So about a month ago I finally got my M3s to replace the Q3s (lead time is about 8 weeks). First off Magico have really worked on their packaging and delivery. While the Qs came two in a crate and had to be brute force manhandled into place the setup for the M3s (which weigh a good bit more than the Q3s) is a delight -- they are locked in place on castors in their crates and then you roll them out and in to place. It's still a 2 (ideally 3) person job and one you should leave to the professionals if you can.

As noted in my comments on the M3 the sheer linearity of this speaker led me to hear the colorations in my ARC Ref 40. Reading online reviews I wondered if the VTL 7.5III would be a better fit (and a natural with my amps). I got in a loaner and from the get go it was clear that this was one really consistent pre across the frequency range. Relative to the Ref40 it is so much more consistent, almost too linear if you listen to CDs as the Ref40 lent a delightful bloom and appeal to this format. On LP, and on classical in particular, however there is no question that the VTL is superior. It also excels at dynamics going from zero to 200 in no time at and bringing out low level details even in the most intense peaks. 

Latest iteration of the 450, in lowest damping and sitting on Marigo F8 feet (one front, two rear). Power cords are AQ Dragon HC -- detailed comments on these below

I used to have a Lyra Dorian Mono but never warmed to teh sound of that. The Zero is no comparison, a very big and open sound, tracks at 3.5g.

Recently installed this superb unipivot, worlds better than the TriPlanar VII it replaced. Wonderfully open and dynamic, completely untroubled by even the most complex and energetic material

Magnetic drive, two tonearm turntable. Takes some optimizing to get it to work right, including swapping out the springs in the rear turret, with a stiffer spring I'm finally able to manage the bounce and get everything level

Guess I swallowed the Ted Denney gospel. The room includes

I use Monaco stands throughout on Apex footers for sources. One shelf (under the pre is replaced with a Marigo shelf, but at $1900 this is a pricey upgrade). The turntable sits on a Brooklands wall shelf bolted to dedicated studs (i.e. studs are not otherwise connected to the walls, only the floor and ceiling), studs also have ASC Stud Stabilizers attached

The room was designed by Art Noxon and constructed by Hammer & Hand. The walls are double thickness with ISO Damp and in effect built in bass traps. I have dual windows (two separate sound insulated windows offset to diminish standing waves). Dual doors sound insulated. Concrete floor with wool rugs. Corners treated with ASC 16" Tower Traps. Ceiling to wall with an ASC Acoustic Soffit and all walls and windows with ASC sound panels. Windows also have Marigo tuning dots to further damp them (as well as the SR ART and HFTs)

Power to the room comes via a Torus 75A isolating power conditioner. Dedicated lines to the fuse box which also has an Environmental Protections EP-2775 ground filter and EP-2050 surge protector. All cabling is Synergistic Research as are the power receptacles (TeslaPlex SE) and they sit in Oyaide WPC outlets

Having trialled Nordost Odin (v1), AQ WEL Signature and SR Galileo LE speaker cables in my system I settled on the latter as the best fit for me. Odin was fast and wide open but for me at least a little thin. 

WEL Signature is my primary interconnect. I use 2M balanced runs between the CD player and pre, and from the phono to pre. I have a 7.5M run from pre to power amps. Given the cost of long runs of cable I'm not sure I'll be looking for an alternative soon having gotten a very good deal on this cable originally as a 12M single run. AQ have superb after sales service and I was able to get this cut down and re-terminated as three cables for a very reasonable price, the value of a brand that really stands behind their products is not to be underestimated. I also just added this cable for my tonearm-pho run -- another nice addition, a very clean and easy to use cable and improved on the Durand supplied cable (Discovery?) that I had before

Given my long run of interconnect from pre to power I have always used simple wooden cable elevators to get it off the ground. Having decided to try out the FDSS I was very surprised at how much of an improvement they made in really making the resolution crisper and getting a greater degree of space -- highly recommended

Following a recommendation on the 'Gon I added Herbie's stabilizers for all the tubes in my system. I use the HAL-O-III titanium in the VTL power amps big tubes and the Rx in the power amps small tubes. Overall this is a profound improvement bringing a much improved level space and control most noticeable through the greater ability to distinguish details, especially when the content is driven hard and in complex pieces. Tracks that had previously resulted in hardness and distortion now play cleanly -- I cannot recommend these items highly enough -- a must buy for any tube components

Latest addition is the new AS Palladian - the top of the line cartridge from Dietrich Brakemeier. This is a LO MC and slotted in very easily on my Kairos in place of the Air Tight PC-1 I have been running for the past five years or so. Straight up with less than ten hours play it's clear that this is a very special transducer. As well as the speed, detail and accuracy you'd expect one of the most striking things about this cartridge is how well it handles instrumental scale -- by this I mean maintaining the difference in the size of instruments even when the mix is getting loud and complex. For an example take something like "Cinema Show" from Genesis. In the final section there's a point where a bass pedal enters. With the PC-1 the bass pedal sounded like the existing bass guitar line but deeper, while with the Palladian the bass guitar line is more tightly defined and clear while when the bass pedal enters it's a completely distinct and soundstage filling presence. In other words the Palladian excels at preserving little differences in the presence of larger ones -- the essence of reproducing a musical event I believe

It might cost an arm and a leg but by gum this thing makes a difference. I compared with a range of other record weights but this is by far and away the most musical -- where other weights tighten up and damp the sound this one somehow opens out the music and lets you hear into the mix -- highly recommended if you can get one to try

Have finally upgraded to Ref XL for all my digital connections (3 BNC and 3 AES/EBU). While very expensive these are great cords bringing a sense of openness, ease and naturalness to all recordings. They make other cords sound brash and flashy by comparison

THere's been a lot of discussion of the benefits of active isolation and given the prevalence of seismic activity in my location I sprung for a TS-150, the most compact of the range from Herzan. It's not cheap but my does it work -- with active isolation engaged the sound of the turntable takes a huge step up, most in the degree to which the system is completely unflappable and in control at all times, no matter what is happening on the disc you can hear it. Bass may seem diminished but this is simply a matter of removal of distortions. I'd really consider this as a must have component for anyone with a serious turntable

Just added a custom pair of these (6"x6") sitting on rollerblock Jrs to go under my two SR FEQs. The FEQs are sensitive to what is under them -- squishy is a definite no no but too tight (e.g. spikes) can sound a little thin. The segues are ideal and in the context of the system made sense

Just added this great tonearm in place of the Wand Plus. Frankly its in a different league and has had a transformative effect on my mono playback. The dealer who sold it asked if I thought it was worth it "just for mono" -- the answer is "hell yes!"

I've been thinking about a grounding solution for some time but despite the many SR products in my system the older simple ground block did not seem robust enough for me. I was almost about to spring for the Telos system when SR came out with the new active ground block that includes a mains connection along with a host of other current UEF technologies. I've now got two of these (one for the sources, one for power amps etc) and a full selection of the HD links to connect to every component. I even grounded all my stands using the supplies basic links (which I stripped back to bare wire and looped into the open metal on my stands which are conductive)

Crazy expensive but very attractive and well designed -- for the mid century modern audiophile! They do work very well however. I have the Maser Birch set

I just replaced my ClearAudio double matrix pro cleaner with the KL ultrasonic -- why did I wait so long! Not only is the process more convenient (drop in the disc and walk away) but the results are transformative. It seems to bring all the performers into the same room, what had before been a collection of individual performers each in their own bubble is now an integrated whole. Overall the outcome is less hi-fi and more organic. Of particular interest is the clarity added to background sounds such as the chorus on Fotheringay on the Fairport LP "What we did on our holidays" -- once cleaned on the KD what had been a shimmery but pleasant wash was now resolved as a number of individual voices. Highly recommended -- it's noisy though!

I use a pair of these on my mono block power amps. The latest from AQ is a significant step up over the (similarly priced) WEL I was using before. Straight up I was flabbergasted by a completely different presentation of the Dragon vs the WEL. Bass seems less pronounced but there is much more air and space all around. As you listen more you realize that low level dynamics and inflections are now apparent that you had previously not been aware of -- and overall the ability of the amps with these new cables to communicate emotion has gone up in strides. As far as the bass goes - too many audio systems add an emphasis, a boom or low/mid bass stress that seems superficially attractive and is often quite exciting. But real bass isn’t like that, it grows naturally and kind of sits under the Music with its own texture and intensity. With the WELs in my setup I had that hyped up bass, with the Dragons it’s more organic and real world.

In anticipation of getting a new MM only phono stage I took the plunge and added at step up to my system. Based on recommendations and having heard it at shows I went with the MFA Classic V2. The buying process for MFA is to have the step up completely custom built for you so you get to specify gain, loading and in my case the option for two switchable inputs for my two arms and cartridges. I've always been leery of step ups worrying about the additional interconnect and complexity. 

When my room was originally designed Art Noxon of ASC recommended I add a pair of panels just either side of the listening chair to deal with reflections from the stacks of equipment at either side. I didn't think too much of this and was worried about cluttering the space and potentially over deadening things. Based on recommendations by many of GIK products and their great pricing I opted to have them make me up a pair of custom GOBOs for just this purpose. With these in place I became aware how problematic these low level but confusing reflections can be. With them banished (and with the GOBOs slightly offset so I'm not getting any direct reflections off them) I became aware that the rest of the high frequency alignment in my system was off -- specifically I used to have my supertweeters teed in more than the mains, with these now aligned it's as if everything has now snapped into super focus and the level of ease and naturalness especially in vocals has leapt up. AS always fine tuning pays off

Spurred by following recent review of the Vivaldi One I was intrigued at the though of adding a 10MHz reference clock to my Vivaldi Stack. The Cybershaft mentioned in the review is pretty much unobtainable but a bit of online research helped me find the Ref 10 from Mutec. My full review is here (https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/benefits-of-adding-a-10mhz-master-clock-to-a-digital-system) but in a nutshell the addition of a dedicated clock with its own enclosure and power supply brought substantial benefits in terms of pace and clarity to the already high performing dCS system. Further improvements were realized by adding improved power cords 75 ohm connections, both top of the line from Marigo. Finally getting the clock on footers and an isolation platform was also very positive. Overall I'd recommend any owner of recent dCS or similar equipment should investigate the addition of some form of external master clock.

I first heard John Voss' (Dourmandy) phono stage at the LAAS in 2017. This was an early prototype of this minimalist MM only, 40dB gain, fixed 47K loading battery powered phono stage. From the very first notes I knew that this was something special -- resolving higher frequencies in a way I'd never heard before. Most unlike me I placed an order on the spot and finally, 14 months later, after a lot of continued development its now in my system.

Via Mono & Stereo I became aware that Taiko Audio from the NL offer an upgraded PSU and top=plate for the Herzan platform. Having experienced the improvements that changing the power cord on a Herzan can bring I was intrigued. Without even asking me to put down a deposit Taiko sent me the upgrades -- the original plan was that they would fly out to me to upgrade the top plate but circumstances conspired to make this impossible so I did the job myself -- after working out an issue involving a lost screw jamming the mechanism I got it all sorted, its always good to know how your equipment really works!

As a believer in the impact of grounding (see my notes on the Synergistic Research Active grounding blocks) I was intrigued when Ed and Emile at Taiko suggested I try out their solution -- the battery powered Setchi ground blocks. These are very attractive wooden boxes, about 6" square (they come in different sizes) with one outlet, terminated as needed, and a 9V battery. I currently use three of the D3s, one connected to the Herzan power supply, one to the diagnostic BNC on the back of the Herzan and the other to my Mutec Clock. I also useone of the smaller A1s on the phono stage. 

At Ron Hedrich’s (Marigo Audio) suggestion I recently added this passive power conditioning treatment into my system. Installation was on the 240v input side of my Torus on wall balances conditioner (electrically identical to installing it in the house panel) and once settled in after a day or so the Gate has a clear and intriguing positive impact on an already heavily optimized power system. Think of the Gate as a “balancer” for the system. The entire frequency range seems more consistent so that for example dynamic energy you had previously only enjoyed in the mid range is now available at the lowest bass and highest treble as well. This can result in a major change in the perceived tonality of your system so be prepared to tweak speaker of (in my case) listening height I response. Overall for less than the cost of a power cord the Gate delivers a substantial impact and is highly recommended.