My music tastes are really almost exclusively classical, concentrating on chamber and early music more than symphonic or opera. I built this system for uncanny transparency, warmth, imaging, presence, palpability.

The Jadis "magic" through tubes and pure class A amplification is aided by superb phono and now highly modified Marantz SA-1--which has added a whole other dimension even to Redbook CDs. SACDs are creating the finest sounds I have heard. Finally, my most recent acquisition, the HMS Gran Finale interconnects and Energia power cords are simply breathtaking in what they do with the smaller-scale acoustic music I love. This is a system to bring tears to the eyes and the most wonderful emotions to the heart. The paragraphs below show something of my journey to the current setup.

My current system really began about ten years ago, when the basic shape of it began to take place. I had moved from Technics to Rega to Ariston and finally to the Forsell Air Reference turntable. I moved from the Shure V15 to an van den Hul MC One to the Koetsu Platinum Pro IV. CD playback went from a first generation Hitachi to a Sony 555ES to the first Proceed CD player. Then came a Jadis JS-1 processor first from the Proceed and eventually partnered with a Jadis J-1 transport. My preamp journey went from Dynaco to Superphon to Mod Squad Line Drive to Classe DR6 to a Jadis JPS-2 with a Rotel phono stage to a full function Jadis JP80MC. My amps went from Dynaco to NAD to Classe to Manley Labs to a pair of Jadis Defy 7s, wired for mono. Then came the Jadis JA200s, and about two years ago, the new line JA250s. I went from the Bose 901 all the way to the Magnepan MGIIIa all at once (now that was a gigantic leap), to various mods to the MGIIIa and finally to the Tympani IVa with the most substantial mods to it.

Wire started out with Radio Shack and graduated to Monster M1 and M1000. Then came various MIT cables, going all the way to CVT Terminator interconnects and speaker cable. Then came the first generation FMG4 Gold Siltechs and LS-120 speaker cable. I had tried Tiffany and NBS power cords before settling on the TG Audio Goldsteins. I also had the two dedicated AC lines installed about ten years ago—a hugely important move. When I needed a digital cable, I ranged from NBS to Nirvana to a Purist Collossus when I sold my separates.

Tube rolling was also a part of my activity for a good while, until I finally stored away a cache of NOS Telefunkens and Siemens preamp and power supply tubes which should last a good long while. (My AA moniker is Bill Tubes). The Harmonix (Combak) tuning bases, feet, and room treatments also began in earnest ten years ago. These things made me away of the possibility of tweaking/modifying/upgrading parts—and the huge differences that could make. And that led to exploring the possibilities of hard wiring at least the tone arm wire all the way to the phono tube input pins and speakers all the way from the output transformer terminals. Certainly the Tympani IVa and Marantz SA-1 have been so modified that their current performance leaves the stock components on another playing field altogether.

More recent improvements have included the upgraded power supply of the preamp, the trading of my JA-200 amps for the new series JA-250s (a dramatic improvement said to derive primarily from much improved caps), the Marantz SA-1 replacing my Jadis J1 transport and JS-1 processor (again, dramatic improvement in Redbook CD--SACD vastly better than anything else), and then the recent Richard Kern update of the SA-1, adding the Super Clock and all Black Gate caps on both the signal and power boards. I was completely unprepared for what that upgrade would do.

The most recent upgrades involved replacing original Siltech FTM4 Gold interconnects for the HMS Gran Finale Top Matches, and TG Audio Goldstein power cords for the HMS Energia SLs (high current version). The cable upgrades have made a wonderfully musical system add to its imaging capabilities to a remarkable degree--with no loss of what I used to think of as Siltech "magic."

I am currently wanting to audition the new Lindemann SACD player to see how it compares to my Kern-modified Marantz SA-1. I am so struck with the improvements of the HMS interconnects and power cords, that at some point I may want to upgrade my Siltech tonearm cable and speaker cable. Both of those were installed in my system by a very technically agile friend. Especially redoing all the speaker connections involved in the Tympani IVa crossover and drivers is daunting--but then most worthwhile things are. In time...

Pictures are coming soon (with any luck).