by Michael

The Audio Note Fifth Element DAC and CDT-Five transport

See and hear both at CAS 2018 – the California Audio Show – Oakland July 27-29th. That’s next week, BTW. 🙂

 

 

I was listening to this, the Decca Legends King’s College Choir (Willcocks) but the older non-super digital version. Always sounded pretty good, alwys kind of inspiring – but for the first time I could tell they were singing in English. I always assumed it was Latin or Italian or whatever. What a shock. I have heard this CD for literally 20+ years. I attribute this additional clarity to the arrival of the Audio Note Fifth Element / Fifth Force and the ability of the Acapella Campanile 2 speakers to ‘get out of the way’ of the music.

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 by Michael

Acapella Campanile 2 loudspeakers, Audio Note, and CAS 2018

We have a new arrival, a pair of Acapella Campanile 2 loudspeakers. We will be showing these at our local hifi show in a few weeks – CAS 2018, on July 27 – 29, in Oakland. Constantine Soo (Dagogo) and Neli will be doing a Facebook Live this Sunday at 2:00pm featuring these speakers. These are the first Campanile 2 to make it to our shores, and look and sound like small versions of the much larger Acapella ‘Apollon’ speakers.

The speakers look a little imposing without the speaker’s grill covers on…

 

But with grille covers on, they fit right in with a mid-century modern Eichler living room decor. They are eminently driveable by the Audio Note UK 20 watt 300B SET Kegon amplifiers. 🙂

It has been awhile since we had this kind of ‘big sound’ in our main listening room. We like it.

For all of us who are not Facebook Live experts … the California Audio Show has posted some helpful hints to see our video realtime and also afterwards:

Facebook Live

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 by Michael

Audio Note in the main listening room

We had this system in the main room for about three weeks, optimizing the setup, until …. the Acapella Campanile 2 speakers arrived! The Acapella speakers are now breaking in… photos forthcoming… but first, we have to salute these under $10K speakers – AN/E Spe He in Olive wood – they whupped the heck out of the place. Our main room has corners! And these extremely efficient speakers easily engaged the room to provide kick ass bass, along with explosive transients.

I really love these speakers – even though they cause me to long for the Acapella ION tweeter sometimes, I have found horn speakers are the only other type of speaker that comes close to the realism and the excitement of the Ultimate Music Experience – at least it is that way for me these days. I have become much more of a cut-to-the-chase kind of guy. I want the excitement to come to me, not for me to try and have to listen really hard and deeply to get the enjoyment I want – the enjoyment I need – to make it through the next day of insanity.

These Audio Note speakers will re-appear in our smaller listening room shortly.

Audio Note Kegon 300B amplifiers, CDT-Five transport, Fifth Element and Fifth Force DAC / power supply, M9 Phono preamplifier, and TT2 deluxe turntable on a HRS MXR equipment rack.

 

We are enjoying the appearance of the Olive wood, and the high-efficiency of the blue hemp drivers.

Summer in Palo Alto, California. 🙂

Don’t forget CAS 2018 is coming right up on July 27-29, 2018 in Oakland California. See us in Boardroom 5!

 

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