Sorry to be late to the party, but I had some storm damage to deal with and couldn’t play with my new toys until this past weekend. My man-cave is being upgraded with new gear and is still a work in progress.
- Gem Dandy Polytable with Super 12 upgrade and Hana ML cartridge
- PS Audio NuWave Phono Converter
- PS Audio DirectStream DAC with Windom
- PS Audio BHK PreAmp
- PS Audio M1200s replacing M700s
- Revel Performa F208 towers
- Definitive Technology center & surround speakers
- Oppo UDP-203
- Anthem MRX1120 AVR for the home theater & playing 5.1 SACDs
- JRiver Media Center 26 on an HP PC running Win10 feeding the DAC (for now, looking at Sonore or Octave or d.Bob for future use)
- PS Audio P20 regenerator provides the juice for all the above
Interconnects are a combination of Kimber Hero & Audioquest King Cobra all XLR
except for the Oppo’s link to the BHK which is a Kimber Hero with WBT-0114.
Speaker cables are Kimber 8VS.
Niles Audio SPK-1 switch for sharing the Revels between the M1200s and the AVR
I had planned on doing some extensive A-B testing, but it quickly became painfully obvious even with only a couple of hours warm up that the M1200s are indeed in a different league and that what I was doing was wasting my time. The M700s (as good as they were and they sounded terrific) are now back in the box awaiting a trip to Boulder.
I listen to a lot of 70s prog rock (Moody Blues, Yes, Floyd, ELP, Genesis) with plenty of more mainstream classic rock (Zep, Beatles, Stones, CSNY, Doors, Hendrix, Springsteen, Allman Bros, Steely Dan, etc…) and go to Jeff Back for a change of pace into jazzier fare, then to Brubeck & Miles. For classical I have a bunch of SACDs that I’ve picked up over the years and I’m slowly working my way through the George Szell box set.
The M1200s just blow me away. I’m reminded of the time when I bought my B&K AVR 507 back in 2003. I auditioned top of the line AVRs from Pioneer, Denon, Onkyo, Yamaha and maybe Marantz and they all sounded great, but the B&K just blew them all out of the water and I had to have it. That’s the way I feel listening to the M1200s. More clarity in the mids, better sound stage, heftier bass. They are keepers. Kudos to Darren and the entire team.
Walt