Some close-ups:
Out of the box listening impression: holographic and very wide and deep soundstage, subterranean bass which is bound to tighten further with burn in, beautiful tonality.
Listened to the setup again after 5 days worth of burn-in. One additional change was done in the interim - fine tuning of the placement of the speakers by Mr Khushrau Jilla (Nexus Audio). Also, one more change in the setup that is not yet mentioned (IIRC) is the introduction of a pair of brand new speaker stands Bhagwan had commissioned from Soundfoundation. It is a new design, with lots of inputs from Bhagwan, like four rectangular column supports of unequal dimensions to break up resonances, use of innovative fillers, and a true CLD top plate.
I had heard amazing sound staging right out of the box. This has improved further in width, depth, height and image specificity. His earlier setups always did "out-of-speaker" lateral imaging, but this one expands the lateral horizon even further (provided the program material has it). Depth equals the best I had heard in his setup. But image "pin prick" accuracy has been taken to a much higher level. As is the sense of image height. I guess this is what SET lovers rave about - three dimensionality.
Another standout aspect is the beguilingly beautiful tonality. I guess it is another SET feature.
And the bass has firmed up. No subwoofer required. It is solid foundation, weighty and well defined.
If audio memory serves, my impression is that this setup beats all previous iterations I have heard in Bhagwan's room. With some margin to spare. And that includes the 3-box Scarlattis. It is a real pleasure listening to it.
I didn't hear the new Meitner MA-1 DAC yet. All above impression were with the DAD studio DAC, using regular 16/44.1 source materials, played from a purist two-computer J-Play setup running Win8.
I was unsure what to expect of the transformer volume control in the AMR-T2 Silver preamplifier. As it turns out, it is nothing less than wonderful. It is a sublime marriage of passive and active stages.
Therefore, I turned to the next best option - PRC - this was a product that was made in China & hence was 'substantially' cheaper & some people I respect & regard on the international front said to me that it was a nice product.
I think the nagging suspicion about the less than (audio) aristocratic provenance of the devices can now be laid to rest. The sound says it all. There is nothing in the sound they make or the quality of their build to suggest that they are any less capable than the audio blue blood from Europe, America, Japan, Korea, or India. And the invasion from PRC into the very high end can only grow.
I do have a hazy idea about modifying an SF Theta Pedestal that I use with the TT, for use with the two bodies of the amp, but I'll need to talk to Ali about it.
