For most audiophiles, an office system is an afterthought and rarely more than a computer, diminutive speakers and a desk.  Not so here.  Believe it or not, this is my current "reference" system and my primary space for "critical" listening.  Sad but true.  In our previous domicile, I had a SOTA listening room that I co-labored with Starsound Technologies and Dale Pitcher of Mosaic Audio for over two years.  It was an absolute sonic relation and profound, but sadly the neighborhood was unsafe for our little people due to careless, quasi-homicidal through traffic.  So, I sold all that equipment and moved to an older, quieter neighborhood on the end of a cul-de-sac with my wife and kids.  We now live in a 1971 rambler filed with quaint built-ins and absolutely NO room for big speakers and a big daddy, reference system.  That aside, I could not suppress the inner audiophile and still hankered for something "more."       

Cut to the present, and I now inhabit a 12 x 19 x 11 ft office space begging for music.  I briefly speaker rolled with a host of Trenner & Friedl speakers, including the Suns, Arts, and then the RAs all of which are superb transducers.  I am a huge fan of that company and their house sound and still have the Suns in my home rig which I adore.  Still, I had an itch.  I had a brief dalliance with Klipsch Cornwall Is in our previous home and even planned on modding them, but sold them as they were too large.  I very much enjoyed their speed and tactile presentation.  In the back of my mind, I have always wanted to own some true blue, big boy horns.  Enter Fred Crane from Audioprana.  I had bought some equipment from him in the past, including a Crayon integrated and a later a very fine 300B Trafomatic integrated amp.  Being privy to my present speaker journey, he mentioned a company out of Poland called Destination audio.  Sam, the brains and designer behind that company, had a large three way horn called the Nikka that he thought could work well in my rather tight and awkward space.  I looked at pictures of them and thought there was no way these behemoths would work in an office space where any speaker would be relegated to corner placement.  They were enormous (25 x 25 x 50 inches and 254 lbs)!  I was wrong.  Sam and Fred showed up in Charlotte and hand delivered and set up this pair of Nikkas which were actually a show pair that made the rounds at various shows that were captured online.  The Nikka deliver speed and tone in a way that I have not heard in any speaker before let alone a horn.  They certainly do not sound like horns, and this is with very modest upstream equipment, including a NAD 7125 which I purchased on Craigslist for a whopping $75 in addition to a WiFi streamer by dBSystems out of France.  In addition, grand piano reproduction has always been an acid test for me.  The Nikkas portray grand piano faithfully with both texture and scale that is compelling and another first for yours truly.  I still plan on amp rolling in the not too distant future, including the Trafomatic 811 integrated or possibly even Sam's future 81-based integrated.  Time will tell.

The overall system and room aesthetic is an homage to Don Draper of Madmen fame in addition to my own childhood and current resonance with all things vintage or "midmodern."  The credenza and the Letterman triptych are pure 70s and put my mind in a mellow place as do the aesthetics of the speakers.  Aesthetics should always be considered a system component or accessory as they also play a role in the mood altering science of audiophilia.