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What is tour opinion on the Aesthetix Rhea signature and the Calypso signature

I'm not a consistent contributor, but I do like to read the blogs here on the forum.  I find many of them are BS, which I'm sure a lot of you do, but pay attention to some of the older or more frequent contributors, as well as the young. I am 66 years young , but haven't been able to afford the equipment I desire, until that last 15 years.  Priority-home and food.  When I was was a bout 4 or 5, I visited my my grandparents house, and found my uncle, my dads brother, who later was premiered on the American Bandstand, connecting external speakers to my grandmas hi-fi.  He had them strung out from room to room. My grandma loved Tennessee  Ernie Ford, Jim Reeves etc and had a hi fi damn the cost. you know-prioritiemy Anyway, I was hooked from then on.  I had asked for a record player for Christmas.  When I saw what he had done, I immediately went home to disassemble mS player to find the speaker.  I asked for a "speaker" for my birthday and received a 4" square speaker( we were not rolling in money-my dad did what he could). I connected it up to my record player, which had a single tube amplifier and I was in heaven.  Just a little background.  I recently purchased an Aesthetix Rhea Signature along with a Aesthetix Calypso Signature.  I read all the reviews and thought I was buying some of the best, as far a I could afford.  I saw Rual. which I havent seen on here in a while-hopes hes doing well, bad mouth both products.  They sound great to me and guess that's the main objective, but wonder what some of your opinions are about the Aesthetix equipment.I am currently running the Rhea into a Casablanca III.  My CD player (Theta Miles) goes into a Kora Hermes II and then to the Casablanca.  Thought or opinions.
handymann
kzs70
31 posts
 
Congratulations to your new Aesthetix gear!
But @sdrsdrsdr is right, both your DAC and Phono (Rea) should be directly connected to the Calypso to get the best result, and not through that processor.

I am currently running the Rhea into a Casablanca III. My CD player (Theta Miles) goes into a Kora Hermes II and then to the Casablanca. Thought or opinions.

I also have the Calypso plus the Atlas power amp and the Romulus DAC  and love them.I have replaced the new russian stock tubes with good quality NOS Telefunken tubes. I would recommend to try different tubes (if you have not done that yet) as they can result big improvement...  

noromance's avatar
noromance
9,731 posts
 
@handymann World's apart but not so different. My first 'system' was a cassette tape player with an 8" speaker I took from an old tube Pilot radio and installed into a hole in the sheetrock.
jimski
46 posts
 
I owned Calypso Eclipse and liked it a lot, only sold to get Aesthetix's Metis preamp, which is another order of magnitude.  Also have had long experience with other Aesthetix equpt, Atlas Eclipse stereo amp, Romulus Eclipse DAC/CD player, and I am now in line to replace the stereo amp with Eclipse monos.  While these are not what you own, I mention them to imply long term satisfaction with this company's products.  The company is known for high performance at very good value.  As a designer, Jim White is among the most respected in the industry.  His skill is exceeded only by his integrity.  I acknowledge this response isn't exactly what you asked, but hoped the perspective on the company might be of interest.  Obviously, amid a field of a lot of good equipment out there, I feel Aesthetix is a very sound buy.
Jim Heckman
jperry
2,445 posts
 
During their tour at my house the Aesthetix Atlas, Calypso, and Rhea all were great performers. I changed only to downsize my system. The Rhea with very low output MC cartridges had some unavoidable tube noise. I used NOS RCA clear top tubes.

I think you should run the Rhea into the Calypso and as recommended by others skip the Theta Casablanca.
tablejockey
3,870 posts
 
Aesthetix Calypso/Rhea-

You have great equipment.

Sit back and listen to records. The more difficult decisions are trying to figure which rules apply to avoiding getting infected!

I have to avoid throngs of people not wearing masks here in SoCal. 

 Seek out the BEST records possible to hear your system sing.
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