Hello Hugh,
I am remiss in my duty to report.
I've been insanely busy the past week and haven't had much time to do a proper write up. The short version is that the amp sounded very good driving both my old Vandy 2Ci's in my home theater system and a pair of Monitor Audio 5i's that I keep in my shop. Both of these were with the Tara cables.
I also re-arranged the cables in my main system per an idea that Paul had and reduced the overall capacitance to about 212Pf for the entire run. Unfortunately the 100N+ was still not a good match. I don't know if this is an interaction between the amp and the Vandy 3A Sigs or is caused by the long but seemingly benign cable load. The RLC for the cable was R = .1 ohm (near as I can measure), L = .011mH, C = 212pF. The original RLC was R = .1, L = .006mH, C = 660pF.
I wanted to set up my gear in between the speakers in the main system to allow the use of the Tara Labs cable but I have been working very long hours and just didn't have time to do this.
Last Sunday I did bring the CDP, preamp, interconnect and power cables downstairs and set it up using the Tara Labs speaker cables and both of the aforementioned speakers. Driving the 2Ci's with the AKSA proved an excellent match and they sounded perhaps as good as I've ever heard them. Very detailed and clean with outstanding imaging. The placement of instruments and voices were very distinct and there was a very nice depth to the sound stage. Bass was not quite as tight as with the Outlaw 750 that normally runs that system but was still very articulate and tuneful. The old Outlaw has been a good amp for home theater use but never very satisfactory for music listening. Not horrible but not anything special either. The AKSA really made this apparent as the system sounded exceptional in the configuration.
The excellent sound in the basement also removed the possibility of a mismatch between the preamp and 100N+. I used the same components in both systems except for the speakers and speaker cables.
Again, I thank you for the opportunity to audition your product in my home. I have shipped it off to the next recipient and look forward to reading of his experience.
Mike
I will also post this in the official tour thread.
