[b]2nd visit to Chez WM[/b] I had my second visit to Chez WM yesterday. My thanks to Tony yesterday for being such a kind host. The last time I visited WMs I came away definitely impressed. In opinion it was the best CD based system I'd ever heard. In areas such as "believability", it was simply awesome, particularly areas such as the sound of drums, which were brilliant. My only area of concern was the lack of "air" or "fluidity" which good LPs systems achieve. Well is seems that WM himself wanted some more of that, as the sound was clearly different this time around. The power amp and speakers were unchanged (Belcanto and Meadowlark). The key changes were in the CD player (now a Wadia 850 single box), updated power supplies, cables and supports. Unfortunately, not everything went quite as planned. My initial reaction on listening was "has someone put an upper range Arcam CD player on the front"? Yes it had a nice level of tonal palete, but where had the "believability", "thwack" and foot tapping gone? The good news was that not all was lost. Seems that the dumbing down of leading edges to achieve tonality was the cause. Whatever, Tony set to work, firstly lowering the seismic sink (at least I know to NEVER buy one of those), and then with some cable tweaks. Low and behold most of the magic was back, but this time round with the "air" that was previously missing. Tony then also showed off the Townsend super tweeters. What an odd effect. They were definitely an improvement, though not quite what I expected. My personal view is that they didn't change the tonal quality at all. For me, what they did was sharpen up the image placement of an instrument (by LOTS), along with improving the general believability. As an analogy, without was like listening to a guitar playing on an Arcam CDP, i.e. nice. With was like having Joe Satriani demonstrating the width of his fretboard whilst giving it rock all on the wang bar, all the while finger picking at 300 notes/min. To say I was impressed is an understatement. When I've sorted out my pre-amp, these are an absolute must. So in summary, a great afternoon. What simply amazed me was the sheer "tunability" of WMs system and the fact that he knew just what to do to tune it the way I wanted. No, it wasn't quite what I would be seeking by the end, but as Tony had got 80% there with very little effort, I really am sure that he could do the rest. Is it still the best CD based system I've heard? Err yes is the answer. I got home to listen to my own Naim/Linn based kit, and whilst I love it to bits, was certainly outclassed in a number of key areas, maybe not enough to want to spend masses of dosh, but all the same, the differences are certainly there. Look forward to seeing you in Sept.
