Dear Callaway, my current system includes Raidho D2 (waiting fir my D2.1 to arrive), completely rebuilt QUAD ESL 57, Ridge Street Audio Sason (out of business now), Silverline Minuet, slightly modded Bob Carver Cherry 180 (kickass 200 watt tube mono blocks with Vcap, Goldpoint input attenuator), Bedini 25/25 1Meg, Pioneer M20 (vintage class A 30 watt SS amp), Lampizator Golden Gate DAC, Audial Model S DAC with Double Crown TDA1541 chip, Tortuga Audio LDR preamp, and modded Acurus RL11 preamp (surprisingly good). My music server is the dB Audio Labs Revolution server which is a completely reworked quad core Mac Mini with battery power supply, SD memory, gamer RAM, and rewritten Mac OS source code to improve audio quality. It includes dB Audio Labs' version of Audiovarna music software. All this for under $2k with money back guarantee. Sad, hardly anyone knows about this gem of a music server. Instead all these PC based servers costing $5 to $20k get all the attention in the media.
I built a dedicated windowless, audio only room measuring 17x22’ with 10’ ceiling with two dedicated AC lines and extensive acoustic absorption and diffusion treatments. My AC line is treated with Environmental Potentials filtering/protection system at the mains box of the house.
As for cabling, I use various manufacturers including some DIY, but none are overrated megabuck cabling. Like I said, the most expensive cables I have are my $2700 silver ribbon speaker cables by the now defunct Ridge Street Audio. They are very natural sounding cables with no silver brightness of most silver cables, but I still think they are too expensive. I can only justify its cost because of the amount of high quality silver (couple of pounds), hand manufacturing, and clever terminal-less spades which are contiguous extension of the ribbon wire. I’ve done many comparisons of mega expensive cables in the past and found them wanting. They may do audiophile things well like imaging and soundstaging, but faulter on natural timbre of acoustic instruments and vocals.
