The active part of our system consisted of a new 2005 Isis Rack which held the CD player and front end electronics. The ISIS is a state-of-the-art equipment stand employing at least two US patents either granted or pending (so far), and employs Svelte Shelf and Rollerblock Module Compound Isolation in its design.
On the Isis Rack are a Sony SCD-1 for playback of CD and SACD, and the Wavac PR-T1 line stage. The PR-T1 is a tubed, 3-chassis line stage of exceptional speed and purity. To give you an idea of the extraordinary lengths that Wavac goes to in the manufacture of their products, the top (control) unit's chassis is carved from a solid block of aluminum, with tubes and interstage transformers installed inside. The next unit down is the power supply, and the bottom unit is the separately housed power transformer. The very solid aluminum housings of the Wavac units make them exceptionally good matches for Symposium Energy Absorption shelf systems.
On either side of the rack, sitting on Svelte Shelves and inverted Rollerblocks, are the brand new Wavac MD-300b monoblock amplifiers, which were equipped with Western Electric 300B vacuum tubes running in pure class A single ended triode configuration.Wavac electronics use NO capacitors in the signal path - and instead rely upon state-of-the-art custom interstage transformers specially made for Wavac by Tango of Japan, recognized as the "Rolls Royce" of transformer manufacturers. Wavac's ultra pure design topology results in very "fast" and uncolored electronics; the preamp is flat to 100 kHz, extraordinary for a tubed design, and the 300B amplifiers are flat to about 75 kHz which is roughly 3 times the bandwidth of other SET amps.
All cable was Argento silver cable from Denmark, including power cords, speaker cables and interconnect. These cables, also represented by tmh audio, use elliptical silver conductors in a vibration-damping jacket.
Jim Ricketts of tmh audio, left, and Peter Bizlewicz of Symposium, with our setup. Speakers were the new Talon Firehawks with diamond tweeters. The Firehawks are rated at an impressive 94 dB efficiency, with an amplifier-friendly 8 ohm load that doesn't dip much lower than about 7.5 ohms. This provides an easy load for any amplifier, and it was no problem at all driving the speakers to very loud levels in our room with the "whopping" ten watt output of the 300B amps. The Firehawks are also available with standard ceramic dome tweeters, and feature ceramic midranges and dual woofers specially made to Talon's specification for fast, accurate bass in the Firehawks' rear-vented, piano-black cabinet.
The crowds came and went; and while it may be true that you can't please everybody, the great majority of visitors enjoyed our presentation of mostly original master tape excerpts provided by our pal Steve Hoffman, the reknowned remastering engineer. And, while a few people may have considered the sound of some of these original master tapes "dry," well, that's how they really do sound! In order to demonstrate the neutrality and extreme accuracy of our system, we played a variety of material ranging from "dry as a desert" to "wet as a swimming pool." With most examples, the sound that came out of the speakers was startlingly direct, dynamic, and "live" sounding.
The "regular" rooms at the Hilton are very small, and the crowds often filled the room beyond capacity. On Saturday, the air conditioning system practically shut down, but people stayed glued to their seats for the music. Savvy, "golden-eared" visitors were pleased, and quite a few lingered for long listening sessions!
Here, Jim loads a Ray Charles number, recently remastered by Steve Hoffman. Those "other" Wavac amps on the floor, just outside the MD-300B and just behind the speakers, are Wavac MD-805s, which use the more powerful 805 tube to deliver 55 watts per channel. We didn't need the extra power, because the Talon Firehawks performed flawlessly with just 10 watts, delivering impressive depth, imaging, and delicacy. Under the Firehawks are Symposium Ultra Platforms. We found that the Ultras, in this particular room, integrated well with the Firehawks and so we used them beneath the speakers instead of the Firehawks' normal spikes. On top of the Firehawks are some specialized Symposium Fat Padz which are very helpful not only as equipment supports, but also in reducing cabinet vibrations in components.
As people entered and exited our room, the door would slam shut each time. After a while, it really became annoying - and here is where we found a use for and employed the ONLY piece of sorbothane in our entire music system...
Yes, that's right - we found an old Navcomm Sorbothane Footer in our "Mr. Wizard" demo junk box, wired it up with some tie wire (courtesy of the GES folks), and fastened it to the security door latch. It made a really good doorstop!
Finally, we'd like to express our thanks to a Symposium fan who came all the way from Hong Kong to visit, but didn't return home empty-handed (he traveled home with a new Ultra Platform and Series 2+ Rollerblocks). Dedication like this is the mark of a true music lover - and makes all the hard work of doing an audio show worthwhile.
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