Tír Na HiFi

For the record, my current system is:
Audioplan Kontrast V
Devialet 120
Arcam CD23 (on loan)
Clearaudio Performance SE TT
Custom Design Milan Reference rack

Now that is what I call..... A Pad!!! A very nice set up there.... golden sun streaming in.... view of the sea.... yep.... very very nice indeed!!

I notice you have a new addition there Dave... that rack looks rather good.

Beautifully relaxed listening quarters Dave....You HAVE to be happy ;)

Made a view recent tweaks

Berkeley Alpha USB & Berkeley Reference DAC (upgrade from the Alpha DAC II)
Wilson Audio Sasha II speakers (upgrade from Sophia III)

Mac Mini with Pure Music/Audivarna
Merrill Audio VERITAS Mono blocks (Hypex NC1200 based)
Purist Audio Design Aqueous Aureus Interconnects and Speaker Cable
LessLoss DFPC Signature Power cables
Custom outlets based on Maestro outlets, Furutech covers and Patrick Cullen AC Parallel Filters

Good idea to revive this, many will have had a few tweaks in the recent past.... come on in lads! I'll take a few pics myself later.

That is some VERY nice gear, HiFiFan!

Thanks. The new upgrades are still only settling in but it has been a bit of a revelation (though I have thought that before too). I had thought the system pretty good before but particularly on some material the improvement is really striking. The improvement in resolution, dynamics and bass has been really enjoyable. Separation of backing vocals, hearing snares I never heard before, clarity on what were slightly muffled presentations before, more pleasing treble and so on.
I have added a photo of when I was auditioning the speakers (one of many trips) - the drab looking black boxes and laptop, forward speaker cables and power chords were my electronics and cables. I will be moving house towards the end of the year, I'll probably post some better photos then, the current setup is just too ugly. My speakers are Carmon Red (with added metallic flakes - more of a darker wine color) and not the brighter red in the photo

I think if you lived a little closer we'd be beating a path to your door to get a listen!

Certainly is some really desirable kit! Just wondering what prompted the change from the Sophia's? I guess the scale of the new Sasha's is quite something. Did you try some other options before settling on the Sasha II's?

Hi,
I couldn’t say there was one thing prompted the change other than having the ability to upgrade. Changes in location and job meant that I had (perhaps for the last time) the ability to do a major upgrade on the system.

I think there was some financial benefits in staying with Wilsons and that biased me a little and of course both my wife and I really like the Wilson sound. That said I have heard Wilson sound pretty poor at times at shows but this is true I think for all speakers. I also doubt my wife would have gone for anything other than Wilson.

Through various audio shows and some demo’s we were very familiar with the Sasha I but when we bought the Sophias we couldn’t afford the Sashas. But even if I could have I always thought the Sophia IIIs a very close match to the Sasha I. At the Newport Audio show we heard the Sasha II in a few rooms and was struck by how much better it seemed to sound over the Sophias. We did a lot of auditioning with the Sasha IIs and found that for some material it seemed to be similar (a little better than the Sophia) but on other material it was night and day. Listening to Damien Rice’s "My Favourite Faded Fantasy" in hires for example my wife turned to me and said “*%$#% this is easily twice as good or better than with the Sophias”.
There are definitely other speakers out there that perhaps I should have tried but sometimes it is just too much effort in tracking these down and auditioning etc. especially with your own gear. As you can guess you can’t just throw these in the back of a car or even truck to bring home for an audition.
I still can’t say enough about the amps though - I posted on these before I think. For my tastes the Merrill Audio Veritas are just phenomenal and can control the Sasha with ease and I think are a big part of the imaging, resolution etc.

Anyway hope this answers your question and wasn’t too much rambling.