Thanks guys. I love breaking in products. Hearing the little things get better and better. I'm also breaking in the crossover for the speakers as I had Ayre build it directly into the integrated amp. They do a great job with this and it's not too expensive and a great option when you have an integrated amp.
Listening to Radka Toneoff (spelling?) and if feels like the venue they recorded in is in my room. This is the first time I've heard these set up this way and it's compelling. As I said, it's hard to get used to such a huge soundstage and not having suck out in the middle. I've been playing some smaller venue jazz pieces also and the stage is in-between the speakers right where it always has been, but for orchestral and other larger venue cuts, it sure seems to be true to the recording (although since I wasn't producing them, I don't know for sure).
I will say that I took the AQ Niagara out of the system and put a piece of balanced AQ Water in as the sound on top was a hair sharp in the beginning, but today the Niagara is going back in. I know for a fact it gives MUCH more detail and is actually a warmer piece of cable than even the all copper. To me, that's when silver is done correctly. Too many large companies use the same machines that make the copper cable to pull the silver and that ruins the magic that silver has to it. It's all in how it's drawn that will give it it's proper characteristics. Some may fight me on this, but it has to do with the grain size and the grain boundaries of the silver. I may look at upgrading the balanced interconnect.
I also noticed that Mike uses Aspen on his. I"m using CastleRock as many of we Treo/Quatro owners do. It's a great cable at a real sweet spot for the cost of the speakers. I will be trying out a pair of Aspen though I think as I trust Mike and his ear. I do an internal biwire and the Aspen seems to be thicker gauge etc...
I took the Synergistic Research Powercell 10 mk2 Tesla cable out of the system (about to put it up for sale if anyone wants it. It's like new with no scratches, the white gloves and original carton and the three magic bullets) and replaced it with the Audioquest Niagara 1000. I still plug my amp into the wall so I just need a smaller 6 plug outlet and by taking the Powercell out of the system, I was able to take a whole rack out (long story) and clean up the room a great deal. It just made sense.
The electrician will come in the next week or two and install a small LED light above each speaker to showcase them and their heavy metallic finish. I'll then have him run doubled up runs of 14/3 romex inside a steel conduit with AQ outlets. I'll have one behind each speaker for the subs to plug into and a 4 pack behind the TV/gear unit to hide cords and give me plenty of outlets for Apple TV, over the air antenna when used etc... There will be 4 sets of outlets total and they will all be isolated from the other circuits in the house and grounded together to earth with a very long copper rod. This is the commercial way to do it and it will give the circuit a star ground. I'm not an electrician, but I'm mimicking a friend of mine who's a designer and knows what he's doing. I'll have to report back on that also.
With so many changes, it's hard to isolate what's doing what, but I'm so familiar with these speakers in so many homes and stores and I know the amps inside out with almost every speaker that's discussed these days, that I think I'll have a good idea what's changing and how it is. I will say that my server that Steve Nugent built is every bit as good as any server that I've heard so far and I've heard many of them (not all by any means though). Johnny Rutan (Audio Connections, some of you know him) was surprised by how good it is. I know he didn't expect that, but with the Paul Hynes power supply and the way Steve optimized everything, including the hard drive he installed along with the component changes on the boards he made, it is an amazing piece. I need to figure out if it's worth putting it on the net and have it attached to a Melco NAS and run Roon on it. If it hurts the sound, I'll just keep it off the house wifi and run it off the TV. I am not sure I can even run it headless, but it would be nice to have that flexibility. That said, it's going to be hard to take it out if that's the only way I can make it simpler to use. I'll figure that out in time and servers are only getting better and better as we move forward. I can't wait to have a server discussion with you Mike, lol....Let's catch up this weekend if you are around.
