Ouch. Okay.
What is your go to source? Vinyl? Why are you sniffing around the Phison tree? MSB falling short in some way? I know your speakers are laser beam accurate. Are you wanting more body and warmth from your digital? What server/software do you use?
How do you like the Torus? There is a thread on Whats Best Forum extolling the virtues of active power filtration, etc....I know that thing must have been a bitch to install. I was looking at the equivalent Equitech product at one point and installation is a pain....
First understand I have been working on building this system for a couple of years and the room is finally under construction as we speak. It will be replacing an old B&W/ Rotel system I have lived with for many years. I have been slowly evaluating gear and buying pieces I like for a while. I now have everything but an arm.
With that, let me give that question list a shot.
Source- I expect vinyl to continue as my source of choice as it has since the 70's but we will see. The new MSB is awfully good.
Sniffing around Phison - No I think I am going to love the MSB. I am just intrigued by the brain on Blizzard. I have never joined WBF but I have lurked there often and find him a very interesting fellow.
Server - On Paper I really like what Larry and the boys have done with the renderer at MSB. I went to great lengths to avoid all of the half-baked server solutions cuz I don't see anything but a theoretical negative impact to SQ in exchange for a "pretty" user interface. That ain't my thang. Converting straight to i2s from ethernet in a direct topology avoids a lot of problems with ground noise, packet junk, power supply perturbations, etc. I am going mimserver on nas.
Power - My thoughts a pretty simple here. Everything outside the listening room must be isolated by transformer. Were many fail here is they use way, way to small of transformers and kill instantaneous current which is worse many times than leaving the power a little dirty. I am huge believer in the merits of vast amounts of clean current. (Like Caelin over at Shunyata). Once you got the power to the room all thats left is component isolation and proper grounding. I want to isolate the noise between gear with a passive unit. Lots of good ones. I picked the inline Furutech units. The last requirement for component isolation is to make sure the gear doesn't cause line modulation. This is one of the biggest reasons for good power cords. Vince Galbo is pretty smart on this. All power supplies modulate but when the modulation reflects off a high impedance point it buggers up the PS performance. Isolation is done by running either real long, low gauge PC's or better running very good outlets and wires in the walls to a massive transformer (which has zero) impedance. All the PS modulation is eaten up by the transformer and never reflects. Last I got a separate star ground system for all five 20 amp outlets in a cavity right behind my listening wall so each outlet's electrical potential at the ground is identical.
Lastly, yes indeed the specific gravity of ferrous metals is quite high (in other words don't drop a Torus on your toe.)
