Everest Audio
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I hope you all don't mind me posting this as I'm a dealer. However, we're not a traditional B&M dealer, so our demo systems are systems we listen to personally. So, when some new demo gear comes in, we get as excited as everybody else on these forums. We were audiophiles for a long time that felt our market here needed something better, so we did as many I'm sure have contemplated and started our own business. That was back in 2000. Anyways, I've been playing with some new stuff in my demo system over less than the last week and have been pretty excited how it is all coming together.
First was the change to a Furutech GTX-D Rhodium AC receptacle. The one I was using was no slouch at all, but this is in a different league. There have been some aspects of the system I've been struggling with for a long time and various gear combinations gave different results, but the nagging issue was still there. Then the outlet change. Wow! I knew within the first minute that this was going to be a huge upgrade. Not only did detail and transparency take a notch up, but the smoothness and liquidity I was missing was there.
Second, was the addition of a pair of Roksan Darius S1 speakers. They are a pretty new speaker for Roksan and not known to most as Roksan isn't thought of much at all for speakers. There are three reviews of these speakers out there and all of them pretty much raves. Hi-fi+ put them in the league of the Raidho C1.1, which is high praise as the Roksan Darius S1 is half the money. I just have a few days on them so far and my business partner felt these are definitely the best he has heard at my place. I'm playing a bit with foam bungs I've made for the rear ports as they can definitely overload the small room, even though they only have a 5.5 inch midbass driver. They are spec'd to -3 at 47 Hz, but it's shocking how much solid response I'm getting at 30Hz. Roksan has said this is the best speaker they've ever made, and I can see why. I'm excited to keep putting more hours on them and see how they come around. All the detail is there, but not in an upfront or analytical way at all. My girlfriend even mentioned how they provide great detail, but have body and warmth too.
The last is the new Bel Canto REFStream. It just became available and I brought one in for a customer. However, my customer hasn't had time to pick it up yet and is graciously allowing me to break it in for a bit so I get a feel for it and can answer any questions he has when he gets it in his possession. The connection is via Ethernet and it has outputs of ST Glass Fibre, S/PDIF and AES/EBU. Setup and connection through JRiver Media was an absolute breeze and was up and going in a number of minutes after unpacking. Bel Canto told me that this is a big step up from the REFLink USB converter and I'm loving it so far. It seems like there is a lot of trickle down here from the Bel Canto Black Asynchronous Stream Controller. When it goes to the customer, probably later today, I'm going to be in withdrawl and will need to put one into this demo system.
Needless to say, the last few days have been a lot of fun. Anyways, I'll try to include a few pictures. I haven't posted pictures before, so I hope I get this right.
