I heard Paul's latest upgrades last weekend along with a couple of his Audiophile buddies.
I must admit Paul's system sounds stupid good, it always had but its on another level now. We listened to both two channel with SO on and off, and in surround with all channels firing.
In surround, Pink Floyd's welcome to the machine was simply amazing. The upgrades for the akudorik surrounds were clearly evident from my last listening experience. They could hit harder with great slam, but also just as delicate and detailed that the 3k arrays are famous for. For anyone with Exaktbox Akudoriks, you may want to reach out to Paul to see what upgrades are in the mix. I can't recall but they do seem to work well.
In two channel, with SO off, imaging was absolutely perfect, with great texture and clarity, and tight flavourfull bass. And i really do mean great texture and flavor. The Akubariks simply disappeared as did the noise floor, a truly remarkable sound quality within a pitch black background. Well done sir.
So as to not have all his praise go to Pauls head, a couple of tracks had a bit too much bass, but that was simply those tracks mushy 20ish-hz sub-bass perfectly recreated, which I'm not a fan of. There were also a couple of room modes ever so slightly noticeable in some tracks which SO should solve.
With SO on, in two channel, the room modes were gone but so was the perfect imaging due to a previously discovered SO bug (imho), which according to Linn is due to Paul's right speaker being so close to the glass patio doors creating a left-right balance problem. Funny that in surround mode with SO on, the imaging is perfect centre again, and without SO in two channel, its beyond perfect, go figure.
Paul is also right about the picture quality of his tv being improved, hate to say it but it has, very disturbing. His audiophile buddy also commented as they bought the same tv at the same time.
What type of voodoo is this? indeed. When does one spend money on new and un-familiar products as opposed to a more familiar component upgrade, such as streamer, pre-amp, amp, or speaker. With risk-free, at-home trials, perhaps its time to give one of these new components a try.