I recently spent a rather entertaining evening with me old mucker Virkon. I have to say that over the years he has been a major influence on me on a range of subjects. We played a wide range of music finishing with Led Zeppelin on DVD. Virkon has made some significant changes to his system lately swapping around combinations of amplification and room positioning. Virk recently sold on his beloved Trilogy pre-amp not before some serious valve rolling which he had driving an Ayre power amp. This was a combination i felt looked and sounded classy and sophisticated when played via The Ruark Equinox speakers.
Since the acquisition of his Advantage CD player with it's matching amplifier some years ago Virk has always had a penchant for the brand and recently seized on a pair of S250 monoblock power amps and an S2 pre-amp. These really have taken a grip of Virk's latest speaker purchse a rather beautiful pair of Ruark Crusader III's. Vinyl is handled via a Kusma Stabi S turntable with a Stogi gimble tone arm on board and an Ortofon jubilee MC cartridge in the sharp end. The signal from Virks pride and joy is handled by an Ayre K5 solid state phono stage, All this makes for a very pleasing sound indeed, with superb PRAT and a powerful no nonsense presentation. We listened to everything from Goldfrapp and Cassandra Wilson on CD and some 80's vinyl courtesy of Prefab Sprout to fore mentioned Led zeppelin via Virks trusty yet aging Sony DVD player. This system never missed a beat all evening and coped well with the effects of beer, Sambuca and Baileys. Just thought i would share the experience with my fellow forum members.
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Advantage CD S1/S2 pre-amp and monster S250 mono blocks.
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Virkon's lovely Kuzma turntable modified by the man himself. The record sits on beads glued to the platter.
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Virkon has not only spent serious money on his kit he also has fun with it experimenting with inexpensive tweaks. Support is by Ikea and one of the best i have seen. Mains cables are Isotek, interconnects are Audioquest and speaker cable is Cogan Hall.
