I've had a bit of interest about my gear, particularly the speakers, so I thought I'd try to do a little write-up about it.
My main source is an Avid Acutus SP, fully upgraded to the current spec; the arm is a silver wired Funk FXRII with XTCW counterweight; cartridge, a Benz Micro REF. This goes into a 1kOhm loaded Groove, upgraded with the Anniversary power supply. Tom tells me the Anniversary runs the Groove+ so close that he's stopped making the latter. My digital, and very much second, source is a Linn Akurate DS, with Dynamik PSU. I'm sure many people here have at least a passing familiarity with Tom's Groove range, so I won't go into that here, and I know you all hate Linn, so will skip that too. Suffice to say the Groove is exceptionally quiet, neutral, and detailed. I've worked my way up to it, one step at a time, from the Microgroove.
The preamp is a Vibe, with the single-box Pulse 2 power supply. If you can live without a remote control, balance, or anything other than a volume pot and input selector, I don't know where you'll go to beat the Vibe. Utterly silent and completely without tonal character, it removes nothing from the precious signal. Adding a Pulse is a significant upgrade, bringing a new layer of subtle detail, and sharpening up the soundstage.
On the bottom shelf is a brand-spanking new Linear A. This is the latest revision with, I believe, considerable changes to the output stage. It looks a bit of a brute in photos, but it's actually not bad looking in the flesh. The form follows the function, with the whole thing designed to convect the heat away from the valves, which it does extremely well, as only the top plate gets warm. I also noticed that however close I put the sensitive, acrylic cased, Groove or Vibe to it, they don't pick up any transformer hum - something that's been a problem with amps I've had in the past. If you want to know about the Linear A, the review on 6moons pretty much nails it.
A brand new Linear A costs about £4500 (good luck finding a used one - I looked for years), and I replaced a Linn Klimax Twin, which now go for over £7000. Without going into Linn's horrific price structure, it's crazy how much better the Linear A is, for so much less money. You may have heard incredible claims for it, and they're all true. I rated the Linn very highly, and I've had a few other nice amps in the system, like the Ayre V5-xe, and John Wood's lovely valve power, but the Linear A is in a class apart. Again, it has no character, all it does is amplify the signal and convey the music. The noise floor is through the floor, they dynamic range is huge, and the amplifier is very, very fast. As a result, there's phenomenal detail at any volume level (and boy, can it play loud!), with effortless control and realism. Every note and beat sounds so separate and defined that it makes music vividly alive and exciting. I ran it for a while through my old Wilson Benesch Arcs, speakers I always liked enormously, but the Linear A pushed them to new heights. Then, I got Tom's speakers.
First, they look great. A full range Jordan driver and a custom 8" magnesium (I think) bass cone using a whopping great custom-made copper inductor that only just fits inside the cabinet! Said cabinets are simple cherry veneered boxes, no ports (making them very unfussy about position), and they have a lovely timeless look about them, as if they could have been made any year since 1950. There are LV-style grilles, which use magnets to attach to the bolts holding the drivers in, but I prefer the nude look. Round the back are beautiful machined copper binding posts and shorting bars, and a panel which proudly states "Min 6.0ohm Max 6.5ohm." One of the busiest bees in Tom's bonnet is the wildly varying impedance most speakers have across the frequency range, and the "moving target" it presents to amplifiers. These speakers have very close to linear impedance and phase across the entire audible frequency range (and some way beyond).
If you've spoken to Tom, you probably know his obsession with frequency vs phase, and the way it's closely bound to the way the brain perceives sound. All his electronics have phase correction, but he was never able to find phase linear speakers, which is why he ended up making his own. Non-linear phase, as I understand it, is what's responsible for the weird soundstaging you sometimes hear, with moving instruments and 10ft tall pianos; whilst non linear impedance gives you tonal colour.
Before we get into the sound, a word of warning about the speakers. They are quite unbelievably sensitive, not least to the right cable. When I first got them I wired them up with some Abbey Road stuff, and it sounded awful. Broken. The treble sounded almost out of phase, it was harsh, abrasive, not listenable. Something plainly wasn't right. A conversation with Tom about stranded cable's ability to act as a rectifier (I think!), and I understood that I needed solid core cable. Courtesy of a gentleman wammer, I got myself two runs of Electrofluidics 20/20, Tom's cable of choice (I believe he uses it for the internal wiring of the speakers) and I was in business. I've also found a significant improvement replacing my expensive stranded interconnects with far cheaper solid core ones. Tom pretty much insists on Eichmann bullet plugs to keep out stray RF so I even got myself a new arm cable which uses them.
Due to the dispersion characteristics of the Jordan drivers, Tom calls his speakers "headphones for the room". Toed in such that lines normal to the centre of the drivers cross 1m in front of the listening position, and raised a little at the front, the speakers create a soundstage that follows you round the room. My old speakers had such a sweet spot that moving your head to one side caused a difference in sound. Facing the Model Ones we have a seven foot long settee, and it doesn't matter where you sit - you are always at the sweet spot. We have a chair in the back corner of the room, five or six feet to the right of the right speaker, and even from there, you get a - admittedly slightly skewed - stereo image. It's weird at first, and I've never experienced anything like it. True stereo.
Back to that sensitivity. With these things, you hear everything. Normally that's good, though I've noticed a rise in surface noise that's put me on the hunt for a good record cleaner! Bad recordings, I'm afraid, are ruthlessly exposed, but even then, the essence of the music is conveyed superbly - I've never run into speakers which make me so reluctant to sit still. Combined with the microdynamics that the Groove digs out, the Vibe preserves, and the Linear A so expertly amplifies, the speakers are uncannily realistic. I read a review of the Linear A that said something to the effect of it not bringing the musicians into your room, but putting you in the room with them, and that sums it up beautifully. Every recording gives you a sense of the room it was made in. Instruments are almost palpable; the accuracy of the soundstaging is beyond anything else I've ever heard, you can pick any player out of an orchestra; miked guitar amps sit on the floor, voices hover in mid air; it's glorious.
Overall, however, the sound is kind of modest. There's no trouser flapping bass, there's no larger than life soundstage, no dazzling sparkle or embracing warmth. It's just as if between and behind those speakers is another room full of your favourite musicians. Close your eyes and you can so easily imagine you're there. To me this is what hi-fi's all about. High fidelity. The truth of what's in the groove, warts and all. I understand that's not necessarily everyone's cup of tea, but it's what I've always been looking for.
I mentioned earlier the bass unit Tom uses to reinforce the low frequencies of the Jordan driver. Interestingly, he uses the air in the closed cabinet to roll off the drivers - there is no crossover. This is one of the things that appealed to me about these speakers - crossovers have never made sense to me. You put all that effort and money into preserving this tiny, precious signal, then right at the last moment run it through a load of capacitors and resistors. It never seemed the best way to do it. Anyway, due to that huge inductor, the bass is astonishingly fast. Listen to guitar music, and you not only hear every bass note, every kick drum, but they're not smeared together. You can hear the decay, and the texture of each note. Listen to an exposed piano, and you hear the body of the instrument resonating with each note. And here's the real killer - it doesn't matter how loud you listen.
I live in a semi-detached house, and I don't have the luxury of being able to turn music up loud. Most of my listening is done at a level you can talk over, the second or third notch on the Vibe. With the Linear A and the Model Ones, that's enough. Nothing is lost. I can still hear all the rivets in a cymbal, still feel the punch of a kick drum (percussion is rendered like I've never heard it before), still get the nuances in a vocal performance, just as if I had it up loud. On the rare occasions when I am able to stick something loud on and turn it up, it's like having a wild animal in the room!
If anyone's read all the way through this, well done, and I hope I've given you some sense of how much I love this system. If not, and you're just reading this last paragraph as a summary, I'm blown away by Tom's stuff, particularly his speakers. They need the right electronics and the right cables, but they bring my music to life like nothing else I've ever heard. I've never listened to so much music, or enjoyed it so much, and I don't think you can pay a higher compliment than that. For the first time, I feel like I have a system full of keepers. Box swappers, avoid this stuff like the plague - it'll scare you straight!
My main source is an Avid Acutus SP, fully upgraded to the current spec; the arm is a silver wired Funk FXRII with XTCW counterweight; cartridge, a Benz Micro REF. This goes into a 1kOhm loaded Groove, upgraded with the Anniversary power supply. Tom tells me the Anniversary runs the Groove+ so close that he's stopped making the latter. My digital, and very much second, source is a Linn Akurate DS, with Dynamik PSU. I'm sure many people here have at least a passing familiarity with Tom's Groove range, so I won't go into that here, and I know you all hate Linn, so will skip that too. Suffice to say the Groove is exceptionally quiet, neutral, and detailed. I've worked my way up to it, one step at a time, from the Microgroove.
The preamp is a Vibe, with the single-box Pulse 2 power supply. If you can live without a remote control, balance, or anything other than a volume pot and input selector, I don't know where you'll go to beat the Vibe. Utterly silent and completely without tonal character, it removes nothing from the precious signal. Adding a Pulse is a significant upgrade, bringing a new layer of subtle detail, and sharpening up the soundstage.
On the bottom shelf is a brand-spanking new Linear A. This is the latest revision with, I believe, considerable changes to the output stage. It looks a bit of a brute in photos, but it's actually not bad looking in the flesh. The form follows the function, with the whole thing designed to convect the heat away from the valves, which it does extremely well, as only the top plate gets warm. I also noticed that however close I put the sensitive, acrylic cased, Groove or Vibe to it, they don't pick up any transformer hum - something that's been a problem with amps I've had in the past. If you want to know about the Linear A, the review on 6moons pretty much nails it.
A brand new Linear A costs about £4500 (good luck finding a used one - I looked for years), and I replaced a Linn Klimax Twin, which now go for over £7000. Without going into Linn's horrific price structure, it's crazy how much better the Linear A is, for so much less money. You may have heard incredible claims for it, and they're all true. I rated the Linn very highly, and I've had a few other nice amps in the system, like the Ayre V5-xe, and John Wood's lovely valve power, but the Linear A is in a class apart. Again, it has no character, all it does is amplify the signal and convey the music. The noise floor is through the floor, they dynamic range is huge, and the amplifier is very, very fast. As a result, there's phenomenal detail at any volume level (and boy, can it play loud!), with effortless control and realism. Every note and beat sounds so separate and defined that it makes music vividly alive and exciting. I ran it for a while through my old Wilson Benesch Arcs, speakers I always liked enormously, but the Linear A pushed them to new heights. Then, I got Tom's speakers.
First, they look great. A full range Jordan driver and a custom 8" magnesium (I think) bass cone using a whopping great custom-made copper inductor that only just fits inside the cabinet! Said cabinets are simple cherry veneered boxes, no ports (making them very unfussy about position), and they have a lovely timeless look about them, as if they could have been made any year since 1950. There are LV-style grilles, which use magnets to attach to the bolts holding the drivers in, but I prefer the nude look. Round the back are beautiful machined copper binding posts and shorting bars, and a panel which proudly states "Min 6.0ohm Max 6.5ohm." One of the busiest bees in Tom's bonnet is the wildly varying impedance most speakers have across the frequency range, and the "moving target" it presents to amplifiers. These speakers have very close to linear impedance and phase across the entire audible frequency range (and some way beyond).
If you've spoken to Tom, you probably know his obsession with frequency vs phase, and the way it's closely bound to the way the brain perceives sound. All his electronics have phase correction, but he was never able to find phase linear speakers, which is why he ended up making his own. Non-linear phase, as I understand it, is what's responsible for the weird soundstaging you sometimes hear, with moving instruments and 10ft tall pianos; whilst non linear impedance gives you tonal colour.
Before we get into the sound, a word of warning about the speakers. They are quite unbelievably sensitive, not least to the right cable. When I first got them I wired them up with some Abbey Road stuff, and it sounded awful. Broken. The treble sounded almost out of phase, it was harsh, abrasive, not listenable. Something plainly wasn't right. A conversation with Tom about stranded cable's ability to act as a rectifier (I think!), and I understood that I needed solid core cable. Courtesy of a gentleman wammer, I got myself two runs of Electrofluidics 20/20, Tom's cable of choice (I believe he uses it for the internal wiring of the speakers) and I was in business. I've also found a significant improvement replacing my expensive stranded interconnects with far cheaper solid core ones. Tom pretty much insists on Eichmann bullet plugs to keep out stray RF so I even got myself a new arm cable which uses them.
Due to the dispersion characteristics of the Jordan drivers, Tom calls his speakers "headphones for the room". Toed in such that lines normal to the centre of the drivers cross 1m in front of the listening position, and raised a little at the front, the speakers create a soundstage that follows you round the room. My old speakers had such a sweet spot that moving your head to one side caused a difference in sound. Facing the Model Ones we have a seven foot long settee, and it doesn't matter where you sit - you are always at the sweet spot. We have a chair in the back corner of the room, five or six feet to the right of the right speaker, and even from there, you get a - admittedly slightly skewed - stereo image. It's weird at first, and I've never experienced anything like it. True stereo.
Back to that sensitivity. With these things, you hear everything. Normally that's good, though I've noticed a rise in surface noise that's put me on the hunt for a good record cleaner! Bad recordings, I'm afraid, are ruthlessly exposed, but even then, the essence of the music is conveyed superbly - I've never run into speakers which make me so reluctant to sit still. Combined with the microdynamics that the Groove digs out, the Vibe preserves, and the Linear A so expertly amplifies, the speakers are uncannily realistic. I read a review of the Linear A that said something to the effect of it not bringing the musicians into your room, but putting you in the room with them, and that sums it up beautifully. Every recording gives you a sense of the room it was made in. Instruments are almost palpable; the accuracy of the soundstaging is beyond anything else I've ever heard, you can pick any player out of an orchestra; miked guitar amps sit on the floor, voices hover in mid air; it's glorious.
Overall, however, the sound is kind of modest. There's no trouser flapping bass, there's no larger than life soundstage, no dazzling sparkle or embracing warmth. It's just as if between and behind those speakers is another room full of your favourite musicians. Close your eyes and you can so easily imagine you're there. To me this is what hi-fi's all about. High fidelity. The truth of what's in the groove, warts and all. I understand that's not necessarily everyone's cup of tea, but it's what I've always been looking for.
I mentioned earlier the bass unit Tom uses to reinforce the low frequencies of the Jordan driver. Interestingly, he uses the air in the closed cabinet to roll off the drivers - there is no crossover. This is one of the things that appealed to me about these speakers - crossovers have never made sense to me. You put all that effort and money into preserving this tiny, precious signal, then right at the last moment run it through a load of capacitors and resistors. It never seemed the best way to do it. Anyway, due to that huge inductor, the bass is astonishingly fast. Listen to guitar music, and you not only hear every bass note, every kick drum, but they're not smeared together. You can hear the decay, and the texture of each note. Listen to an exposed piano, and you hear the body of the instrument resonating with each note. And here's the real killer - it doesn't matter how loud you listen.
I live in a semi-detached house, and I don't have the luxury of being able to turn music up loud. Most of my listening is done at a level you can talk over, the second or third notch on the Vibe. With the Linear A and the Model Ones, that's enough. Nothing is lost. I can still hear all the rivets in a cymbal, still feel the punch of a kick drum (percussion is rendered like I've never heard it before), still get the nuances in a vocal performance, just as if I had it up loud. On the rare occasions when I am able to stick something loud on and turn it up, it's like having a wild animal in the room!
If anyone's read all the way through this, well done, and I hope I've given you some sense of how much I love this system. If not, and you're just reading this last paragraph as a summary, I'm blown away by Tom's stuff, particularly his speakers. They need the right electronics and the right cables, but they bring my music to life like nothing else I've ever heard. I've never listened to so much music, or enjoyed it so much, and I don't think you can pay a higher compliment than that. For the first time, I feel like I have a system full of keepers. Box swappers, avoid this stuff like the plague - it'll scare you straight!
