The Hi-Fi System
The
design goal for my hi-fi system has been a) highly detailed, uncoloured and
transparent midrange; b) realistic micro- and macro-dynamics and c) ability to
reproduce lowest organ pedals with ease. I have always used human voice and
piano as a guide to neutrality and, in this respect, this system is the most
synergistic match of components I have yet assembled.
Ayre C-5xe MP Universal Disc Player
In scouting around for a single replacement for my wonderful but ageing Sony SCD-1 SACD player and my recently defunct Pioneer DV-939A DVD-A player, I got to read a lot about the Ayre and about Charles Hansen, its designer. I finally heard one at a hi-fi show and put it on my shortlist for a future occasion. I then, purely by fluke, got to hear about a cancelled order at a Scottish dealer and made a part-exchange deal with them. The Ayre took very much less running-in time than the Sony to come on song, and boy what a song it sings.
This machine opens up CD with retrieval of ambience and tiny cues that I had up to now thought was only possible with SACD. Many of my collection of discs sound more insightful and detailed than I've ever heard before. Even though it does a superb job with SACD and DVD-A discs, it's with CDs that it stands head and shoulders above any other player I've heard. I recently had it updated with the MP (Minimum Phase) filter upgrade. The sound is even finer now, with superb dynamic attack and very realistic and natural sound from CD playback.
Pass Labs XP-20 Preamp
This is my third Pass Labs preamp. It was an upgrade from a Pass Labs X1, itself a fine balanced design. My criteria are absolute transparency, at least two balanced inputs, balanced output and remote control. The XP-20 features fantastic transparency, wonderful out-of-the-box soundstage, incredible fine detail and driving tight bass. It also has good driving characteristics to the power amp. It presents no discernible character of its own and is very quiet in operation. The power supply comes in a separate box, seen in the photo to the right of the control unit.
Chord SPM-1200E Power Amp
Producing 350W per channel into the 8 Ohm Ushers, this amplifier has
'adequate' power, to quote Rolls Royce. Rather like a large engine, it's
not about using all that power all of the time, more the ability to create huge
dynamic swings without ever running out of headroom. The Chord drives the
big Mezzos with iron grip and great subtlety, with a very clean, detailed and
spacious soundstage and enormous kick. Using a switched-mode power supply
means it is quite compact in dimensions and produces little heat. I've
recently had it serviced where Chord replaced the ageing output relays and
changed the distortion resistors for the latest specification. It remains
as clean and without character as ever, exactly the characteristics required for
a great power amplifier.
Usher Dancer Be-20 Speakers
The Ushers display amazing levels of detail retrieval, very natural voicing with no discernible colouration, wide and more precise soundstage than the previous Mezzos, phenomenal bass extension and the ability to swell dynamically like I've never heard before. Classical music appears to have benefited the most, with vocal differentiation in choral music being very impressive and more life-like dynamics. The sense of 'being there' in, say, the Martha Argerich Rachmaninov 3rd is palpable and the sheer brilliance of Simon Preston's Vivaldi Gloria brings a smile to my face. Rock music, too, is more structural and benefits from each musical strand being more discernible. The speakers sound fast and keep very good rhythm. Bass is extraordinarily powerful and deep and has relieved my REL Studio II subwoofer of duty.
Technics SL-1210 Turntable
After having run some pretty high end vinyl playback equipment in the past, I let things slide for many years. Now vinyl playback is back with a vengeance. The highly modified SL-1210 features a Dynavector DV507-II arm and Shelter 5000 cartridge and sounds fabulous - highly detailed with exceptional bass texture, dynamics and depth and very wide soundstage. This deck is so much better than most suspended chassis designs that I'm amazed it took this long for direct drive to make a resurgence, but the technology is now recognised for its ultra-stable speed control and consequent structural integrity to the sound.
Whest PS.30R
This is a surprisingly large phono preamp but creates a sound from LP that is
crystal clear, transparent, wide bandwidth and three dimensional. It suits
my cartridges very well and suppresses surface noise to an astonishing
degree. It also matches the Choir Audio SUT-7 step-up transformer. A wonderful sounding preamp that follows a few previous units none
of which quite did it for me. Tonally, LP replay is a close match to CD
replay and that I find very interesting.
PS Audio Power Plant Premier
The Premier is as superior to my old P-300 as that was over raw mains. More than ever, mains regeneration makes so much sense and now, of course, I am able to power the entire system from it with further gains in purity and darkness. This is one of the best ways of upgrading a system that I know and I believe that no high end system should be without one.
Cables
There are many people who would have you believe that cables make no difference to the sound of a system. They are wrong. Over the years I have invested more and more proportion of the total system cost to cables from the Kimber Kable range, and always with rewarding improvements in the focus and space around instruments and voice. The Kimber Select range is not cheap, but it is capable of extracting the final ounce of performance from your component choices. I have gradually migrated all my primary cables to the hybrid silver-copper models from the Kimber Select range, the improvement over the copper models having been very impressive. I am now experimenting with Mark Grant silver and copper cables. All power cables used are Kimber Powerkord. Stop Press: I have been recently playing with Tellurium Q XLR cables with impressive results.
Main System
Ayre C-5xe MP universal disc player
Technics SL-1210 turntable modified with Paul Hynes SR5 PSU, Mike New bronze bearing,
Funk Firm platter, Dynavector DV507-II arm, Isonoe feet, Achromat, Bruil weight
Shelter 5000 & Audio Technica AT-33PTG cartridges
Choir Audio/Hashimoto SUT-H7 step-up transformer
Whest PS.30R phono preamp
Pass Labs XP-20 preamp
Chord SPM-1200E power amp
Usher Dancer Be-20 speakers
Ancillaries
Solid Tech Duo system rack with isolator feet
Aurios MIB 1.2 isolation bearings (under Ayre)
PS Audio Power Plant Premier (set to Multiwave)
Kimber Select KS-1121 hybrid silver balanced
interconnects, Kimber Select KS-3035 hybrid silver speaker cables
Tellurium Q balanced interconnects
Mark Grant G2000HD single-ended interconnects
Kimber Reference Powerkords
Room Treatment
4 x ASC TubeTraps 16" full round
ASC SubTrap (on its own, no subwoofer)
3 x ASC PicturePanels
