What's the best system you've heard?

Some fairly high end Vitus Audio stuff, along with some of that weird Entreq stuff, high end TelluriumQ cabling & matching Focal speakers.
No idea what the Entreq stuff does, if anything or whether the TQ cables were so much better than normally priced wires.
But.....
Something was making some incredible music. No fatigue, just effortless music from the lowest bass to the sweetest treble & imaging which made the system disappear.
Way out of my price range but a very enjoyable experience. I’ve heard other big-rig setups, but this just worked.

Mine :eyebrows:

Krell Evolution system driving Martin Logan CLX's.

S.

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Originally Posted by paulf-2007

Er which Paul are you apologising to and why.

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You as you had already covered the room aspect, if I had seen your post I would have said something like "As Paul mentions".

Just being polite.

To the OP, it's a hard question to answer after listening to so many systems - and in so many different rooms. But the first great system that I heard was definitely a Sondek, NAD 3020 and Mission 70s in 1982. That's what got me hooked.

Pete

Mine.;)

Is it just me, but when I hear mega expensive speakers from the likes of ATC, Avalon and Wilson for instance, they just don't sound that wonderful.

I really like my friend's Garrard 301 / SME312s / ATC SCA2 / Krell FPB-300 / bi-amped B&W Nautilus 801 system that represents something of an ideal for me in terms of detail, resolution and entertainment value. The h0rns Universum 3 mentioned earlier that I heard in Harrogate were exquisite. Perfect to all intents and purposes - beautiful like a piece of modern art and the music just appeared magically in the room. Yet the Tannoy Legacy Cheviots upstairs (with the £39k MSB power amps) had them pasted from an engagement and entertainment point-of-view (they've really lit a fire under me!). These I could live with.

Incidentally the big B&O actives at Harrogate were woeful - although effective in a blunt instrument kind of way with Star Wars, they were flat and grey and a bit chesty with music. Very disappointing.

Yet with all these experiences, I come home and breathe a sigh of relief as my system just sounds so bloody right to my ears. Natural and easy going, with a kind of crystalline purity (especially with digital sources) that rivals the h0rns, lots of entertainment, unfatiguing in long listening sessions. My 804s retain enough of the 801's qualities to scratch that particular itch too (even if they don't shift air in quite the same way!). My system does things that (again for me) none of these other systems do.

So I suppose it's about finding your personal audio nirvana. Recent experiences have given me an upgrade path / roadmap that involves separating the AV and stereo sides within the same system. I don't really think this is necessary, but I think it's probably the best way of moving things on without actually trading up in the AV amp stakes - which I'm not sure would achieve much. (Rambling - I'll stop now.)

Gotta be honest, the best sounding system I have ever heard was back around 1982. It used my own Logic DM101 with an Alphason HR100S MCS arm and Kiseki Blue cartridge into a Crimson Elektric monobloc and active crossover'd Mission 720 setup. The active crossover was built by Crimson and installed by the dealer I then has an association with. Pete and Keith were really good friends and those days were the best. Sadly, I have never heard anything as dynamic since.

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Originally Posted by walpurgis

Is it just me, but when I hear mega expensive speakers from the likes of ATC, Avalon and Wilson for instance, they just don't sound that wonderful.

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Yes Geoff. I remember hearing a Naim active system in Sheffield years back and it was extremely uninspiring. I think they may have been SBL's or whatever.