I've been lurking around this forum for a while and decided to give my impression on some of the new
Insight equipment.
First a little background. I had my first system when i was roughly fourteen which was a hand-me-down from one of my older sisters. It was some all-in-one fold out record player unit with built-in speakers on the side! My last system consisted of a Yamaha RX-300U receiver (bought some twenty years ago and finally bit the dust), a Denon DCM-360 CD Player, and a pair of B&W 601 S2 speakers.
For the past couple of years i had this hooked up to my TV as well with a sub to fulfill my home theatre needs in the family room. My better half and i were talking about music one day and both commented on how much we miss listening to music in our living room, which is where the stereo had been. To my surprise i was given the green light to start shopping for a new system.
I figured that i would start with speakers and somehow stumbled upon Jim Salk's website. Since he's only about a 2.5 hour drive from me i set up a time to visit. We met at his home first and listened to both the SongTowers and the HT3's. WOW!!! It was pure musical bliss to me! I had never heard music that sounded like this before. I never even looked to see what he was powering it with. Next, he took me down to his shop and let me see how it all came together. His shop reminded me of some of the studios i spent time in back in my art school days (of course without all the sawdust in the air). We spent most of our time looking through all of the different veneers that he has. I left his shop that day with a deposit down on a pair of SongTowers.
After i found out that Jim used all AVA stuff i decided to go that route as well. Yes i did check out some other companies and visited local retailers but most of the stuff around this area is all the same. Rotel, Classe', Musical Fidelity, Paradigm, B&W, etc... I didn't feel like spending top dollar for stuff i wasn't all that thrilled with. Besides, i couldn't get "that sound" from Jim's house out of my head.
I ended up with an Insight 260EX, Insight DAC, and T8 pre. I use an unmodded Duet (for now at least) with a linear PS from Bolder. The PS really does make a difference to me. The bass is much tighter and there is less harshness to my music.
As far as the AVA gear, well, i find it amazing to say the least. The bass seems to go deeper than before, there is no graininess or harshness from my digital source, and the T8 brings out just the right amount of warmth. The DAC is really something though. It seems to get it's fingers in around the instruments and give it more of a 3D feel. There is more space between things and the result is music that seems to envelope you into it. I also love the silent background, i'm guessing this is what "black background" means.
For example, last night i listened to "Wish You Were Here" all the way through for the first time since i was about eighteen and the break between "Shine on you Crazy Diamond" and "Welcome to the Machine" was without any noise what-so-ever. Everything is out in the open to hear. Whether it's Stan Getz breathing before he plays or the patrons clanking their glasses in the background, you become part of the music.
I guess it's made me enjoy listening to music again. To me that's what it's all about.
Sorry about the book,
Doug
