Sonic Frontiers
Here is the system as she stands today:
Sonic Frontiers Power 2 Signature Amplifier
Golden Tube Audio Preamp
Sonic Frontiers Signature Phono Stage
Micromega CD Player
Oracle MkIII Turntable (with the Brooks Berdan Mod) - Fidelity Research FR-64 tonearm
Benz ACE high output moving coil cartridge
B&W Matrix 805 Mini-Monitors
Synergistic Research Resolution Reference .5 Speaker cable (w/Active Shielding)
Interconnects: Audioquest Lapis, Synergistic Research Resolution Reference MkII and SRRR X series
Powercords: BMI Whale Elite MkIII, BMI Whale Elite MkIII, BMI Shark Vi, Eichmann Express
Line Conditioning: Adcom Ace-15, Audio-Magic Mini-Stealth
Grand Prix Audio Monaco Amp Stand, Michael Green Basik Racks and brass cones, Spica sand filled Speaker Stands
Bright Star Big Rock, Little Rocks, Townsend CD Seismic Sink, Black Diamond Racing Cones and Pucks
VPI 17 automatic Record Cleaning Machine
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The system is all tube except for the CD player. The system sits on multiple layers of plywood with a layer of eggshell foam inbetween.
If I had the room I would put the rack somewhere else and run a long length of interconnect to the amp since one of the Golden Tubes
strengths is its high output. However in a studio apartment that isn't possible. The speakers are about 6 feet apart and approximately
33 inches out from the walls. I have tapestry covered drywall behind the speakers and have squares of acoustical foam in the room corners
to control reflections. The stereo faces a wall of records and books so that helps. The recent addition of the power cords has added a
level refinement to the system that I found stunning. However it was a huge project to find an arrangment that would keep any of the cables
from touching or crossing one another.Gotta keep those electromagnetic fields from interfering with one another. There is no perfect dialectric.
The Grand Prix Audio amp stand was an upgrade unto itself. Merely putting the amp on this provided blacker backgrounds, more air around
instruments. This coupled with BDR cones and pucks, and an Electro-Harmonix tube for the pre and my long in the tooth components are at a
level of refinement that I didn't know was possible. Vibration control, it's for real.
Future upgrades are the preamp (the Golden Tube has bad volume pots and shorts out at lower levels and is just okay as far as sound goes).
The CD player is the next step for major upgrade. After these the tonearm. After that it's all just cabling and tweaks.
The Sonic Frontiers Power 2 is a former Stereophile Class A amplifier (120 watts per channel alot by tube standards) and throws a huge soundstage,very transparent.
Very neutral you only hear what is on the recording. In fact one of the problems of a system with this sort of resolution is that
bad digital drums or recordings sound just like that, bad.There is no softening of digital glare on bad CD masters.
Of course this is why there are LP's.