"We've been struggling with this room since we got in the door," I was told about an ostensibly square, standard-size hotel room that for some reason had a chunk of one of its corners truncated at a 45-degree angle. To cope with the havoc that little hiccup played with their sound, the Wyred 4 Sound folks oriented their speakers along the long wall, and opted for nearfield listening.
With all the problems, I would have expected disappointing sound. Happily, the opposite was the case. Wyred 4 Sound's forthcoming Roon-ready music server ($ TBD), forthcoming Statement amp (approx. $5000), and SST Thoebe II preamplifier with optional DAC and phono stage ($4250), paired with KEF Reference 3 Foundry Edition speakers ($13,000/pair), exhibited a really nice midrange and some good layering on Bill Frisell's "Pipeline." Switching gears to a high-res period-instrument recording of a Bach cantata, conducted by Masaaki Suzuki, the sound was lovely, the air laudable, and the tenor voice reproduced very well. This was a most enjoyable system, with components whose prices are not out of the reach for someone with a decent job and a penchant for saving pennies.
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