I had a chance to visit FM gvenu the week before on Saturday Feb 9th. Even though it was short notice, Venu asked to me come on over to his place and have a listen. Despite the miserable Bangalore traffic I managed to make it over to his place in time.
Venu has just moved into a new apartment which he told was selected more for the acoustics setup than anything else. His gear is almost all Acoustic Portrait apart from the TT and CDP. For those interested his setup (taken from his signature) is what many fans of Acoustic Portrait will aspire for.
Denon DVDP
Acoustic Portrait 24 Bit/192 KHz Async USB DAC
Pro-Ject Debut III with 2MRed
Lyrita Phono/Line
AP PM1 Valve Pre + Active Cross over + 2X AP CPA3 Mosfet Dual Mono Power Bi-Amp
Acoustic Portrait MTM FS All Scan Speak
Settling in with some tea and kerala banana chips we got going with some tasty vocals. Can't remember who it was but straight away the Acoustic Portrait signature sound was in place. Stereo imaging was dead centre between the speakers from the space where Venu's custom wood audio racks were. Beautiful textures emanating from the Scanspeaks - these were one of Siva's last speakers and are housed in beautifully made wooden cabinets.
Venu just had the caps upgraded in the preamp and power amps. The power amps are in a Bi-Amped setup of the AP CPA3 Dual Monos. The active crossover is built into the AP PM1 Vale Pre box with HF and LF outs going to each mono block of the CPA3s. The cap upgrade meant that the sound still needed to settle and will probably sound great (amazing?!!) after the 200 hr burn in. Still this was great sound coming from the setup.
We switched to some LPs and Venu does have some really nice Vinyls. Since we had just started his TT the Lyrita phono stage still wasn't warmed up but still sounded very nice. The familiar notes of "Take 5" were coming out nice and warm from the MTM Floorstanders. Venu was keen to show me some more records and we went through about four more songs which were all just superb in the mids. Venu knows his stuff and has put a lot of work into his setup.
I was surprised to learn that he had just installed his setup earlier that morning. Having just moved in he had only started to get things in place when my call came. Not bad at all for a setup just installed - actually stellar would be the right word. Still there was the custom wooden audio rack made from a design from Siva and tweaked with some isolation kit from Madisound. Not yet installed was an APC pure sine wave inverter normally used in server rooms etc which Venu says is far better than any power conditioner. As of now it has been installed and Venu says the setup is now dead silent.
We then switched to some music via his AP DAC. What was nice to see is that the AP DAC makes ordinary material sound so much better. He showed me a Hindi CD which was the usual run of the mill disc and played it through the DAC. I was amazed at how well it sounded coming out from the speakers. The AP DAC is the real deal and most of all not very sensitive of the material thrown at it. Very nice for folks like me with varying quality when it comes to my music sources. After switching to some devotional music - all rendered beautifully by the setup - I decided I had to leave to catch up with some of my friends for lunch.
I will reserve comments on the setup for later as really there can be so much improvement possible once the caps settle in and of course with the inverter in place. But even without all of this, Venu has a gem of system at his place. I really enjoyed my short visit to his place. I hope that he will be kind enough to share some pictures and comments on his setup.
Venu has just moved into a new apartment which he told was selected more for the acoustics setup than anything else. His gear is almost all Acoustic Portrait apart from the TT and CDP. For those interested his setup (taken from his signature) is what many fans of Acoustic Portrait will aspire for.
Denon DVDP
Acoustic Portrait 24 Bit/192 KHz Async USB DAC
Pro-Ject Debut III with 2MRed
Lyrita Phono/Line
AP PM1 Valve Pre + Active Cross over + 2X AP CPA3 Mosfet Dual Mono Power Bi-Amp
Acoustic Portrait MTM FS All Scan Speak
Settling in with some tea and kerala banana chips we got going with some tasty vocals. Can't remember who it was but straight away the Acoustic Portrait signature sound was in place. Stereo imaging was dead centre between the speakers from the space where Venu's custom wood audio racks were. Beautiful textures emanating from the Scanspeaks - these were one of Siva's last speakers and are housed in beautifully made wooden cabinets.
Venu just had the caps upgraded in the preamp and power amps. The power amps are in a Bi-Amped setup of the AP CPA3 Dual Monos. The active crossover is built into the AP PM1 Vale Pre box with HF and LF outs going to each mono block of the CPA3s. The cap upgrade meant that the sound still needed to settle and will probably sound great (amazing?!!) after the 200 hr burn in. Still this was great sound coming from the setup.
We switched to some LPs and Venu does have some really nice Vinyls. Since we had just started his TT the Lyrita phono stage still wasn't warmed up but still sounded very nice. The familiar notes of "Take 5" were coming out nice and warm from the MTM Floorstanders. Venu was keen to show me some more records and we went through about four more songs which were all just superb in the mids. Venu knows his stuff and has put a lot of work into his setup.
I was surprised to learn that he had just installed his setup earlier that morning. Having just moved in he had only started to get things in place when my call came. Not bad at all for a setup just installed - actually stellar would be the right word. Still there was the custom wooden audio rack made from a design from Siva and tweaked with some isolation kit from Madisound. Not yet installed was an APC pure sine wave inverter normally used in server rooms etc which Venu says is far better than any power conditioner. As of now it has been installed and Venu says the setup is now dead silent.
We then switched to some music via his AP DAC. What was nice to see is that the AP DAC makes ordinary material sound so much better. He showed me a Hindi CD which was the usual run of the mill disc and played it through the DAC. I was amazed at how well it sounded coming out from the speakers. The AP DAC is the real deal and most of all not very sensitive of the material thrown at it. Very nice for folks like me with varying quality when it comes to my music sources. After switching to some devotional music - all rendered beautifully by the setup - I decided I had to leave to catch up with some of my friends for lunch.
I will reserve comments on the setup for later as really there can be so much improvement possible once the caps settle in and of course with the inverter in place. But even without all of this, Venu has a gem of system at his place. I really enjoyed my short visit to his place. I hope that he will be kind enough to share some pictures and comments on his setup.
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