Hello Guys,
I wanted to share my experiences on a fellow audiophile's Journey. I have had the privilege of listening to all the gear he has got and he only recently allowed me to post the photographs of his gear. Some fellow FM members also had a chance to listen to this setup when we went over once.
Here are the Pics.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/10815228@N03/1AMo57
I hope this will help others buying same or similar gear.
When I met him he was just getting into serious gear, He was using focals before.
He was convinced that Tubes bring out the best character in music so most of
his gear is mainly tube or hybrid.
Setup 1.
Cadence amaya Speakers
Cadence Canasya Amps.
Conrad Johnson ART Preamp
and the source was Meridian 808.
This setup was the first tube setup to impress me with HF detail. I am always of the opinion that Tubes do not reveal enough of the HF for the true details to come thru. Tubes do have the advantage of being very good at midrange.
This setup had the details that you would normally expect from a SS setup but without the SS fatigue when playing music with a lot of HF.
I liked the Midrange and LF in this setup very much. I bet anyone who has heard amaya would rave about the purity of the voice in classical ragas with their ElectroStatic Drivers. On the downside I felt that they are not the best for listening to modern AR Rehman , synthesised or DJ style music.
Setup 2. Pantheon+Canasya+ART+Meridian
He felt that since speakers are the ones which generate the sound and the ones you have the closest relationship with and the ones that last the longest, the first upgrade should be that.
Enter the Siltech Pantheon. These are the best speakers I have ever heard (Ive heard MBL, Focal Grand Utopia, Wilson, Magicos etc at showrooms and audio shows), These are the only speakers that have almost 5.1 style imaging when you sit in the sweet spot. It's amazing how some sounds appear to come from the back when playing a stereo track. You have to hear them to believe them. Although every high end speakers have a unique excellence to them, I assume imaging is the one for the Pantheons. They made only 39 pairs of them globally. I read that have used advanced aeronautical simulation software to design the cabinet.
6moons industryfeatures: Siltech's Pantheon 25
Setup 3. Pantheon+Canasya+ART+Esoteric P02 D02 G01
Next came the Source, For the source he got a three piece system from Esoteric . This was the first time I saw and heard Esoteric gear. There was a CD transport (P02) and a DAC (D02), the ones we are used to , but to squeeze out that extra bit of detail he went ahead and got the Clock (G01).
The Clock is a unit that looks like a DAC but generates a Reference clock signal that the transport and the DAC lock on to so that the clock does not have to be regenerated in the DAC. When there are two clocks one inside the DAC and one in the CD Transport ,it seems they might go out of sync. There are articles online about how these work.
This was a big step up from the Meridian. The resolution was ultimate best with wide sound stage & excellent tonal details. Especially the vocals were alive, didnt feel like i was hearing through speakers. I could feel the layers of sound very clearly. The build quality of the esoterics is exceptional with machined aluminum chassis.
Setup 4. Pantheon+Siltech SET Reference Monoblock+ART+Esoteric P02 D02 G01
Now came the time to upgrade the power amp, for this he chose the Siltech SET Reference.
100 Watt Pure Class A Tube (per channel)
Pure Silver winding Transformers
Operation in Zero Feedback or Feedback Mode (switchable)
http://www.higherfi.com/pix100k/siltech_signature_se.jpg
The Pantheons are huge speakers you would hardly expect a pure Tube amp to power them. The canasya are atleast Hybrid, so they were able to manage. i honestly thought that a SET amp is only for single driver speakers, because previously i have heard unison research reference 845. so when i went to hear the siltech SET amps, i was thinking that these amps wouldnt be able to drive such huge drivers of the pantheons. But to my pleasant surprise i found them to be extraordinary, with perfect PRAT, decay was longer & drove the pantheons without a sweat. I bet you would very rarely see speakers this huge being driven by Class A SET amps. This is truly next level.
Only 12 amps ever made globally. it is a collectors item & lives upto its reputation. Stunning to look at too.
Setup 5.
Pantheon+Siltech SE Reference Monoblock+ART+Esoteric P02 D02 G01
Pantheon+Siltech SE Reference Monoblock+ART+Metronome Kalista referance + Stahltek opus prime DAC
The icing on the cake.
Just when you think the system cannot get any better, He has recently acquired a new Transport the Metronome Kalista and Staltek Oppos Prime DAC . These are in a league of their own. The Kalista looks like a high end turntable with its own balancing mechanism that are supposed to completely isolate the CD player mechanism from vibrations. The Stahltek DAC is a reference DAC, Jim Auds brainchild, that sounds amazing.
What is interesting is that Esoteric Transport with Stahl-tek Sounds different from Metronam Kalistha + Stahltek , the Esoteric+Stal-tek sounds a tad bright. I assume that Esoteric does something to match their all their gear to extract the best balanced performance.
I am a strong non believer in Cables, but he IS so he uses siltech reference on all of the interconnects and digital cables. Once he showed me how the sound quality changes between a PC SMPS cable and a high end 10k USD power cable for a DAC. To my surprise it changed. I being a skeptic , attributed it to better grounding of the gear on the 10k cable since it was huge and very thick. That incident has not made me a believer yet.
Much to my surprise, I could see that at each stage that some aspect of sound quality was indeed improving be it imaging, mid range clarity,Dynamics etc. I always assumed that once you start investing in audio gear you would hit the law of diminishing returns very soon , but to my surprise for him, it has not, and keeps going on.
I seriously doubt if i will be hearing a setup better than this and so i asked him to let me document his journey till now which could be a point of reference for fellow audiophiles.
So the Quest continues.
I wanted to share my experiences on a fellow audiophile's Journey. I have had the privilege of listening to all the gear he has got and he only recently allowed me to post the photographs of his gear. Some fellow FM members also had a chance to listen to this setup when we went over once.
Here are the Pics.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/10815228@N03/1AMo57
I hope this will help others buying same or similar gear.
When I met him he was just getting into serious gear, He was using focals before.
He was convinced that Tubes bring out the best character in music so most of
his gear is mainly tube or hybrid.
Setup 1.
Cadence amaya Speakers
Cadence Canasya Amps.
Conrad Johnson ART Preamp
and the source was Meridian 808.
This setup was the first tube setup to impress me with HF detail. I am always of the opinion that Tubes do not reveal enough of the HF for the true details to come thru. Tubes do have the advantage of being very good at midrange.
This setup had the details that you would normally expect from a SS setup but without the SS fatigue when playing music with a lot of HF.
I liked the Midrange and LF in this setup very much. I bet anyone who has heard amaya would rave about the purity of the voice in classical ragas with their ElectroStatic Drivers. On the downside I felt that they are not the best for listening to modern AR Rehman , synthesised or DJ style music.
Setup 2. Pantheon+Canasya+ART+Meridian
He felt that since speakers are the ones which generate the sound and the ones you have the closest relationship with and the ones that last the longest, the first upgrade should be that.
Enter the Siltech Pantheon. These are the best speakers I have ever heard (Ive heard MBL, Focal Grand Utopia, Wilson, Magicos etc at showrooms and audio shows), These are the only speakers that have almost 5.1 style imaging when you sit in the sweet spot. It's amazing how some sounds appear to come from the back when playing a stereo track. You have to hear them to believe them. Although every high end speakers have a unique excellence to them, I assume imaging is the one for the Pantheons. They made only 39 pairs of them globally. I read that have used advanced aeronautical simulation software to design the cabinet.
6moons industryfeatures: Siltech's Pantheon 25
Setup 3. Pantheon+Canasya+ART+Esoteric P02 D02 G01
Next came the Source, For the source he got a three piece system from Esoteric . This was the first time I saw and heard Esoteric gear. There was a CD transport (P02) and a DAC (D02), the ones we are used to , but to squeeze out that extra bit of detail he went ahead and got the Clock (G01).
The Clock is a unit that looks like a DAC but generates a Reference clock signal that the transport and the DAC lock on to so that the clock does not have to be regenerated in the DAC. When there are two clocks one inside the DAC and one in the CD Transport ,it seems they might go out of sync. There are articles online about how these work.
This was a big step up from the Meridian. The resolution was ultimate best with wide sound stage & excellent tonal details. Especially the vocals were alive, didnt feel like i was hearing through speakers. I could feel the layers of sound very clearly. The build quality of the esoterics is exceptional with machined aluminum chassis.
Setup 4. Pantheon+Siltech SET Reference Monoblock+ART+Esoteric P02 D02 G01
Now came the time to upgrade the power amp, for this he chose the Siltech SET Reference.
100 Watt Pure Class A Tube (per channel)
Pure Silver winding Transformers
Operation in Zero Feedback or Feedback Mode (switchable)
http://www.higherfi.com/pix100k/siltech_signature_se.jpg
The Pantheons are huge speakers you would hardly expect a pure Tube amp to power them. The canasya are atleast Hybrid, so they were able to manage. i honestly thought that a SET amp is only for single driver speakers, because previously i have heard unison research reference 845. so when i went to hear the siltech SET amps, i was thinking that these amps wouldnt be able to drive such huge drivers of the pantheons. But to my pleasant surprise i found them to be extraordinary, with perfect PRAT, decay was longer & drove the pantheons without a sweat. I bet you would very rarely see speakers this huge being driven by Class A SET amps. This is truly next level.
Only 12 amps ever made globally. it is a collectors item & lives upto its reputation. Stunning to look at too.
Setup 5.
Pantheon+Siltech SE Reference Monoblock+ART+Esoteric P02 D02 G01
Pantheon+Siltech SE Reference Monoblock+ART+Metronome Kalista referance + Stahltek opus prime DAC
The icing on the cake.
Just when you think the system cannot get any better, He has recently acquired a new Transport the Metronome Kalista and Staltek Oppos Prime DAC . These are in a league of their own. The Kalista looks like a high end turntable with its own balancing mechanism that are supposed to completely isolate the CD player mechanism from vibrations. The Stahltek DAC is a reference DAC, Jim Auds brainchild, that sounds amazing.
What is interesting is that Esoteric Transport with Stahl-tek Sounds different from Metronam Kalistha + Stahltek , the Esoteric+Stal-tek sounds a tad bright. I assume that Esoteric does something to match their all their gear to extract the best balanced performance.
I am a strong non believer in Cables, but he IS so he uses siltech reference on all of the interconnects and digital cables. Once he showed me how the sound quality changes between a PC SMPS cable and a high end 10k USD power cable for a DAC. To my surprise it changed. I being a skeptic , attributed it to better grounding of the gear on the 10k cable since it was huge and very thick. That incident has not made me a believer yet.
Much to my surprise, I could see that at each stage that some aspect of sound quality was indeed improving be it imaging, mid range clarity,Dynamics etc. I always assumed that once you start investing in audio gear you would hit the law of diminishing returns very soon , but to my surprise for him, it has not, and keeps going on.
I seriously doubt if i will be hearing a setup better than this and so i asked him to let me document his journey till now which could be a point of reference for fellow audiophiles.
So the Quest continues.
.
