My system consists of the Salk Sound Towers driven by a Roque Sphynx amp with NOS Mullard tubes sourced from Kevin Deal. For vinyl playback I use a Rega P25with Denon DL110 cartridge and I bypass the Rogues internal phono stage and use aRay Samuel Nighthawk F-117. On the digital side it's either Streamed via Spotify or an old Yamaha CDP feeding digital signals into an Arcam irDAC.
It's been an interested last few months as much of the above is relatively new to me. For years I had a restored Fisher 400/Moth Cicada speakers and Adcom CDP, along with the Rega deck. Growing a bit tired of the limitations of the Cicadas, I was reading some great reviews of the Salk Sound Towers and cruising around Audiogon (which tends to get me in trouble), and found a pair up for sale locally. At the same time the Roque amp I have also appeared, a dealer trade-in at a great price so I jumped. I drove the 20 minutes to where the Salk's resided to find a one owner pair of 3 year old speakers in bamboo that looked brand new. My 20 year old Adcom CDP was acting up and near death and that's how the Arcam DAC came to be. The Roques internal phono stage did not have enough gain for the Denon DL110 so I figured I had a choice, upgrade already to the V2 of the amp, replace the cartridge or go with an external unit. I had wanted to try the Ray Samuels unit and one was for sale on A'gon that I grabbed. The system sounds fantastic. The amp drives the speakers very well, the Arcam DAC is really a terrific unit and very flexible, and the F-117 is another winner. I like having a lot of flexibility for different cartridges as I'll need to replace the Denon fairly soon, but will try and wait until I can do a complete table/cartridge swap maybe next year. I've been hanging on to an old Lenco TT with the intentions of restoring it, so maybe next winter I'll do that.
The Salk Sound Towers to my ears sound wonderful. Something I love about them is how they sound at all volume levels. That wonderful bass doesn't disappear when you turn down the volume, all the music comes across, just quieter. I spent a brief time with Wharfedale Denton's and when they weren't fed a good kick of power they just didn't sound as interesting. And the with Salk's I have speakers that provide some serious bass! I'll have to get around to taking some photos and getting them posted. The cabinetry of the Sound Towers is truly beautiful.
