A cornucopia of art of SOUND!
A trip to the glorious south west of Western Australia takes place for me about once a year, and it tied in beautifully with a great friend and client of ours who consistently puts his faith in our advice and recommendations. This time round, in-between some setup, removal and extensive calibration (yes, we do all that too!), we had the fortune of supplying and installing some wonderful art of SOUND products from our esteemed portfolio of brands such as NEO HIGH END, DIVINE ACOUSTICS and ESTHETICA! Amidst all this, there are some wonderful third-party products that tie this beautiful system together.
WHAT WE SUPPLIED:-
NEO HIGH END Quattron Reference Hi-Fi Rack - Makassar Ebony Gloss finish
DIVINE ACOUSTICS Kepler Evolution Isolation Footers (sets of 4)
ESTHETICA Beatle 2 Vinyl Storage Rack
THE EQUIPMENT LIST:-
Accuphase E-380 Stereo Integrated Amplifier
Esoteric K-05XD SACD/CD Player
IsoTek V5 Elektra Power Cleaning System
Kuzma Stabi R Turntable
Kuzma 4 Point 11 Inch Tonearm
Lyra Delos MC Cartridge
Osborn EOS Reference Elite Standmount Loudspeakers
and of course various cables!
THE WORK
A three hour drive and a brisk cuppa and we were underway at task number one - building the stunning NEO HIGH END Quattron Reference rack. This is undoubtably the star of the show (for me!). Each shelf is supplied in its own crate, so we meticulously opened each crate, cleaned and polished the stainless steel columns and began building this hifi system centrepiece. For those who would like too see just how well packaged these shelves are, take a look at our unboxing video we did on this a couple of years ago here:-
https://youtu.be/zEArGc7I8hU
Once the Quattron Reference was built, re-cleaned and ready, it was time to unbox and install the client’s components - the IsoTek Elektra power cleaning system, followed by the Esoteric K-05XD SACD Player and finally (for now at least), the Accuphase E-380 integrated amplifier. Despite each product being a different finish to the next, the rack seemed to tie them all together quite well !
With the heavy lifting done and dusted, it was onto the turntable. The Kuzma Stabi R is a powerhouse and a personal favourite of mine - I just love the dark monolithic industrial design (although you can spec this deck in ANY colour you like). Our job here was to remove the existing 4Point9 tonearm and EMT cart and replace this with the bigger 4Point11 (with VTA adjustment) and Lyra Delos combination - easily done, but patience and steady hands are most definitely required!
Job done, so now its time to position the gorgeous, Australian designed-and-manufactured Osborn EOS Elite standmounts, complete with matching white SolidSteel tripod stands, and sit back and listen to the fruits of our work! So much synergy in this system, with each component complimenting the next. At no point does it feel like a component is trying to control the audio limelight here, we have balance and poise, control and detail. The Osborns punch well above their size, with a solid bass weight that adds gravity to the music.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
This system is technically a secondary system for the client, we still have work to do over at SYSTEM ONE. A year or so ago we installed a couple of NEO Quattron Racks in this system along with some NEO CERADISC footers and DIVINE ACOUSTICS Kepler Isolation Footers (you can read that blog post here ). It was time to add an existing set of the new DIVINE ACOUSTICS Kepler “Evolution” footers underneath the newly upgraded ANTIPODES KALA K50 music server.
ONE LAST THING!
So, what good is this new system without means of instant access to favourite CDs and records? Simple - let’s add an ESTHETICA BEATLE 2 storage rack into the mix. Originally designed for turntable, amplifier and vinyl storage, this rack will be repurposed for vinyl, CDs and remote controls and sits right next to the sweet spot (chair). I encouraged the client to immediately fill up the drawers with his favourites from his extensive collection for the obligatory photo opportunity, but with a huge range to choose from, this was a task bound to take days, not minutes, so you will just have to put up with the couple of photos below (we did a previous blog post on this rack which can be found here )
GALLERY
