All components in BOLD are loaned; all components in standard face are owned by me.
LOUDSPEAKERS
Acoustat 1+1 electrostatics (3 pairs), Vandersteen Model 2, Snell E, Dahlquist DQ12, TMH horns, Kinergetics subwoofers.
ELECTRONICS
Jeff Rowland Design Group Model 5 amplifiers (2, XLO & Rowland modified, bridged/balanced for use as a monoblock pair), KRELL KSA300S amplifier, VTL MB185 Series II Signature monoblock amplifiers, Rowland (Rowland and XLO modified) Coherence, Klyne (2), and VTL (Type 6.5 phono) preamplifiers.
SOURCES
Digital: Kinergetics, Sony, and Theta CD and SACD players.
Analog: VPI, Ariston (2) and Linn turntables, with Linn, Dynavector, Eminent Technology, and Stax arms. Ikeda, Shinon, Audio-Technica, Koetsu, and Ortofon cartridges.
HEADPHONES
Stax Lambda Pro, Sigma, and SR-80.
CABLES
XLO Limited Edition and Signature (phono cables).
LISTENING HABITS AND PREFERENCES
First above all, I listen for "believability". I want to be able to believe that I am listening to "live" music, instead of a recording, and that, instead of having the musicians playing in my listening room, I have somehow been transported to where the musicians are and I am in the musicians' room with them. This means, among other things, that the sound must NEVER sound like it's coming from the speakers! As you can guess, imaging and soundstaging are primary criteria for me, as are the apparent sizes of the performers, their instruments, and the room they're playing in. Bass blows me away, but when I'm listening to a plucked string bass, for example, I know that there are three distinct components to the sound: the initial pluck of the string; the spread of the string's vibration to the whole instrument; and the amplifying resonance and "bloom" of the instrument's body, and I want to hear all three, in the proper sequence. Timbre is also crucial, as are "edges." Violins, for example, are generally NOT sweet-sounding instruments: In addition to the warmth of their body tones, there is also a sharp edge as the barbs of the horsehair bow "saw" at the strings. I want to hear all of it, as well as the "blatty" edges of the brass. In my listening, I care much more about "real" than about "pleasant", perhaps because "real" is always pleasant—if only as an accomplishment—but "pleasant" is NOT always real.
