Neutral, revealing, toneful, dynamically convincing and scales well, up and down, to the limits of the room. Room size is nominally 20'w x 14'd x 8.5'h in an open plan house. System is on a broad wall. I do not advocate dedicated listening rooms. My hifis are out in the open for people to enjoy them, so no man-cave nonsense here. And no silly room treatments. If you can't get a normal living room to sound good, you're doing it wrong. Spouse is fully accepting of the gear that delivers the music.
Two tonearm direct drive; original feet replaced by inverted brass cones, resting on Aurios Media Bearings
Ortofon TA-110
Variable effective mass; rubber-damped tube.
Stax UA-90
~12" tonearm, removable headshell
Ortofon SPU Synergy
Moving coil
Ortofon SPU Meister Silver
moving coil
Zu /Denon Zu103
moving coil
Denon DL-305
Medium compliance Denon MC
Sony ES UBP-X1000ES
Blu-ray, CD- Blu-Ray HD Universal Disc Player
Bricasti Design M21 Platinum
Flagship Bricast DAC. Best Sigma-Delta I've heard anywhere. Also R2R 20 bit alternate DAC path for PCM. Decodes DSD in analog as Sony intended; only DAC on the market to do this, leveraging its resistor ladder analog volume control.
Custom 300B/2a3 p-p triode tube amps Custom
Zu Audio Definition IV
includes integrated down-firing powered sub
Zu Audio Varial
silver/copper
Nagra BPS
Battery-power phono preamp with built-in MC xformers.
Luxman AT-3000
Transformer Volume Control
Zu Audio Ibis
B3, silver/copper
Pioneer Elite PRO-151
final generation Kuro plasma, 60"
Parks Audio Puffin Phono DSP
Excellent phono preamp handles most tasks in the digital realm via ADC, quietly, confidently, effectively, in 24/96. Built in DAC chip feeds analog outputs or you can get TOSLink out for 24/96 to your DAC. Puffin > Bricasti M21 Platinum sounds sublime.
Denon D103-M
Rare very low output, higher compliance variant on Denon 103. Exquisite articulation and tone.
Custom F2a single-ended pentode amps inspired by Klangfilm KLV204, made simpler and better.
Phil- I have read your entire threads on 845-based amps- a great read! There is another guy on this forum (Kurt I believe) that also has extensive experience with 845 amps, and I belive he spoke quite highly of the Komuro, and also the J.D. Verdier. Have you ever come across either?
