Three lunatics in the asylum

This is getting out of hand - flying to a different country to listen to a bloody hi-fi . So here's the report on the first Zerogain Anglo-Swiss Hi-fi Convention (following on from a pilot project under GH's auspices)

This weekend Lilolee, sideshowbob and I took up titian's generous invitation to visit him in beautiful Switzerland and spend a minute or two listening to his system - and he had a couple of LPs that might be worth listening to. So we rolled up at 7am friday am at Luton airport for this completely lunatic expedition. And (Still) Tones joined us for Saturday afternoon.

When we eventually finished getting through the Zurich traffic jams and got to titian's lovely house in its stunning scenery what did we do - headed up to the attic and stayed there nearly all the weekend. (Ian did actually see a bit more scenery than Lee or me as he kept popping out every 5 minutes for another fag break - the mountains and lake did look gorgeous through the attic window though!)

Enough rambling already - what about the system. There's a page on this little music-maker - although there have been a few recent changes - here. The picture doesn't really give the feel of the environment particularly well - there's approximately equal spaces either side of that in the main picture with the sloping roof space (you can see one side behind the cables photo) - which gives the whole thing a nicely bohemian/den/student feel. There is now also Titian's computer desk between the speakers which can be pushed back towards the subs for social listening, or pulled back so he can listen while working/browsing etc.

And what does it sound like? Well, it's simply the best system I've ever heard - and so it should be - with a couple of possible provisos I'll come on to later (and certainly outclasses mine in nearly all areas). It really did wonders with anything it was given - mainly classical and jazz/jazz-rock but did a pretty good job on the bits of prog rock and straight rock we gave it too. The speaker system is probably the system's strongest point. The dispersion is wonderful - each instrument has body, spatial separation and precision almost anywhere in the room. You can even hear stereo separation when you're in line with the speakers in the left or right wings of the room. Of course things are best when you're in the sweet spot, but it's realy not that sensitive. The depth of field is also quite staggering - I thought mine was good, but it's nothing compared to titian's. Probably the only system I've heard with similar soundstaging is Merlin's (or when Merlin brought his TACT over to try out on the Wilson WATT/puppies I had for a few weeks). This may be partly due to the positioning of the huge subs - the large black box you can see in the corner behind the LH satellite is one, and you can just see a bit of the RH one at the edge of the main picture. There's also a wonderful sense of scale - quite possibly due to the combination of those speakers one inverted on top of the other. With this wonderful soundstage, on the right recording you really can shut your eyes and believe you are in a concert hall. We also put on a few organ pieces (natch ), and it was quite staggering. The subs do a lovely job of the bottom end, and the music just fills the room. Titian likes Shostakovich - so we did have to play his Passacaglia (although I suspect Ian and Lee didn't enjoy that as much as Titian), and the opening theme on the pedal section with its 19Hz bottom notes did come through beautifully.

Now all this was heard despite the system being is not particularly well at the moment. It's recently had a new low output cartridge, which has required a phono stage change, and Titian has a couple on eval. One of the two bits of that hifi thang we did was compare the Tom Evans Groove, which Titian had on when we got there and used for the first two days, with a Walker phono stage. Unfortunately the Walker has a bad hum on one channel, which is why it wasn't on earlier - but it took us about three notes for us all to realise that the Walker destroyed the Groove. The Groove is deliberately coloured to provide some euphonic musicality - but that was quite unnecessary and counter-productive in this system. The clarity of the Walker opened everything out and lifted that proverbial veil from the proceedings - despite that hum.

Early on we also noticed some quite serious distortions on one channel when the orchestra got 'a bit excited' (I wish to point out that it was not my idea to play Wagner for the first hour or two, but I didn't object - although I do think there are much better performances that what we used ). This is clearly down to one of the valve monos. It was ameliorated by a bit of extra isolation using the rather funky/lethal Walker spikes - but is clearly not right, and the amp probably needs a service (at least full checks of the biassing), which Titian's about to do.

My one reservation is the cleanliness of the top end (i.e. my litmus test of an orchestral violin section). As with nearly all systems I've heard there's a bit of blurring/clutter there - the only amps I've heard that don't are my Patriot and the f.o. Halcro - and possibly the BelCanto (and HenryT reckons the same about the Spectral). This was nagging at me most of the weekend. I think some of this is down to the dodgy monoblock, and things improved a lot when we switched it over to the cello side, giving the good one to the violins. I'm still not sure that that's the full story though. This morning I put on a quick burst of the Beethoven 5 we played yesterday on mine, and it was quite a bit cleaner here.

But this was sort of what we expected - it should be a very good system. The kids in the sweetshop effect though was from Titan's LP collection. The room is FULL of records (not seen in the website photos) - somewhere in excess of 7000 :yikes: . As Ian has said before (after his first visit) Titian has a jazz collection many would kill for, almost entirely by accident (one of the most often heard phrases was "what's this....who's is it....your's), and he really ought to be contributing to the 70s/80s cheesy pop/rock thread, with a collection of over 500 LPs of that! So we played a Big Tone memorial track - Deep Purple's "Child In Time". No Shpongle though!!!! And for me, with racks and racks of stuff to choose from I didn't know where to start, although I had about 30 CDs with me with music Titian didn't know - Titian's collection is much more mainstream than mine. This is an absolute Aladdin's cave for a classico - even my County Library didn't have this range of stuff - a bit light on the English Cow-pat school though! (Oh and nestling in the corner was a paltry CD collection - of about 500 discs)

One comment from Lee on the journey out was that it would be so nice to have the time to listen to full pieces rather than just snippets. So we did this - for about 12 hours each day :yikes: , but such was the range of stuff that in the last couple of hours we were rushing around with "got to play this" and "such a shame we've not got time for...."

We held off most baroque music until Tones' arrival, but when he pitched he brought a wonderful collection of comedy stuff - Spike Jones, Tom Lerher, I forget who doing Bach on the Moog - his straight stuff didn't get much of an outing. We just pointed him at the racks of Bach and Handel and let him drool!

I've said virtually nothing about the music we did play (we clearly got though a lot between about 11am and 1am each day) - suffice to say there was lots, and I have a long list of plinque to get (I was particularly impressed by the Molvaer, Archie Shepp and Sonny Rollins, and even Ian managed to suppress his modernist tendencies enough to think about getting some Benny Goodman - that 1938 Carnegie Hall concert really is fantastic). And I must get that :notworthy Ruggiero Ricci playing the Sarasate Carmen Fantasy (well, and almost anything else really) - probably the most breathtaking piece for me all weekend (I do have it by Sarah Chang and she's about two leagues behind).

As Cookiemonster has pointed out, these can be expensive though. The other hifi thang we did was compare Beethoven 5 on LP and CD (using the wonderfully OTT Metronome CDP - 3 boxes and a transport that's just as funky as any Clearaudio TT). Unfortunately for me, even I had to admit that the LP was clearly better - so ever since the three of them have been suggesting ways of me spending £££000s

I hate to think what Rita (Titian's wife) and her family (who live next door) think of us - spending such a beautiful weekend locked up in a hot attic with only brief exits for air - when we could have been sampling the (I am told) spectacular views from the mountains above. But we all enjoyed ourselves immensely - and the mountains will still be there next year - so I guess we're happy in our shared geekery.

I'm sure there's loads more to say, but thats probably (more than) enough, so I'll shut up with big thanks to Titian, Rita, Rosemary and Eddie (and the bruises delivered by little Lorenzo should fade soon ) - and now we need to start thinking about a return visit.

 

hi graham. You sound like you've just had a religious experience The set-up seems to look more like a home studio, but I'd have no doubt if they'd sound fantastic. Of particular interest are the inverted speakers and fadel ics. Does it help greatly to position the speakers this way to improve to some extent sound dispersion? I noticed also that the lower satellites are mounted on what seems to be wooden boxes. Quite a curious set-up.

I suddenly got curious also about this fadel art cables, the Reference One in particular. I 'm just wondering if this would work fine with a lower end set-up.

regards

 

No, just a very enjoyable weekend. I'm very envious of his collection (and its staggering value for money), but am very happy with my own system - although I would certainly not say no to many aspects of his system (although I would still want to keep the clarity I now have on my own). I certainly couldn't get anything like that system in my 3.5m x 4.5m room.

As to your specific questions, Titian is really the best person to answer that (I hope we can lure him back in here, but we will need to be sufficiently adult and civilised in our discussions to do so).

The thing that really surprised me about the speakers was how the system had orchestral scale without diffusing soloists all over the shop. Logic says the inverted speakers must help to get that scale, but I guess the speakers must have excellent fundamental imaging capability (as the guy who tried to sell me the Wilsons sort of said, some speakers can really project an image, and then there's the rest) to allow that configuration to avoid smearing everything.

One thing we've been thinking recently, is that tweaks will allow the components in a system to sing to their full potential, but they will not convert base metal (or even silver) into gold. There are other threads talking about the benefits of hi-end tweaks, but my (limited) experience is that when the engineering is done correctly, the tweaks become less relevant (We've recently compared £500 to £50 I/Cs in my system with very little apparent difference). I would reckon the 10% on cabling rule of thumb is not far off the mark, although in certain cases up to 20% may still be worth it. The Fadel are not cheap (these Gold Reference are approaching 5 figures £ IIRC), and are appropriate in this system, but that cash would be better spent in a more real-world system in getting better components.

 

His sytem does look amazing.

My favorite tweeters are ribbons, especially when powered with valves, and it looks like thats what he does.

Interesting he uses a krell pwr for the subs... are they not active subs then, but passive subs? v unusual that...

sigh,,, wish I had that much ££££ to blow. A house in the swiss mountains doesnt sound like a bad idea either!

I need to marry a rich woman hehehe

are you taken with turntables now Graham? - you'd lose your ability to put your 861 straight into your power though surely if you go this route..?.. or have I missed something?

Chris

 

Graham Glad you enjoyed yourself Must have been in heaven

this link you may find useful

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?dgtlconv&1063153298&class&3&4&
Tone

 

A man of distinction in more ways than one, a very well rounded music lover indeed then! What with the Aladdin's Cave of classical vinyl, I think that's one music lending library I'd really like to be a member of. Kiddie in sweet shop is a very apt description.

Walter/Wendy Carlos?

So all those old 60/70's DG, EMI and Decca recordings weren't that bad after all then? Just a case of hearing them played back using a truely analolg frontend through an approriate playback system? Must say, some of the old 50s Decca SXL discs are still amongst the finest examples of analog recording I've heard, even on my humble little system.

 

graham

you'll have to give the pl12D a spin

you boys have all the fun. my weekend - saturday looking after Eloise sunday shopping. The joys of parenthood

see you on the 22nd for zorn

john

 

hi Graham,
good write up!
made for a good read .
i,m glad you guy,s had such a good time and i look forward to a few more write ups from the others .(a few perspectives helps me to get a better understanding of a system)
although you guy,s should have at least gone for a little walk

high praise , indeed .
i,ve wondered how good titians system was going to be .
i had a feeling it was going to be very good .
but it seems its actually , very , very good

have you guy,s made arrangements for another visit , or perhaps is Titian going to be spending a bit of time in the UK?

 

…actually it was Bob James playing Jean-Philippe Rameau. Gosh, these Romantic types aren't safe to be let out alone! Knowing that Titian had a mighty collection, I tried to pick stuff that he wouldn't have had – and let's face it, how many of you have even heard of Spike Jones and his City Slickers? Hardly hi-fi, but great fun. And, yes, drooling I did in plenty.

Anyway, it was a splendid day (in my case), and many, many thanks to Titian for being the perfect host. It was also great to put faces to Graham, Lee and Ian.

I admit it; I was totally intimidated by the thought of listening to a system where the very connecting cables (those Fadel tubular things seen hanging from the ceiling behind the speakers) were each more expensive than my entire No.1 system. Would I go back home, never able again to listen to my stuff, possessed of an absolutely unscratchable itch? I'm pleased to report that I can still listen to mine. It was fascinating hearing what a really good system can do, and Graham has said it all already very well. I confess I didn't analyse it in those terms, and I'm not sure that I'm capable of it – I was just enjoying listening to music so very well reproduced.

However, one interesting (to me) observation. Titian's system didn't sound like live music to me. This is no fault of the system but of me. If you like, I couldn't suspend disbelief that this was just two (four actually) speakers. This weekend did one very useful thing for me; it helped me analyse why I'm such a failure with hi-fi, and perhaps I shouldn't venture opinions on the subject of hi-fi ever. Part of my brain seems to refuse to accept hi-fi as an authentic musical experience. It's saying, “This is a hi-fi, fella, a very superior hi-fi to be sure, but still a hi-fiâ€Â. I know I'm looking at two speakers and not musicians, and different hearing criteria seem to apply. As a result, I seem automatically to listen to and evaluate hi-fi in a completely different way than I do live music. Part of me doesn't buy the illusion. Does that make sense? Perhaps not. Must think about it some more sometime. Perhaps even start a thread on it? It does have one major advantage - it prevents me from committing suicide in sheer frustration that such a system can never be mine!

Such considerations notwithstanding, there was certainly a realism about music on this system that I've not heard elsewhere (apart from a pair of Martin-Logan electrostatics I once heard at a show); I've never heard the tones of gut-strung baroque violins so clearly differentiated from their modern cousins. The soloist on Graham's Sibelius songs was beautifully caught. And my beloved Monteverdi Vespers sounded glorious.

One thing I'm sorry I missed was the A/B TT/CD player test. I can never hear any difference between my LP12 and my Mimik, and I would have been interested to see if I could hear (if you see what I mean) a difference. To this end, I brought down the vinyl and CD of the Pinnock Water Music, a record I know backwards, but alas, there were soooo many good things to listen to that I never got the chance. Perhaps another time (after all, nowhere in Swizzieland is very far from anywhere else). On the other hand, if I'm content with my lot, should I not stay that way? Any upgrade is going to cost serious money, which the Tones do not have, at least not for hi-fi. Perhaps a case where ignorance (and/or deafness) is truly bliss.

As Graham says, the CD player, a Metronome “Kalistaâ€Â

http://www.metronome-technologie.com/admin/affiche.php

is a most amazing looking thing – one expects to see little green men emerging from it. And this is only the transport! Indeed, he whole room is full of amazing-looking things, from the valve amps powering the speakers, to the enormous squat Krell powering the subs to the turntable with its massive platter and remote motor, all apparently joined by transatlantic telephone cable. If the sight of Mana would make Mrs. Tones throw a fit, this would produce an instant need for a padded cell. But then, Mrs. Titian doesn't have to look at it, because it's all tucked away at the top of the house. Definitely the way to do things.

So, again, Titian and family, many thanks for a most enjoyable experience and thanks, guys, for being such good company and for providing such interesting music. Here's hoping we can meet up again somewhere, sometime.

 

Graham and Tones have covered most of it very well, and I definitely echo their praise for the system, which sounded bloody wonderful last time I was there and sounds bloody wonderful now, despite being in a slightly transitional state with new cartridge, phono stage and (bonkers) CD player.

My last visit was during winter, with short days and heavy snow on the ground, which gave more opportunity to hear the system at its very best - in the dark. I've never heard any other system that plays music so well in that scenario. Utterly magical. But even with the bright sunshine trying to beckon us outside, and the nearfield speakers looming up at us, the sign of the system's quality is how easy it is to forget it's even there, and just bask in the music (and the heat from the amps). The stunning location, generous hospitality, and Titian's amazing record collection all added to the experience. Anyone who thinks you need to be a gadget-obsessed lunatic with more money than sense and a record collection entirely made up of Stereophile test disks to own a truly high-end system should avail themselves of any opportunity to meet Titian and hear his set-up. His listening room is a shrine to music, not equipment.

A pleasure to meet Titian and his family again (and the new addition, Delila), and great fun to meet Tones, who's as good-natured in real life as he is on the forums, and has an admirable taste for comedy as well as "serious" music. A fine way to spend a weekend, even if we're the only people in western Europe to have emerged from one of the hottest weekends of the year paler than we started.

-- Ian

 

I think the phrase that Tony said was 'Shoot me now and I'd be happy forever'. And how right he was. A great sounding system.

I can't really add too much to what has been written above, except to extend my thanks to Titian, Rita and the rest of the family for making the stay a fantastic one.

 

I'm still not sure how an admission that vinyl isn't necessarily as bad as I previously thought turned into a commitment to about £5k (minimum) of analogue front end! I think the biggest driver is that Titian's collection cost probably about the same as mine but has about 8 times as much wonderful music (sarcy comments about strange organ music not required - he's got several times more organ stuff than do I)! I should also point out that this is not an unreserved Damascus moment as it failed quite badly on the big bits of the Berlioz Requiem - maybe a less than perfect pressing, but it was way off what a CD will do. One strong possibility is to put the 861 quite happily directly into the XLR inputs of the amp, and then the analogue through a volume controlled phono stage into the RCA.


Tones - OK....I knew that was wrongish when I wrote it but wasn't really paying attention at that time (IIRC I was looking for that wonderful early baroque peruvian dance). In mitigation, may I contend that we had actually all(ish) heard of Spike Jones though (and probably all heard some before too!).

Can a hifi ever sound real? I doubt it in general, but I've certainly heard systems that can do so some of the time, and that Ricci and some of the organ stuff (which unfortunately you didn't hear) was getting pretty darned close. Yes, it's certainly related to your ability to suspend disbelief and also what factors you're sensitive to. To some people it's clearly PRaT (whatever that is) - in my case the blocking factors are soundstage (which Titian's system did wonderfully for me) and cleanliness (which in this case clearly is next to godliness ) in the upper-mid/lower-top - and here Titian's system didn't quite do it for me. I always find it helps to shut your eyes - as Ian said the best way to hear Titian's system (and actually nearly all hifi) is in the dark. It's very difficult to get groups of multiple instruments to sound real - even small baroque groups. I wonder whether it's something to do with the limited resolving power of even the best systems (i.e. the ability to resolve the multitude of difference/interference tones between similar instruments), as I think groups of instruments with different tonal qualities (e.g. piano + singer) are much easier to make believable than groups of similar sound (e.g. string quartets, baroque orchestras) - maybe this is one reason why jazz groups (3,4,5) always sound so good on a hifi.

Shame we didn't do the Water Music thing - you really must stop being so polite!!!

JohnH - if you turn up on the 22nd you'll have missed us (and Zorn) by about 2 days

 

Sounds like you had a lot of fun guys, Good stuff.

Shame you couldn't have made it up into the mountains as well, but there is only so much you can do in one weekend I guess.

Cheers, Robbo

 

Graham

you're right. phew - see you then, I might have cottoned on once I started reading reviews of a gig that hadn't happened yet

john

 

Now I suppose you are all waiting for my comments on these posts and I apologize that it took me so long to write them down.

I would like to thank the three lunatics, who accepted the mad idea of an invitation to Switzerland for hearing a bloody hifi of a stranger. Mostly thanks to Ian, who came here alone a few months ago because that step, which wasn't so easy to make, has allowed this magical weekend to become true.
Yes, this weekend was very magical for me; I must say it was certainly the nicest one since years. I think that the main reason for the success of this weekend wasn't my bloody hifi but the special “chemistry†between the four of us. Each of us have different characters, feelings and opinions but these blended so well together. It seemed that we all had the necessity to receive (learn) something from the other and I must say I have learnt so much during the last weekend. I just think that it was such a pity that the time flew so fast away. And the appearance of (Still) Tones was just what was needed to change radically the atmosphere. We all expected an afternoon with Händel, Bach and Co but instead we had a great and very colorful entertainer, which freshness raised the event to one of its highlights. It was really a great idea to bring those comedy stuff.

The scenery from the music room is really stunning when the weather is so beautiful as it was last weekend. Instead in autumn and winter when the fog covers our place, I would prefer to live in south of Switzerland or in south of Italy (this Titian is never happy enough!).

About my system I can say that sometimes I am very impressed and sometimes no. When I though hear it concentrated in the dark then I am feeling to be in another world. I have an explosion of wonderful feelings. This just cures the hassle, anger o any negative feelings during the day. And for me this is worth no price.
At the moment my system is in a phase of changes and lots of things don't work as they should. During the last years I have heard about 5 hours per day at concert hall level without revising any units and I think it is time to bring some of the components for a check:
- the power amplifiers were never brought to a specialist except for changing a broken valve. I would like to learn to revise the units myself since each time my wife has to bring them to Zurich (1 1/2 h car journey) to a person which I think is going on his descending way. I am very well assisted by the constructor of my amps and loudspeakers (Mr. Nestorovic). He already told me to call him today for the biasing check but I will call him in a few days when I suppose he would have more time for my problems. If the problems consists then I will just send him the units for a complete revision (eventual upgrade if there is any).
- The Metronome CD player components (4) were sent today back to the factory in France because the XLR-digital connection between the Kalista (transport) and the converter doesn't work. For such an expensive unit it is very a shame for Metronome that such a thing happened. In fact they are very consternated about what happened that's why they told the dealer to send the units back.
- My TT needs urgently to get it's motor revised. I just didn't want to stay a few weeks without it because I cannot stay so long without hearing music. As soon as the Kalista and Co come back I will send the TT to the “doctorâ€Â.
- We were maybe the only persons in this world who had the possibility compare directly the highly recommended “The Groove†phono stage and for us the unknown Walker phono amp (www.walkeraudio.com). To be fair I must say that the Groove was set to a cartridge of a load impedance between 50 and 200 Ohm I think, while my cartridge has one of 845 Ohm. The Walker was set to 1K Ohm. Another advantage the Walker had was that Mr. Walker sent me a model, which is very much near to his top model, built all in a wood case and a very special power supply. I received the wooden power supply with the metallic case phono section, so a mix between his top of line model and the second best version. Considering these facts, I agree to Lee, Ian and Graham that the Walker blew away the Groove so easily that it was impressive. Even Graham had forgotten about those distortions on the high frequencies when listening to the Walker. Sorry to you all that I didn't present this unit to you before, but I didn't want to be the cause of an eventual headache. You know I don't have so many aspirins tablets and I would prefer to spend the money in buying the Karajan's live version of the Ring rather than a box of aspirins (I know I am selfish). This evening I have called Mr. Walker and told him we have to get rid of that hum, which lot of us think it's house made, and we agreed that I should send the unit back to him immediately and he not only will fix it paying the transport costs, but will give me a very good rebates for further purchases of his “valid pointâ€Â. The great difference between Walker and Groove is that Mr. Walker is very much interested that I am totally happy with his unit. He tries to do all what he can to satisfy me, while for Tom Evans Groove I have to go through a dam marketing company which is only interested in selling as much units possible and getting maximum profit. I have heard that this is not true for England. Anyway the Groove has been returned to the German dealer and the Walker will be sent to the States. And what is left for me? My great “old†Klyne…
I would like to finish my post here and continue tomorrow since during the weekend I didn't sleep very long because I was involved in discussions until 3 am.
I will try to answer the different questions posted in this thread and some sent to me by mail.

Thanks again for accepting my invitation, which I give to everyone else.
In other words you are all kindly invited here if you are interested in having a “different†experience. I though would like that the music and not the hardware remains the main point. I am opened to know other kind of music so it mustn't necessarily be classical or jazz.
And of course I would accept immediately an invitation to London to meet you all. I suppose only a date is missing.
I could imagine that the only problem would be Lorenzo since I promised him that I would go once with him to London. I believe I would have to take him with but we'll see…

 

The very interesting discussion that ensued on how real a hifi can sound really had much wider relevance than just Titian's system - so it's now been split off here

 

Here is the second part of my post from yesterday.

How did I come to end up with what I have
Before I had a system mainly with McIntosch components, with the ESS AMT 1 b (or a) loudspeakers and the Thörens MK 126 with SME and AKG cartridge. I didn't use any particular special cables. Since over 10 years I was looking for much better speakers that I could afford. One day I saw in a shop a nice pair of floorstanders and I ask what they were. After listening to them I thought they were not bad and the salesman offered me a demo at my place. I accepted and I heard the difference, which for me didn't justify the price difference. On the price list I saw the top model (system 16) and I ask him if it would be possible to hear that system. After a few weeks I went to hear it and I got the shock of my life! I said to myself that those are the speakers that I was so long looking for, but since the price was too high for me I started looking around the whole world, where I could get them cheaper. It seemed that nobody wanted to sell their system 16 and therefore I started to save money very hardly. A year or two later I found a retailer who was selling his system 16 with the tube amplifiers for a very decent price. It didn't take me long to complete the deal with him since the dollar was at its historical minimum! (infact a few days later it was already 10% higher)
I bought the system 16 plus the electronic crossover, the two NA-1 power amplifiers, the especially for this system made wooden stands, Audioquest Clear Cables for the speaker connections (remember there are two pairs) and the Audioquest Emerald IC-cables.
When I installed it at home I was quite disappointed with the sound quality. When I had my first phone contacts with Mr. Nestorovic, he recommended that I throw away the McIntosh components! Year after year I followed his recommendations till I have the system I have now.
The major change was to buy the new version of his system 16, which was and is a huge jump in quality of sound. I must say that without those “investments†in the stock exchange I would never had the possibility to switch to the new versions of these speakers.
The Fadel cables (first the Reference one then the Coherence line) did a huge change to the sound quality of my system. Even today I use to make the comparison cream / whip cream to explain the difference I hear without / with these cables.
It seems that these cables give also very good results on less good systems but personally I would spend that money to get better electronics or speakers. If nevertheless somebody really feels like spending money on Fadel cables then I would buy second hand Reference One line unless it is for a very high end system (then the Coherence line and Goldline).
The wooden stands have no special purpose except for supporting the loudspeakers. As I bought the fist system 16 (second hand) I also bought these stands since I didn't feel like running around to find stands with the right height.

The inverted speaker configuration
To tell you the truth, I never thought about this configuration very much. I was and am only interested in the sound quality. How it is achieved is for me marginal. I asked today Mr. Nestorovic about why and how. The inverted speakers system helps the time alignment and those two 8 inch drivers at that position and distance gives a rich sound for organ and orchestral music.
It doesn't though give better sound dispersion than any other system. Inverting two speakers works well only when they are designed for that purpose. The different drivers have to be built and positioned in order to focus in the listener's area otherwise there will be more confusion than clearness and consistence. Also a perfect vertical alignment is required.


There are still two points I wanted to respond if anybody is interested in:
- what are the tweeters made of ?
- is the depth of the sound achieved by the position of the subwoofer relative to the satellites?

 

It struck me, sitting in front of the rather strange speaker arrangement, that the inversion combination ends up being a sort of d'Appolito configuration - as used by the JMLabs Utopias and some of the Usher speakers. Having the tweeters between symmetrical mid-range units does seem to give an excellent top/mid coherence - and certainly achieved the organ/orchestral richness you mention.

 

By coincidence there is a discussion of stacking on the LS3/5a list. The speakers need to be designed for stacking as the distance between tweeters can cause treble problems due to 'comb' effects.

Have to say this was fine with Titain's speakers.

 

From the "How real can we get" thread:

I was wondering about this earlier on, given how well focussed everything is. I'm not at all sure it would do very much though as:

1) The room is effectively wood - so absorbs quite a bit that would be reflected in a room with solid walls

2) As you can see from the pictures on Titian's site, there're almost no parallel surfaces anywhere in the room, so little chance for conventional standing wave buildup

3) Any surfaces that stand a chance of being parallel are almost certainly obscured by a rack of LPs (with a consequent 'dithered' surface) anyway

So even if the TACT system were to try correcting things, it would have to be correcting a whole host of diffuse echoes, rather than their preferred couple of large echoes.