One of the most frequented venues I visit during the year is a friend who I first met via AOS just when I was beginning my return back into HIFI. I have never really written anything about Steves place as it is very difficult to describe and put into words. It is beyond exceptional and totally unique on many levels and is always a constant source of inspiration and knowledge as is Steve himself.

There will be no pictures in this post but if Steve does read this he may contribute however that may not happen so if you want to see pictures of some of Steves place etc you need to look at
http://sonoritydesign.co.uk/sonority/ Which will give you some indication of Steves place.

Anyway I do pop up regularly and at Christmas I usually have a long session there kindly hosted by Steve but this year was a little different as Mr Firebottle joined us for a few hours, although I suspect he may have liked to stay for more?

I find it quite difficult to describe Steves set up because it is so multi dimensional covering every tiny aspect that could contribute to a systems performance. Let's just say the infrastructure is on another level both physically and electrically. I could go into details but this would make the post massive and really it needs to be seen and heard to appreciate just how much work has gone into it. Let's just say Steve has created or should I say constructed the most perfect listening environment you could imagine.

So on the day we listened to an all digital set up in Steves main room which comprised of an InnOS server connected to a Simaudio Mind control device all running through a DAVE Chord DAC and a massive Chord power amp into some YG acoustics speakers.

We ran thorough a huge amount of music from Alison Krass, Dire Straits, Yello, Boris Blank, Cosmic ground, Steve Wilson,and many others finishing with Radioactive Man!

At this point maybe I could leave it to Alan to describe the sound

All I would say is that when you hear what digital can do at this level it is truly fabulous and can achieve an unbelievable level of performance. I think we can agree that what we heard did not sound like Analog or Digital but something else altogether.

I certainly enjoyed the day and it was really nice to have Alan there for some of the day and I would like to thank Steve very much for hosting it.