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Had the pleasure of spending the day with one of my audiobuddies Eli out on LI today. Been a bit of time since my last visit and there's been a lot of changes to Eli's system in the interim. The Sonus Faber Fenices and cj ART tube amplifiers remain but pretty much everything else in his system has changed. The VPI HRX has been replaced by the direct drive VPI Vanquish table. The Benz Ruby has been superceded by the Clearaudio Statement cartridge. The cj GAT was updated to the Series 2 designation. The ARC Ref. 2 phonostage is now a Ref. 3 level. Stillpoints have been placed under the Fenices as well as the equipment now sitting in a SRA Scuttle Audio rack plus Isobases.
Eli's also added to his record cleaning arsenal the KLaudio ultrasonic record cleaning machine. So his record cleaning procedure includes first cleaning his records on the Odyssey RCM with an enzyme based cleaner followed by a water rinse and then a dunk in the KLaudio machine. Even cleaning LPs on the Odyssey yielded great results.
The sound didn't disappoint either. Now I loved Eli's system the last time and his system was even better this time. The SF Fenices are really wonderful speakers and everything the other SF speakers aren't. Warm, rich, and much more linear. Without that suckout in the lower mids upper bass of the other SFs that just adds a thinness to the sound. The system (and the CA is one of the truly great cartridges out there today) sounded great whether it was large scale classical recordings like Witches Brew or Faust from RCA/Analogue Productions, rock recordings such as Dead Can Dances Into the Labyrinth or more intimate recordings such as the reissued 45 rpm of Dean Martin or the Jeton D2D of Laurindo Almeida and Ray Brown. The soundstage was simply enormous but images still had great intimacy, focus and dimensionality whether it was identifying each instrument on Witches Brew or placing Dean Martin solidly in the middle between the speakers.The midrange was glorious and the sound didn't have that edge of the earlier CA Goldfinger cartridges; more surprisingly, the WW silver didn't add a silver edge to the sound. In addition, the large speakers were really capable of great delicacy and low level resolution such as on the Almeida's guitar on the Almeida/Brown D2D. The low end was especially delicate and solid particularly say on the striking of the tam-tams on Arnold's Tam O'Shanter.
One thing that would be interesting to hear in Eli's system would be a bigger amplifier. Though the cj amplifiers are wonderful sounding and produce a relatively hefty 275 wpc, I wonder if a larger amplifier might open them up even further. The last time I heard the Fenices they were being driven by the monstrous, 600 wpc ARC Reference 600 amplifiers and it was an experience to behold.
Next time I get over to hear Eli's system, I expect he'll be in new digs. He and his wife just purchased and beautiful new home and he's having a new, custom designed listening room designed for his system. The unveiling should be sometime next summer and I expect the Fenices may reveal even more of their capabilities then!
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