Hi Arnie:
Thank you very much for hosting me. As before, it was a total pleasure. The system sounds great.
Your room along with Mike Levine's and Winston Ma's are the three most outstanding audio rooms that I have been to (and I think I have been to over 200 audio rooms around the world). On top of that you have one heck of an equipment collection. I admire you for your passion.
I say you make Texas proud, hahahaha
The two best things in your system that I liked are the speakers and the turntable. The speakers are effortless and coherent (contrary to my suspicion before listening that they might lack coherence due to their inward and outward driver positions). But listening is believe and that is what matters. The speakers have impressive bass and punch. I did note however that the bass bloated at times but that was not due to the speakers but due to the subs. As you can imagine I am not a subwoofer fan and in fact if I ever make a Hollywood movie it would be named "subwoofer buster" as a sequel to "ghost buster"
....in my imagination only.
The other thing below my expectation was transparency. I think your Magicos were more transparent. Because of that lack of transparency it did not meet my favorite "touch the sound" test criterion although it is doing many other things right.
The speakers play loud and naturally, rendering a full-scale orchestral performance a joy to listen to. However, the speakers never disappeared and the sound still seemed to be coming from the boxes.
The sound also lacked the 3rd dimension, both on digital and vinyl, although your vinyl was easily more musical. So the system was pretty much 2-dimensional but with good lateral precision. But in the 3rd dimension, I did not find any layers in the sound. If I were you, I would pull the speakers several feet front and push the listening seat back. That interaction could enhance the 3rd dimension.
In fact if I were you, I would show the door to the speaker installer dudes and experiment with the speaker position myself and would not tire of experimenting until I am 100% satisfied normally I ignore all manufacturer recommendations and make my own discoveries.
Your listening seat is also not ideal for sound as it acts as a huge sound barrie, blocking almost all sound reflected from the rear. You need a chair whose back is lower than the shoulder height. Such details make a hug difference.
I am also not a fan of VTL amps because they, like most tube-based amps, lack a bit of top end and bottom end. But I think there may be a way to circumvent that. Speaking out of my humble experience, your power tube, KT88, has a sound characteristic which is similar to its shape, that is thick in the middle and thin at the top and bottom. In contrast, KT90 sounds like its shape, that is flat response across the whole frequency spectrum. if you try the KT90 (it is compatible with KT88), it might add some sparkle at the top and some extra punch at the bottom. Audio is all about trying and experimenting. You may also try a combination of KT88 and KT90.
In summary, a lovely system but has a major room for improvement -- and it does have the potential to meet the promise.
