Hi,

Aotearoa is the M ori name for New Zealand which translates as the 'land of the long white cloud'. The implication is that it rains a lot, and hence hifi and home theatre make for great indoor hobbies.

I am overall very happy with the latest system iteration - the system sounds great at all volumes and different music genres - with a transparent, but pleasant sound quality.

Here is a brief description of other components strengths and weaknesses.

The Jeff Rowland Corus is detailed, holographic and dynamic. It did take some time (1000+ hours) to run-in though.

The Classe CA2300 amplifier is very transparent to the source with easy flowing but agile bass. It doesn't quite have the class A sound quality of my previous over-achieving Cambridge Audio 840W amplifers. But it is definitely voiced more consistent across bass, mids and treble.

Marantz SA-11S2 SACD/CD Player is well balanced tonally, neutral and smooth, yet detailed. It is more dynamic and transparent than the SA14v2, but perhaps a bit more cerebral than the SA14v2 which appeals a bit more to the emotions.

Marantz SA14v2 SACD/CD player is musically satisfying with a rich tonal colour underpinned by weighty bass. The SACD mode not a big improvement on CD as compared to the SA11s2, where playing SACD is a more obviously a step up in sound quality. Also has a smidgeon of grain in mids and treble that reduces when left on continuously for a few days.

The Bowers & Wilkins 803 Diamond full range floor stand loudspeaker strengths include a deep agile bass, superb integration of drivers, and a very detailed diamond tweeter. The tweeter is a bit hot (approx 1dB) relatively to midrange. It sounds well-balanced at low volume but really opens up with minimal compression at full-steam. Overall this is my favourite loudspeaker (as was the previous 803D) in the price range that combines a musical presentation with timeless industrial design.

Cabling is standardised on Audioquest, including Columbia and Colorado interconnects, and Rocket 88 speaker cables.

I found that room treatment, equipment support, mains conditioning and cabling all make a difference.

The most significant tweak improvement is from a custom plinth I built for the loudspeakers. This resulted in better sound staging and detail due to the inherent stability of the 3 spikes versus the standard, incredibly fiddly 4 spike design.

Mark