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Thumb5's system
#1
Long overdue...but here's my set-up based on a Devialet 400.

Sources are:
  • Wilson Benesch Full Circle
  • Sonos ZP90 (aka Connect), with Rick Cullen/Wyred4Sound modification
  • AIR (Ethernet) from Qobuz Hi-Fi on a MacBook Pro 15.4" Retina running OS X Yosemite

Speakers:
  • Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage
  • Sonus Faber Gravis B1

[Image: IMG_0329_zpsa49f7539.jpg]

[Image: IMG_0330_zpse30251f1.jpg]

[Image: IMG_0332_zps6279856a.jpg]

The 400's pre-out is configured as a mono sub output. It goes via a DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core which implements some room correction below about 150 Hz to drive the Gravis. This also means that the sub works very well tucked unobtrusively into a corner.

The main speaker output is high-pass filtered with a corner frequency of 65 Hz. The Gravis has a built-in low-pass filter configured for the same corner frequency (sadly it can't be disabled entirely).

I use a Vertex AQ Taga mains filter/distribution block, and Silver Roraima power cables. These were chosen in my last system and seem to work well with the Devialets. They're hidden inside the large-ish MDF cube you can see in one of the photos. (There used to be lots of other ugly stuff in there, including a PS Audio PPP, but it's now largely empty.)

The speaker cables are Townshend Isolda DCT.

The rack is from Isoblue.

(PS: sorry for the poor-quality photos, will update with better ones at some point.)
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
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#2
Nice! Thanks for sharing

It is a shame that the rack is tucked in that corner where I guess you can't see it from your listening position Smile
Aurender X100L / Transrotor Crescendo TT / Denon DCD1520 / Macbook Pro >> D400 >> Martin Logan Montis
amabrok's system - Latest update (May 2015, Page 11, Post #109)

Dubai, UAE
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#3
(13-Dec-2014, 13:18)amabrok Wrote: It is a shame that the rack is tucked in that corner where I guess you can't see it from your listening position Smile

Yes, I know what you mean, but it's by design. Part of the acceptance criteria for having hi-fi in the living room, I'm afraid.
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
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#4
(13-Dec-2014, 13:20)thumb5 Wrote:
(13-Dec-2014, 13:18)amabrok Wrote: It is a shame that the rack is tucked in that corner where I guess you can't see it from your listening position Smile

Yes, I know what you mean, but it's by design. Part of the acceptance criteria for having hi-fi in the living room, I'm afraid.
I guess we all face approval challenges one way or another
Aurender X100L / Transrotor Crescendo TT / Denon DCD1520 / Macbook Pro >> D400 >> Martin Logan Montis
amabrok's system - Latest update (May 2015, Page 11, Post #109)

Dubai, UAE
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#5
Very nice system. Are you 'happy' with your monitor speakers combined with a sub, or do you see yourself buying floor standing speakers sometime in the future?

BTW, I don't think happy is the correct word, but I hope you know what I mean..
Devialet 200 <> Bowers & Wilkins 805 Diamond <> Aurender N100 <> Clearaudio Concept MC <> Audioquest Rocket 44/Coffee USB

The Netherlands
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#6
(13-Dec-2014, 13:54)Eddye Wrote: Very nice system. Are you 'happy' with your monitor speakers combined with a sub, or do you see yourself buying floor standing speakers sometime in the future?

Thanks Eddye. That's a good question: I am certainly pleased with the current set-up, but as always it may be a case of not knowing what I'm missing! It would be great to hear some good floor-standers in my room to find out how they compare. Also, as I mentioned, the system is in our living room so the speakers must not dominate the room visually: that's led me away from floor-standers in the past. So I will probably stick with the existing speakers until perhaps at some time in the future I have a room to dedicate more fully to hi-fi.
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
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#7
Time for a change!  As you might have guessed, I don't tinker much with my system as I'm very happy with the way it sounds and prefer to enjoy listening to music than worrying about whether I'm wringing the last ounce of sound quality out of it.

But...I decided a few months ago that I'd had enough of trying to use a sub-woofer to add bass to the Guarneris.  Although I had it working well enough -- and for what it's worth I think the Gravis can be quite musical and subtle -- I concluded that it was going to be troublesome if not impossible to make it sound "just right".  This is partly because my system is in our living room, so I very much don't have free rein to put speakers wherever I want to.  And, if I'm honest, partly because I didn't want to spend ages messing about with measurements and re-building configuration files to tune relative delays between the mains and sub.  (Great that it can be done, though!)

I've had the Guarneris for nearly fourteen years and never looked at another speaker.  Well, more or less.  I love their sound, and for a lot of what I listen to I really didn't think they could be improved on.  The only "problem" is that they just don't do deep bass, for obvious reasons.  That's a compromise I'd expected and was broadly happy with -- I'd rather have less bass than wrong-sounding bass.

It would be great to have the lovely mid-range and treble of the Guarneris plus the bass weight to do justice to full-scale orchestral and rock, though...surely that must be possible?

With an itch to be scratched, then, late last year I did some research and drew up a list of speakers that might give me the kind of sound was looking for.  I had a budget in mind.  I had to be able to get a home demo.  Because of their location, they had to be stand-mounted and good-looking -- at least enough to look like furniture rather than hi-fi equipment.  Actually my wife vetoed the list before I got too carried away; that ruled out a lot of possibilities that might have otherwise fit the bill, and in some ways made the choice much easier.

In no particular order, as they say, here's the short list I ended up with:

1) Sonus faber Guarneri Evolution

2) Franco Serblin Accordo (Project->Accordo)

3) Kaiser Kawero! Chiara

To be continued...
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
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#8
I really like the look of those Kaiser Kawero's. Just looked on their website and the floor standers look cool too. Shame they're too big and massively out of my price range. Sad looking forward to hearing how they sound - have you lined any up for home demo yet?

>>> 1st Place Award: Devialet, last decades most disappointing technology purchase.  <<<

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#9
(28-Feb-2016, 13:58)Hifi_swlon Wrote: I really like the look of those Kaiser Kawero's. Just looked on their website and the floor standers look cool too. Shame they're too big and massively out of my price range. Sad looking forward to hearing how they sound - have you lined any up for home demo yet?

Yes - watch this space...
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
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#10
Armed with a list of speakers to listen to, how about music?

These are some of my long-term and current favourites -- things I know pretty well from regular listening:
  • Chopin: Preludes (Ingrid Fliter)
  • Janáček: Glagolitic Mass (Warsaw PO/Wit) - Veruju, organ solo
  • Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (CBSO/Rattle) - final movement
  • Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (CBSO/Rattle) - first, fourth, and fifth movements
  • Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time (Walter Boeykens) - Louange…, Danse…
  • Debussy/Ravel/Dutilleux: string quartets (Belcea Quartet) [Qobuz]
  • Villa-Lobos: string quartets 4/6/14 (Danubius Quartet) [Qobuz]
  • Jens Felger: 2 Days And A Year - City Lights, Wolkenlos, Rare Moments [Qobuz]
  • Kate Bush: Aerial - How To Be Invisible
  • Faithless: Outrospective - Crazy English Summer
  • Portico: Living Fields [Qobuz]
  • WHO Trio: Less is More
  • Bruford: All Heaven Broke Loose - Nerve
  • Gary Willis: No Sweat - The Everlasting Night
  • Riverside: Out of Myself - Reality Dream I, II
  • Porcupine Tree: Deadwing - Shallow, Halo
  • Pixies: Doolittle - Mr Grieves
  • Gang Of Four: Content - A Fruitfly In The Beehive
  • Gillian Welch: Time (The Revelator)
  • Malia: Convergence - Celestial Echo [Qobuz]
  • Tosca: Suzuki - Orozco, Boss On The Boat
  • D’Angelo: Voodoo - Playa Playa, Devil’s Pie [Qobuz]

Then some tracks added to the list for more specific reasons:
  • Rudimental: Home - Spoons [Qobuz] -- how low can you go?
  • London Grammar: If You Wait - Hey Now [Qobuz] -- everyone's hi-fi test track du jour
  • Albrecht Riermeier: Four Drummers Drumming - Seven Drums in Seven Four -- great test for realistic drum sounds
  • Audioslave: Audioslave - Gasoline, Light My Way -- gotta be able to do loud and nasty
  • Soundgarden: Superunknown - Mailman -- see above!

And finally from an album I hadn't heard until Trevor and Gavin at Guildford Audio recommended it, but which proved to be excellent:
  • Robert Miles/Trilok Gurtu: Miles Gurtu - Golden Rust [Qobuz]
That lot covers most of the bases from my point of view.
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
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