Damn it! And it was even FOTM over at the dark side

I ended up getting 47 Labs Stratos wire and Eichmann Copper Bullet Plugs for single-ended interconnects. For speaker wire, I got short lengths of Kimber Kable 4TC.

Looser101 came over today to help me set up my speaker system. It's a random bunch of silver boxes strung together by copper wire and hooked up to budget speakers (translation: Arcam CD36 -> Arcam C31 -> Arcam P1 x 2 -> Acoustic Energy Aegis Two; interconnects: 47 Labs Stratos, speaker cable: Kimber Cable 4TC, power conditioning: PS Audio Duet):

It sounds really good. Also, it turns out I'm going to need some longer cables. And a nice rack.

Edited October 7, 201213 yr by HiWire

You might want to consider pulling those speakers away from the wall by about 2 feet and move them closer to the side walls so that they are 1-1.5 feet away. this may help with the bass response and the imaging YMMV.

Thanks – I'll give it a try as soon as I get longer cables.

Also, Looser101 and I discovered that the power amps pick up a hum from the AC jack due to the unshielded 47 Labs wire. The hum seems to disappear when the preamp is turned on, though. We'll experiment in the future with a longer run of 47 Labs cable (routing it away from the other components and power cables) and also with properly shielded interconnects.

I'm going to get some wood blocks to get those power amps off the carpet, as well. They never seemed to get warm with the loads we were running through them.

We listened to a variety of music:

Alison Krauss & Union Station: Live

Massive Attack: Mezzanine

Alice in Chains: Dirt

Jane Monheit: Taking a Chance on Love

Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms

Santana: Abraxas

Roxy Music: Avalon

Eagles: Hotel California

Rebecca Pidgeon: The Raven

Imelda May: Love Tattoo

Chromeo: Fancy Footwork

The New York Voices: Sing Sing Sing

Edited October 8, 201213 yr by HiWire