Tír Na HiFi

Pearse marched into my place today with his silver grey meitner box. He had already indicated to JK our spiritual dac leader that he had changed religion from jkdac32 to meitner mania on hifiwigwam of all places. I like all other loyal jkdaccers were aghast at this blasphemy.
Just in case I might be persuaded by this meitner pagan god I summoned the chief JKDAC apostle on mother earth otherwise known simply as Ken to help fend off this misguided jkdaccer.

Well as per usual plans fall apart. Ken departed for trim after being bombarded by the quality of the meitner. Unfortunately for us loyal JKDAC folks this bloody meitner is the best thing since sliced bread. Never heard such an improvement changing from one source. Pearse has really found a nugget of gold that is unfortunately priced at too high a level for mass consumption. It just gave every last bit that one could reasonably hope to extract from my stuff. I would sincerely doubt that any vinyl junkie could honestly say that vinyl still has the edge after hearing this.

Meitner was feeding jadis da50s into ESL57's helped out with 2 B&W PV1 subs (One borrowed from Pearse). Unfortunately the townsend supertweeters were not used as one was out of action. I heard a pair earlier in the week when Peter dropped over with his working pair and they definitely add a sparkle to the sound. But getting back to the meitner it just blew away the jkdac32. I wonder is this the level that DCS brings to the party or is this unit better? Meitner just brings all the qualities that are often quoted in reviews except this really does extract the best a system has to offer.

Pearse very kindly offered to let me have the meitner for a few weeks to allow others hear it, I declined as I don't want to put myself through the torture of having to hand it back after listening to it for a period of time.
We agreed to try and organise a meet up for people interested in hearing this at my place hopefully before the end of the year or early new year.

For people looking for a source at that price level give it a listen as it really is incredible what it delivers. I hate saying something like that as it raises expectations that are often not realised when people go off and hear a product for themselves. The challenge is over to John Kenny to come up with something that beats this upstart. Us poor paddies are depending on our messiah to save us. In case John is too busy or doesn't care anymore can santa please remember me this year I have been a very good boy.

Am I right in thinking that Meitner hear is utterly stratospherically priced? In any case I'd love to hear it, but I don't want to hear it!

You're right, Simon. The dac is around 7000 euro and the sound is fabulous. I could only spend an hour in it's company today but it was really good. Very realistic and musical sound. Many thanks to Tony(&family) and Pearse for the experience.
KM

I think I'll hang in for the EMM version.....

jaybee wrote:I think I'll hang in for the EMM version.....

You are probably right why bother with the half way house. The celtic tiger must be coming back hooray!

I'll just offload some AIB shares to fund it... oh wait, that's not going to work....

Having heard the Meitner in Pearse's system I can attest that he has a wonderful set up. I also heard Tony's last week and again my loyalty to Quad 2805s was challanged. I would love to hear what the Meitner brings to Tonys system so hopefully I will be able to make the proposed meet.

The Jkenny DAC is a wonder to behold and was wonderful with some hi res downloads and certainly was pushing vinyl hard. This is an area I will have to look once funds permit in 10 years when the IMF finally leave and we are restored to some sort of financial normality!!!!

Finally I can state that I am delighted with the Airtight ATM2 in my system. I know Dave was unhappy with it but it is a match made in heaven with the Quads. The only downside is the lack of outputs, I can only run my Classe CDP 300 and Roksan Xerses of it. So a pre-amp may become a necessity in the future.

The ATM 2 was a serious step up rom the Croft which had served the system faithfully for 6 years or so. The Airtight brought more detail and didn't sound as brash as the Croft. Now we are talking a significant price difference between the two amps to be fair. It is like the Croft got me 75 per cent of the way to the sound I crave and the ATM 2 has got me 89 per cent there!!!! Always there is a that bit further which costs more than the difference is worth I suspect. I feel sometimes we are chasing ghosts and forgetting the music. But I have to say the sound is amazing with vinyl. I am lazy some days so I listen to CD more than I should. I am afraid that I am not as eloquent as Dave is when describing the various pieces of equipment he has introduced into his system.

I hope that I don't get disillusioned with the Airtight sound. To date I am positive. The build quality of the Amp is exceptional. I get a somewhat laid back sound. I think this is the influence of the Quads and I am contemplating introducing a sub woofer courtesy of Tony to see the impact this might have. Also the CDP 300 is a DVD player so my family suggest that I hook up a TV to the system. This might happen in the next few weeks. Anyway I will sign off and many thanks to Tony and Pearse for letting me hear their systems. If anybody wants to come round to mine for a listening seison pease feel free to pm me.

Already looking forward to another get together in Tony's after a wonderfull afternoon of music yesterday, the system synergy just came together with a great room and an not to forget the excellent host.
We had an excellent reference with a top class piano recital to compare to the audio playback....myself and Ken were not sure if the music was from the ESLs or from a real piano at one point!!

The 57s I had heard in a big room in the UK a couple of years back and they were best in show back then and no surprise there but the Jadis was a revalation and even though I agreed to curtail my spending I think next summer when the Art Audios are overheating the small room I have then in I may look at a Jadis solution.
The Jadis really sounded excellent with the ESLs so for me I think a top system will comprise of JPlay on a dedicated PC, Meither, Jadis Integrated in to ESLs......hopefully audio nirvana!

I think the next release of Jplay will set the standard for PC based playback and what form it will take given the hints coming out of the forums lately so I am really looking forward to the release and then working on the FINAL solution.

Thanks again Tony for an excellent afternoon and I hope Santa is listening :-)