Last Saturday, a bunch of us from the Arizona Audio Club got together for our monthly meeting. The main feature of the meeting was the demoing of DIY equipment. I felt quite proud as I carried in my DIY speaker cables, Aikido preamp, and AKSA 55N. We set-up a good quality music system consisting of off-the-shelf equipment (solid state Haffler amp, Conrad-Johnson preamp, Granite Audio CD-player, and electrostatis speakers). We had three pieces of music - including a Frank Sinatra recording and a piece that sounded very much like part of Holst's Planets. Please excuse my ignorance.
We first swapped out the speaker cables (zip cord) for mine cat5 based cables. Then added my Aikido preamp. Everyone was very impressed and the Conrad-Johnson remained excluded from the system!
Then, we inserted the AKSA 55N. The initial comment from one discerning member was that the sound wasn't [changed to the negative, Ed] all that great - he thought that the amp needed warming up. After we played the second piece, he expressed praise for the extremely good sound quality of the AKSA and the fast warm-up time.
Anyway, a number of fellow club members asked me to talk about my DIY gear. The final comments from the club members can be paraphrased as "WOW, you have a great sounding system, and all for under around a $1000"
I know that many threads use fancy terminology such as "soundstage," "imaging," "bass extension," etc. Anyway, I have difficulty recognizing when to use such technical terms to describe what I hear. All I know, is that other experienced audiophiles were very impressed with the AKSA 55N (as well as my preamp), and I also know that I also really love what I hear from my AKSA.
Thanks Hugh for a great product. I hope to invest in the LF upgrade someday soon. Until then I have my wife and I have our own personal "lifeforce" upgrade to keep us busy, and he is certainly doing just that!
Regards,
Charlie
