Marc's system

[JFB]

Marc, congratulations, they look great and I'm sure they sound even better. I love the color.

[GeAllan70]

[chessman]

Marc, simply OUTSTANDING!!

[Apexorca]

Originally Posted by 2fastdriving

Hi Apexorca, thanks for the compliments. I have a great deal of respect for you and what you have done with your system!

But if you read my last few posts in this thread, you'll see that I got these delivered just about 4 hours before I caught a plane for a vacation. Took a few hours to uncrate and assemble. Then, It was a very bittersweet 2 hours I had to listen to these babies because I knew I didn't have time to position them optimally. They are still on wheels, too.

Despite that, they sounded a great deal better than the Sasha 2s they replaced. It will only get better as they break in and more critical tweaking is performed.

When I get back, my dealer is coming over to help me do final positioning, tuning (head positioning) , and spiking.

Normally, coming back from a vacation isn't fun, but in this case, I have a lot to look forward to!

Great Marc! It was not my idea to rush you. I can se the wheals. It was just a tip along the road.
Speaker placement is quite fun and can be very rewarding.

[pete6737]

Congrats Marc! What a fantastic system you've put together. Somehow I missed that you have a K01x as well. I can house sit for you while you are on vacation!

[audiohippo]

Originally Posted by pete6737

Congrats Marc! What a fantastic system you've put together. Somehow I missed that you have a K01x as well. I can house sit for you while you are on vacation!

I think we should make a list for house sitters!

[pete6737]

Originally Posted by audiohippo

I think we should make a list for house sitters!

I call dibs until my vacation time runs out

[vegaracer1]

If only someone could Photoshop someone sitting in his room. 😁

[2fastdriving]

Originally Posted by vegaracer1

If only someone could Photoshop someone sitting in his room. 😁

Lol well I am back now. Definitive coming tomorrow morning for final placement. I'll provide more thoughts on these as they break in and we get them dialed.

[2fastdriving]

Thank you all for the kind words. Definitive came out yesterday and dialed everything in. They brought with them a Linn DAC worth 27k (I didn't know they were that pricey...i've underestimated them in many ways I suppose) and they brought a bunch of power cords and interconnects and speaker cables.

The proceeded to set my system up with their dac and wires. I guess I understand why on some level...they want to make sure they are familiar with as much of the gear as they can in order to know what it "should" sound like as they go through their Wilson Way listening session. But the extra gear did throw me a bit...more on that later.

So pretty much the only "unknown" to them was the Esoteric power amp.

They played the same song over and over and over for hours...it's a song that David Wilson recorded, and there are detailed notes that David has given them to listen for certain things in the soundstage. It's pretty cool. The track is called "new pants" and I can't remember the artist, but you can't find it anywhere anyway. It did sound FANTASTIC.

Then there were a few other songs they played which sounded pretty darn good, but I wasn't familiar with them. In fact there were very few vocals in those tracks, which I thought was mandatory for setting up a system.

So after tweaking things within fractions of an inch for a few hours, they declared victory and removed all their gear and hooked mine back up.

it didn't sound quite as good. Now, I don't think there's anything wrong with the placement, which in fact was extremely close to how I had it before they arrived. I can only surmise that either the Linn dac was OFF THE CHARTS good...crushing my K-01x...or I really do need better cables. I suppose the source files might have something to do with this, too...most of what I listened to after they left was garden variety recordings that I like. Nothing hi rez or "audiophile recording".

I asked them about it, and they claim the Linn DAC is one of the best DAC's in the world, with only DCS's top of the line edging it out. I dunno...

I do think I need new interconnects, I have Transparent "super" which are basically entry level. But I tried some ultra gen 5 in my system before and it didn't make much difference at all, so I bailed on it. These were TA reference gen 5. Perhaps those make far more of a difference than I ever knew they could. They also brought reference gen 5 speaker cables...i'm using reference gen4 (mm2).

Anyway, as perplexed as I am, don't get me wrong. These Alexia's do sound amazing and have taken my system to a level I never dreamed of. I find it to be among the best I've ever heard...of course I am biased but I really am super happy with the results. I went into this year thinking I am "done" but ended up with a K-01x and Alexia's!!!

But of course, I'm always gonna wonder what my system will sound like with new wires or that Linn DAC. Dealer will lend me anything of course...but I am afraid to take them up on it.

I'll post some pics after i get the room cleaned up a bit. I'm still trying to find a good hosting site after the whole photobucket "scandal". Mine still work but probably not for long.