious to see if these traits would be consistent with a third cartridge, so out went the Lydian and in went the Denon DL 103. This is about as anti-modern an MC cartridge as you can still buy today. It is the antithesis of the Lydian in everything except output voltage (both are rated at 0.3mV). The Lydian is a medium-compliance cartridge, while the Denon is a low-compliance cartridge designed for the broadcast industry and, truth be told, a heavier arm than my Rega. However, it was cheap, and had been reported to possess excellent cohesiveness. Getting this cartridge mounted on to any arm was a bit like playing Twister with my fingers. Since the Denon doesn't have the luxury of the Lyra’s threaded holes, you have to hold the cartridge in place while at the same time manipulating tiny screws and nuts. It took me about two hours, and when it was done, I wanted to get away from my stereo for a while. Upon my getting back, the Denon immediately sounded completely different than the Lyra. First, and most importantly, this cartridge had a big, rich, and utterly cohesive sound. The Lyra’s midbass leanness was completely gone! Returning to some of my favorite records, such as Nippon Soul (on Riverside, reissued by Fantasy), a live recording of the Cannonball Adderly Quintet in Japan, or Bill Evans’ Interplay (also on Riverside), I found that the foundation of the music was more full and lifelike. The dynamics and drive I had noted with the other cartridges did not diminish with the Denon, and I became more convinced that this is a characteristic of the Gyrodec/Rega combination. The midbass leanness that I had thought to be a characteristic of the turntable had given way to a much more lush and full sound, and it became clear that what I had been hearing was the contribution of the cartridge and not the table. Surface noise was somewhat increased with the DL 103, but tracking was far superior to that of either the Lydian or the Corus Black. (The Denon actually made it through the +18db torture track on the HFNRR test record.) This manifested itself in smoother crescendos on the Saxophone Colossus record, where, with the Lydian, I could sometimes hear a bit of breakup. On the negative side, a bit of the Lydian’s see-through transparency was lost, but the Denon was comparable on this respect to the Corus. Also, the deeper bass had become a bit leaden and plodding and the high frequencies had lost the sweetness and delicacy I had become accustomed to with the Lydian. There was not just a loss of air, but also the addition of a bit of graininess. Still, the Gyrodec/Rega combo allowed the unified sonic picture created by this cartridge to come through. I had a chance at this point to compare the performance of the Gyrodec/Rega RB300/Denon Dl 103 to that of a Pink Triangle Tarantella with a Rega RB250 and Denon DL103. I felt that this was a fair comparison, because the two turntables were nearly in the same price category, and were possessed of nearly the same arm and the same cartridge. The Tarantella is as striking a design as the Gyrodec and both will make people stop and take notice. Sonically, the Tarantella was light on its feet and very good at delivering the rhythm, but a bit of the richness of the music was being lost. The Gyrodec combo seemed to fill out the music and allow it to breathe more freely. Still, the differences were small, and had I not been able to compare the two turntables directly, they might have gone unnoticed for quite some time. But—and this is a big but—we are talking about long term satisfaction here, are we not? All too many items impress right away, and only later do I find that the charm has worn off and I am actively seeking a replacement. The final chapter in this four-cartridge odyssey was an Orotofon Vero II, a cartridge that I find strikes a good balance between the Lydian and the Denon. It retains the Denon's full-bodied sound through the upper bass/lower midrange, while giving a livelier deep bass and sweeter, more extended high frequencies. The same propulsive dynamics are present, as well as good cohesion. Surface noise is again very low (it must be the line contact styli in both the Lydian and the Vero), and the Vero has enough output to be used with the MM stage (0.5mV), and this should mean less electronic noise due to lower gain. However, it is still not the equal of the Lydian in terms of transparency and low-level information retrieval. In these respects, the Lydian was the top of the heap of cartridges I tried on the Gyrodec. Conclusions What to make of all this mixing and matching? First I would like to point out that each cartridge spent at least three months in my system, so I feel that I have a pretty good idea what each brought to the party. It may seem that this review is a bit like four cartridge reviews, but this makes a point. The differences between cartridges that I heard using the Gyrodec were obvious, and even non-audiophiles could easily hear them. In fact, the only characteristic that I could pin down to the table itself was its dynamics and propulsiveness. Each cartridge change brought about great differences in tonal balance, inner detail, transparency, tracking, macro dynamics, surface noise, and the way the music hung together. The fact that these areas of performance changed so much with each cartridge suggests that they were artifacts of the cartridge, and that the Gyrodec/Rega combo simply got out of the way and imparted very little of its own sonic signature. In direct comparison with the Tarantella, the Gyrodec showed itself to be more harmonically correct, while both possessed a good sense of rhythm. The Gyrodec provided more harmonic richness, which I believe means that it drew information from the grooves that was not being retrieved by the Tarantella. What this ultimately means to the owner of this table is that a cheap cartridge just won't do. It is my opinion that the Gyrodec can easily reveal all of the potential in a $1000-plus cartridge, as well as the flaws. The Lyra Lydian (now replaced by the Argon) was a $1000 cartridge in its day, and the Vero II costs nearly $800. The Denon, although it can be had very cheaply, performs at a much higher level than its modest price. The Gyrodec allowed each cartridge to reach its full potential, and the turntable’s performance seems to be dictated by the cartridge that is strapped to it. This turntable does very little editorializing. It is as romantic, transparent, irritating, dynamic, etc. as the cartridge and the material being played. Other than slightly demanding assembly and alignment requirements compared to a non-suspended table, the setup of the Gyrodec was not overly difficult. Still, if you cannot handle mechanical assembly, it is best to allow your dealer to assemble it for you, as the parts are built to a quite high tolerance and shouldn't be scratched or dinged. I would also be remiss to point out that even though the record clamp is optional, it should be purchased and used. No record is truly flat, and since the Gyrodec’s platter is flat, non-flat records will slip, causing speed errors. Unfortunately, the Michell clamp is not the greatest. It holds the record in place, but does not always get it flat to the platter, which can introduce more noise, although this wasn't too noticeable. My biggest problem was with 180gm records, because they don't bend so easily. Once you hear the Gyrodec SE Mk.II (or rather, don't hear it), you know it’s going to be in your system for the long haul. With a naturally balanced cartridge, I have not heard reproduced music sounding closer to live than through the Gyrodec. I don't see the need to spend more on a turntable, even after hearing the big boys at various high end shows. This turntable is designed to provide long-term satisfaction, and is most highly recommended. Brad Morrical

Rewiew coming soon

Review Coming Soon

The finest DAC ever!

The finest transport ever!

What a great piece of technology when used in conjunction with the Wadia 170i transport. This is a great music server that produces a sound better than my Lector Transport. Partially due to it's solid state drive, and the mods I had made to the Wadia. Plus it has all of the cool features of the iPhone.

I had the following upgrades done(please note I am not going to go into every detail of the upgrades. I will put the link to the site so that you can read for yourself): 1.Power Supply Replacement and Upgrade-which now allows me to plug my Shunyata Python into the Wadia. 2.Ultra low impedance capacitor replacements 3.DEXA UWB (Ultra Wide Bandwidth) Ultra Low Noise Voltage Regulators 4.Internal Wood Damping 5.High Quality Vampire RCA Connectors for Digital output 6.DEXA Neutron Star Flagship Clock Upgrade-with less than 2ps of jitter. 7.Bybee Slipstream Filter Upgrade Now let me first say that the stock Wadia's sound quality was about 97% of what my Lector Transport produces. As everyone knows I think the Lector DAC and Transport are the most analog sounding digital gear I have ever heard. In my opinion they are two of the best pieces on the market if your point of reference is vinyl like mine. Also note before I go on that I use an external Cd drive made by Yamaha to import my Cd's into iTunes. I do this because the internal drives record too much noise from my computer. All music is recorded using iTunes with error correction on, in WAV format, with a sampling rate of 48,000kHz. Lastly, I use the iPod touch which has a solid state drive which means there is no internal noise produced, unlike the standard iPod which uses a hard drive. So how did the Wadia sound after I got it back and broke it in for 100 hours? I can't believe I am going to write this, but I actually preferred the sound of the Wadia to the Lector transport. Now let me state that it was close. It took a lot of A/B/A comparisons with different music to even tell the difference. In the end it came down to this: The Lector had a slight advantage at bringing low level detail to the forefront but the Wadia produced a smoother sound. Now by smoother I don't mean that the highs were rolled off but that it lacked some of the digital harshness that the Lector produced(which by industry standards is extremely low by the way). At the end of the day I enjoy listening to my Wadia now more than my Lector. Now in fairness results may vary. I am running my Wadia into the Lector Digicode which has tube outputs, an amazing re-clocker, and accepts 48,000kHz sampling. I don't know what the Wadia would sound like with a lesser DAC. If you own a Wadia I strongly recommend contacting ASi Teknologies about upgrading your Wadia. For a little over $1,000 you can turn it into a high end transport. Please note I am in no way affiliated with ASi and make no money promoting their upgrades. I am just a very satisfied customer.

Stand is made of steal and 3" thick glass shelfs. Very stable and vibration free.

As close to the Zero as you can get. Between Pre-amp and amps.

Top of the line Tara Labs Speaker cable.

I use these cables for my Lector CD player. These cables are a perfect match and blow away the Art Fadels I had on them. Note these are the One's with two large floating ground stations. Not the onboard ones.

Between turntable and preamp

Integra DTC-9.8 Audio/Video Processor: A Brilliant Solution to Room Interactions Unless designed by a brilliant acoustician and built with unlimited funds, every listening room has nasty nulls and ragged resonances. Humans are adaptable creatures, so we eventually get used to these abnormalities, but that doesn’t mean the problems have gone away. Once, a friend and I were standing in my kitchen listening to a little Scott Hamilton through the overhead Niles speakers. We could also hear the same tunes playing through my main ATC speakers, in another room. The ATCs cost about 15 times as much as the Niles speakers, so my friend was a little shocked when I said I thought the Nileses sounded better in the kitchen than the ATCs sound from the kitchen. We’ve been told for decades that great sound radiates everywhere, so saying the Niles sounded better was heresy. But the hypothesis was simply verifiable, and verify it we did. So here’s a gauntlet thrown down at the feet of the Purity Patrol: The Integra DTC-9.8 is the best-sounding processor I’ve ever used, because it can electronically address room-driven frequency anomalies. The frequency response of each channel’s signal can be shaped to suit the anomalies of your listening room. The name of the room-correction software is Audyssey MultEQ XT. Remember that name: Audyssey’s program is set to ignite a firestorm of controversy. Back in the audio-only days, when everything was analog, nothing mattered so much as maintaining the clarity and purity of the audio signal. The concern was understandable; consider the potential for mayhem done to the waveform from a vinyl record as it makes its way through cartridge, cartridge leads, tonearm, turntable, phono cable, phono stage, preamp, interconnect, power amplifier, speaker cables, speakers -- and then there are the room interactions. In those days, it was easy to spend a small fortune on the first 11 problems because the audio world supported an entire array of cottage industries devoted to solving them. Problem 12 -- room interactions -- was looked at as an undefeatable side effect of listening to music in the home. Your only hope was a multiband parametric equalizer, and an audiophile buying an equalizer would be like Mother Teresa asking Little Richard out on a date. Oh, there were the Tube Traps, RPG Diffusors, Echo Busters, and various sound deadeners, but these were unpredictable in uneducated hands and in that case did as much harm as good. Don’t think I look down my nose at audiophiles. I was and am one. I spent hours trying to perfectly align my cartridge, bought separate phono stages, and went through a half dozen or so preamps, turntables, and tonearms. I spent days making micro-adjustments of speaker toe-in. And cables? Don’t get me started. Coming from this pursuit of ultimate purity, the idea that a processor should shape what you hear at your listening position using equalization to compensate for the acoustic characteristics of the room itself is a frightening jump. But jump you will when you hear how well Audyssey MultEQ XT can clean up the sounds of your movies and music. In fact, it’s so good, I predict that we’ll be seeing Audyssey processing all over the place. Except in the ultra-high-end. From makers of really high-end products -- A/V processors that cost more than $5000 -- we’ll hear something like: "We reject the idea of using electronics to cure a physical problem. These programs only work for one position in the listening area. Plus, it’s our responsibility to preserve the signal, not tamper with it." That’s a laudable goal. We should always strive for playing the cleanest possible signal through room-appropriate speakers into a room that is as acoustically neutral as possible. There is no better solution for room issues than properly designing it in the first place. But given the fact that all listening spaces are compromised, which link of the audio chain should we turn to for help in taming room resonances? I want it done in the digital domain, by a powerful processor with flash memory and an easy-to-use interface. Enter the Integra DTC-9.8. Integra, a division of Onkyo, has been around for eight years now, and has developed an honorable reputation for producing great-sounding products at prices that, to high-enders, look low. Integra always uses cutting-edge components, which in this case means that the DTC-9.8 is among the first that is THX Ultra2 Certified. The DTC-9.8 comes with a long list of features. The most important, other than Audyssey MultEQ XT, are HDMI v.1.3a, the 1080p HQV Reon VX video processor, and Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD decoding. For those of us lucky enough to be living close to a good HD Radio station, the DTC-9.8 does that too. For everyone else, and for a monthly fee, you can set up an account for XM Radio or Sirius Radio. The DTC-9.8 has four HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs. The HQV Reon VX lets it pass along or scale video images up to 1080p -- even your dusty old VHS tapes should look dramatically better. On the sound side, the DTC-9.8 has 7.1-channel balanced XLR and RCA outputs, and enough processing power to not only fix your room acoustics, but to decode all current audio formats, including the high-definition soundtracks on HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. More important, if you’ve yet to hear the advantages of lossless sound formats, you’re in for a treat. There’s also a phono preamp with plenty of gain for any moving-magnet cartridge. On top of all this, the DTC-9.8 can also serve as a media hub. Its three sets of outputs -- Main (audio and video), Zone 1 (audio and video), and Zone 2 (audio only) -- can be addressed individually. You could be watching a football game via Main while your spouse watches Food TV via Zone 1 and your kids rock out to Linkin Park via Zone 2. The best feature of all is the DTC-9.8’s price: $1600 USD. If it works as well as we hope, it will be one of the great bargains in home theater. The DTC 9.8 was deceptively simple to set up. All that complexity offers a lot of controllability, so take the hour or so and read the manual, highlighting the things that seem nonintuitive. You’ll be glad you did. If you have only four sources, all with HDMI outputs, setup is truly simple. Just plug them into the DTC-9.8’s HDMI inputs, use one of the Integra’s HDMI outputs for your display, and you’re ready to roll. If you have a turntable or CD-R, or want to use the analog output of your SACD or DVD-Audio player, there are plenty of connections on the DTC 9.8’s rear panel. Fans of balanced cables are accommodated, with a stereo balanced XLR input. And connection to your power amp is easy: RCA or XLR? Take your choice. Both are there. The Audyssey setup is simple, too. Just fire up your display so you can read the instructions, plug in the supplied microphone, keep quiet, and stand back. The program will ask you to place the mike in at least three different locations: where you sit, where your significant other sits, and somewhere in the middle. The whole process takes about 15 minutes. When the DTC-9.8 finishes, it will have determined how far each speaker is from the listening area, its best crossover frequency and volume level, and what EQ is required for the flattest response. Pretty neat. At this point, if you’re feeling intrepid, you can dig deeper into the setup menus, where you’ll find out how to control a number of different parameters for each input: where the sound and video come from, what type of sound you want to default to, and what the trim level should be to make the sound consistent from different inputs. The manual seems to have been written by a native English speaker, and it’s organized in baby steps, clearly telling you everything you need to know. For knowledgeable folks only: If you feel like instructing your Reon chip to follow your orders rather than the default settings, you can access the chip’s menu by holding down the display button for 8 to 10 seconds. I used it as programmed and made any changes I wanted to at the projector. But it’s nice to have the choice. How it works Let’s start with the HQV Reon chipset’s setup menu. I left all settings in their factory defaults, then began using the bypass test to see if there was any improvement. I have my Oppo DV-981HD set to 480p video output. Why would I do that when I can set it to 1080p? Simple. I want to keep the signal as close to the original resolution as possible until the last second where it makes sense to change it. My system (and yours, probably) has three scalers: the DVD player’s upscaler, the processor’s scaler, and the TV or projector’s scaler. The worst possible thing to do would be to have each scaler re-scale a signal already scaled by a device earlier in the chain. Even small idiosyncrasies can become problematic when you chain them together. The Oppo, Integra, and JVC HD1 D-ILA projector all did a fine job. I settled on using the JVC’s video manipulation, not because I thought it did a better job than the Integra, but because it came later in the chain. The JVC is outstanding at scaling and conversion. With some other projectors I’ve reviewed, the Integra would have been the better choice. In any case, the differences between the scaling done by the Integra and the JVC were almost undetectable. Once you know how to get into Reon chip’s setup menu, you can easily use it to make global changes to the picture. The good news is that the Integra did nothing to detract from the quality of whatever I fed it. If you can set your display to be a merely passive reproducer of the pixels it’s fed, try letting the Integra handle everything. Beautiful picture guaranteed. But the real deal -- the one that had me on the phone to Integra the second I heard about it -- is the inclusion of Audyssey MultEQ XT room correction. Again, mark my words: you are going to hear a great backlash from people who just don’t like the concept. If they even try the Audyssey, they’ll probably react negatively to the change in sound. All of us subconsciously prefer recordings that flatter our systems. If we make a big change -- and using Audyssey is a big change -- those same recordings may no longer sound so flattering. So if you already believe that all digital manipulation is bad, you’ll seize on the change in sound of your favorite recordings as proof that it doesn’t work. It does work, and better than anything I’ve ever tried in my home theater. My room has an uncontrolled resonance at 45Hz. To keep it under control, I’ve always sacrificed some of the bottom octave. A few months ago I tried a JL Audio subwoofer, which did a splendid job of suppressing that resonance, and allowed me to get beautiful sound in the 20-45Hz range. Audyssey MultEQ is far more sophisticated, and did a splendid job of flattening that resonance. The net result was a lot more low bass and much less muddy midbass. I went straight for music. In "So What," from Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue [CD, Columbia/Legacy 64935], Paul Chambers’ woody double bass is mixed a little back on the soundstage, but a properly balanced system will convey the bass’s weight and body. The sound was superb. Yes, back when I listened only to analog two-channel stereo, I heard a slightly more "audiophile" sound -- a liquid sort of sound with a slightly scooped-out midrange. It made for wonderful depth of soundstage, but it wasn’t real. The Integra got the frequency response mostly flat. Things sounded real. The next surprise was that the improvements weren’t confined to the bass, or to a single "sweet spot." My wife sits about 30 degrees off center (Position 2 in the Audyssey setup routine) and sometimes has trouble hearing the output of the center channel. After I’d run the Audyssey software, she could hear all the delicate, quiet sounds of the tinkling glass chimes in Curse of the Golden Flower without having to turn the whole system up. Scenes of bombast, too, seemed more alive. We could clearly hear the work of the Foley artists in the battle scenes in 300 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Even the sounds of light musicals such as Top Hat opened up, with convincingly fluttering dresses and banging taps. I can’t imagine anyone buying the DTC-9.8 and then not using Audyssey MultEQ XT, but if you occasionally want to hear an analog source sans Audyssey, all you have to do is plug it into the Integra’s multichannel audio or one of its several analog inputs, then switch the listening mode to, respectively, Multichannel or Direct. You’ll definitely hear a difference between the sound with Audyssey and without. In all, the Integra DTC-9.8 romanced the best sound I’ve heard from any multichannel processor. Integra has leveled the playing field. From now on, anyone who wants more than $1600 for an A/V processor had better offer something pretty good for the upcharge. …Wes Marshall [email protected]

5 channel amp for home theater

Passive Power Cleaner

For VTL MB-450 monoblock

For MB-450 monoblock

For Messenger Preamp

Power Cord for Shunyata V-Ray

For Lector power supply.

Used for home theater

Never connected power supply. Eases presentation presenting a more relaxed, natural sound, with a darker background. Must have if you own a Michelle Turntable.

This outlet made a huge difference in my sound. Friends who know my system cannot believe how black the background is now. Do yourself and contact Albert Porter on Audiogon and get some.

Only used for home theater.

These cylinders are used to prevent first reflections. They really helped bring the center image into focus and expand the soundstage.

This panel is put in the front of the TV to prevent sound waves from bouncing back and forth between the TV and the rear wall. Helps bring the center image into focus.

Intel QX9650 Quad Core overclocked to 4.2 GHz, liquid cooling, 2 Evga 9800 GX2's Overclocked to 690 MHz in Quad SLI configuration, EVGA 790i Ultra Motherboard, 4 GB Corsair DDR3 1600MHz Ram, Vista 64 bit, and two Raptor 150 GB drives in Raid 0 config. This is the ultimate gaming machine.

Nothing like gaming on a $100,000+ system :)

Oh Yeah...

Best digital cable out there. Used between Lector DAC and Lector Transport.

6 color wheel, 180 watt lamp, full 1080p DLP. 120 hz with smooth setting, 4-D field enhancer, x.v. color, and full 3-D video and gaming support. This T.V. looks liks a front projector.

Used strictly for Blu-Ray playback.

Plays both blu ray and hd-dvd with the best picture on the market(read the reviews)

Used for playing 3D movies.

Used with Michelle power supply.

I have two pairs that I use in my surround system(not for two channel audio). It's a complex setup so I am not going to go into it here. If you want to know email me.

Used for all of my equipment with HDMI output. Produces outstanding picture and transmits hi-def bitstreams. I tried the HDMI-3 and found no visual improvement so I have stayed with the HDMI-1 at the cheaper price. Price below is for all three.

I use the new Carbon cables for my 3D player and emitter. While I hate the sound of Audioquest audio cables, I am still in love with their HDMI cables.