2. My first serious Hifi spend came when I bought a new pair of B&W804s, a Krell 400xi and an Opus21 CDP a few weeks later. Looked and sounded quite good, a clear step up from the monitor audio system. It was at this stage that I met a few members from the forum and started hearing the systems they owned. That was an eye opener.
3. While happy with the 804s I began to get the itch to step up to the 803D's. Usher speakers then appeared in Cloney's and I just had to have to them. They sounded great too. Took a small army of Cloney lads to get them up the stairs and unboxed. A few days later I was made redundent from my job. Jaysus.
4. After I got myself sorted and moving to a new gaff, in came a Wadia 861i, a GamutD200Mk3, a Music First Pre. A Clearaudio TT came in too a few months later. A really really good system. Should have stopped here to be honest.
5. The start of an utter nightmare. The Airtight ATM2 arrived. It looked the business but far too often its lean and pitched up tone combo with the Ushers just caused me a lot of grief. All sorts of room treatment, cable nonesense was tried. None of it made any difference.
The Kharmas soon arrived, fitted with the new Kevlar based driver. The Usher's were sold a while later. Took 5 guys to get them down a few flights of stairs.
6. Another room change. Still didnt solve my sound problems with a nasty bright treble so with a heavy heart I just had to let the Airtight go. In came a Leben CS300. Sounded different and for a while it seemed to cure some of the issues I was having. The Audio Research phonostage blew up after a while so back it went.
7. A few different amps/sources were tried such as Kharmas own monoblocs and a Meridian CDP a few members brought over their gear to try out. No matter what was tried, the lean pitched up treble still persisted. It was time for a complete system reboot. In came a pair of Sonus Fabers, a pair of Classe CAM350 blocs and preamp. This sounded a lot more soothing and relaxing. It didnt have the magic and sparkle of the previous system(when that behaved). Ultimately this system failed to really excite me and there was a distinct boxy sound from the speakers. After a few months I finally had enough and I put the lot up for sale. Within less than a week, the vultures from the forum descended on my gaff and picked apart the entire system within a few days. I built an utterly badass highend PC out of the funds to numb the pain.
8. 9 months to a year later, I came across that Devialet had produced a 'cheap' range of their D-Premier. The engineering behind it fascinated me and I took notice. Cloney's also just happened to contact me and asked would I be interested. At the same time a pair of Audioplan Kontrast V speakers turned up in the preowned section. They were noted for a warm but open sound. An audition was arranged in Cloney's and I took the bait. Very very happy with this system. Perhaps the least attractive looking and minimalist system I've owned to date. There is a natural synergy between the warm Audioplans and the totally transparent Devialet. My old TT made a welcome return too.
....as for the future, well there are a few things I'm looking at at the moment. Mainly just out of curiosity since they are available and are legendary.
