System upgrade - Lavardin IT-15 + Meridian 808.3
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 3:40 pm
I've been absent from this forum for quite some time but I felt I had to post a few words about what, for me, has been a rather significant system upgrade.
About a month ago, I traded in my Lavardin IT against the new Lavardin IT-15 and my Wadia 861SE against the Meridian 808.3. I am a great fan of the Lavardin sound, and despite sideways glances at the Dartzeel NHB-108 power amp and the Ayre MXR monoblocks, once Lavardin announced a 15th anniversary update of the original IT, it seemed inevitable that I would upgrade once they started production. The original IT is a masterpiece of an amp, which offers the listener an abundance of clarity and detail without sounding at all clinical. It mates superbly with my Spendor STs, producing a very natural sound that can be listened to for hours on end. When I plugged in the new IT-15, however, all of the IT's virtues remained in place, but there was at once a sense of added warmth (without compromising any clarity or detail) as well as a greater sense of depth to the soundstage.
With regards to my CD player, the Wadia 861SE is a magnificent instrument which creates a really full-bodied sound (the rendition of the instrumental timbres is particularly realistic). To be honest, I didn't expect to replace it after a couple of years, but when I spotted a demo model of the Meridian 808.3 for sale in Cloney Audio (at a very nice price), I had to give it a try. The Meridian is a much smoother and warmer player than the Wadia. It is, however, just as detailed (and, I believe, even more detailed in the treble response - without sounding at all bright) as the Wadia, but the difference lies in the sense of space that the Meridian puts between the listener and the recorded performance. The Wadia will give you a front-row seat to the performance, but the Meridian will put you in a seat about a dozen rows back. The result is a listening experience that I find profoundly satisfying. Hi-fi systems are all about a sense of synergy and, to my ears, there is a greater sense of synergy between the Meridian and the Lavardin/Spendors than with the Wadia in place.
The overall sound is one of added warmth, a deeper soundstage, and a very natural presentation of the original recorded performance. There is a wonderful sense of ease of musical communication about the way that the musical layers are unwoven and spun out and presented to the listener. It is a system that is still surprising me a month later as I play more and more different kinds of music and become more familiar with the sound that is being produced. This has been an expensive upgrade for me but the musical returns have been immense.
About a month ago, I traded in my Lavardin IT against the new Lavardin IT-15 and my Wadia 861SE against the Meridian 808.3. I am a great fan of the Lavardin sound, and despite sideways glances at the Dartzeel NHB-108 power amp and the Ayre MXR monoblocks, once Lavardin announced a 15th anniversary update of the original IT, it seemed inevitable that I would upgrade once they started production. The original IT is a masterpiece of an amp, which offers the listener an abundance of clarity and detail without sounding at all clinical. It mates superbly with my Spendor STs, producing a very natural sound that can be listened to for hours on end. When I plugged in the new IT-15, however, all of the IT's virtues remained in place, but there was at once a sense of added warmth (without compromising any clarity or detail) as well as a greater sense of depth to the soundstage.
With regards to my CD player, the Wadia 861SE is a magnificent instrument which creates a really full-bodied sound (the rendition of the instrumental timbres is particularly realistic). To be honest, I didn't expect to replace it after a couple of years, but when I spotted a demo model of the Meridian 808.3 for sale in Cloney Audio (at a very nice price), I had to give it a try. The Meridian is a much smoother and warmer player than the Wadia. It is, however, just as detailed (and, I believe, even more detailed in the treble response - without sounding at all bright) as the Wadia, but the difference lies in the sense of space that the Meridian puts between the listener and the recorded performance. The Wadia will give you a front-row seat to the performance, but the Meridian will put you in a seat about a dozen rows back. The result is a listening experience that I find profoundly satisfying. Hi-fi systems are all about a sense of synergy and, to my ears, there is a greater sense of synergy between the Meridian and the Lavardin/Spendors than with the Wadia in place.
The overall sound is one of added warmth, a deeper soundstage, and a very natural presentation of the original recorded performance. There is a wonderful sense of ease of musical communication about the way that the musical layers are unwoven and spun out and presented to the listener. It is a system that is still surprising me a month later as I play more and more different kinds of music and become more familiar with the sound that is being produced. This has been an expensive upgrade for me but the musical returns have been immense.
