Since no one else has posted yet, figured I would start things off with my impressions. Ostensibly the visit was to listen to the Delucio's, but really was more of an excuse for us audio geeks to hang out for a few hours in an afternoon. I was about 30 minutes late (as usual), and they gang had started without me (the others in attendance were Jason [Pez] and Mike [mgalusha]). I brought over a few toys to listen to as well
Specifically, I brought the Mensa DIO and power supply (with Nitro power cords), the Scott Nixon TubeDAC (with crappy wall wart power supply), the "Beldinator" interconnects that Dan Banquer is sending around, a pair of M80 inteconnects (pulled from my "out of commision" home theater), a pair of Siemen's 12AT7 tubes to compare to Brad's Mullards in his preamp, a pair of Sony MDR-V6 (which is now the MDR-V7506) headphones, and a pair of Sennheiser HD-280 headphones. Oh yeah, this was fun!
Let me tackle the speakers first, since they were the main attraction. The look is very nice indeed. They were smaller than the 626R's, but had a similar shape and overall look of the cabinet, except the maple brad had was nicer looking than even the full wrap oak that Wayne has (and WAY nicer than the half oak/half black 1970's-wood-paneled-station-wagon look of Jason's speakers, hehe). Were they solidly built? Oh yeah, those things were heavy. The knuckle rap test was passed with ease.
We listened to the Delucio's in 3 basic configs - first with the sub (an REL Strata III) rolled in underneath them at 45hz or so, then with the Delucio's alone w/no sub, then with the sub rolled in at 35hz (or so). The initial setup was less than optimal, the Delucio's seemed to be producing bass a fair bit below their rated 55hz -3db point. So much so that they sounded quite a bit better when brad turned the sub off. They lacked the weight and deep bass that the sub contributed, but they sounded a lot cleaner and less "heavy" in the mid-bass. With the sub, they just sounded too thick. When brad put the sub back in with the signifigantly lower crossover point, the speakers kept their clean and clear and defined midbass and upper bass, but gained the bottom octave that really gave the music that last bit of authority. By the time we left his system was sounding "very" good. It didn't quite do the "wraparound" imaging that Jason's system does, and it didn't have the level of detail as the Auricapped 626R's w/the FST tweeter, nor the dynamics of the RM40's, but it did everything very well. They were very balanced speakers, and they did quite well in every area I listen for as important to me (tonal balance, dynamics, imaging, smoothness). The only slight (very slight) weakness I heard was a change in sound when female vocals transitioned from primarily coming from the woofers, to primarily coming from the tweeter. It wasn't obvious, you had to really listen for it, but it was there if you concentrated on it. Still, it's the best blend between a ribbon tweeter and a cone mid/woofer that I've heard.
Speaking of system, brad's gear consisted of the Channel Islands DAC, the AVA Transcendance 7 preamp (same preamp I own), and the AVA FetValve 350ex (slightly less powerful version of the amp I own - the 550ex). Hence the reason I brought my pair of Siemens 12AT7's. He had a pair of Cryo'd Mullard cv4024's in both ava pieces. Comparing the Mullards and the Siemens (to my suprise) came out strongly in favor of the Mullards in Brad's system. The Siemens just seemed to push all the imaging to the front row and were pretty "in-your-face" sounding compared to the mullards, which presented a much more natural and convincing soundstage.
On to the Beldinator's - Mike and Jason looked them over, they both commented that they were well built and used better construction and parts than many of the so-called high-end cables we've seen before. Putting them in the system, they sound not bad at all (I was suprised, I was biased against them, I'll admit - I just didn't think they would sound all that good). But they did sound good. At their price, I doubt anyone would find anything that would sound better. Then we put in the M80's, and it wasn't really a contest - the M80's are just a richer sounding, more realistic, more relaxed, but more detailed cable. But of course the M80's are ridiculously good for their price. In fact, in some ways I like the M80's a bit better than the "standard" Nitro Interconnects that Brad has. The M80's don't present quite the detail or sense of slam of the regular Nitro's, but to my ears the M80's sound more balanced and more relaxed. Of course, if Brad gets the Nitro's Cryo'd, they relax in their sound a lot, and are a better cable than the M80's, no question.
We also did quite a bit of comparison between the Scott Nixon TubeDAC and the Mensa (and some with the Channel Islands DAC). First, we listened to the TubeDAC with it's wall wart and the Mensa with the Bolder Power Supply. Sorry folks, this wasn't a contest, the TubeDAC got spanked, bad. The Mensa was better in every area one would care to mention. BUT, then we hooked up the TubeDAC with the Bolder power supply and it sounded MUCH better, the bass firmed up, there was an actual high frequency response, the soundstage expanded to respectable proportions, etc. . . In fact, listened to on it's own for a while, it sounded damn fine. When we hooked the Mensa back up, we all felt the TubeDAC got about 80% of the way there to the quality of the Mensa. But I should also point out (again) that with a tubed (or in this case, hybrid) system, the Mensa may just be a better fit. Maybe in an all-Solid State system the TubeDAC would be a better match. All I can say is that today the Mensa was easily the preferred DAC - mainly because the dynamics were better, the bass was snappier and integrated with the rest of the sound more seamlessly, the soundstage was wider and deeper, and the musicians sounded like they tighter, more intune with each other's playing. Then we hooked up the Channel Islands DAC - here is another very good DAC, IMO. It had the mid and upper frequency dynamics and sound similar to the Mensa, but the slightly looser sounding bass of the TubeDAC. Sonically, it was right in the middle of the Mensa and TubeDAC in presentation.
Last up were the headphones. I brought them along specifically to get the others' opinions, because I had compared them already at my home. The Sony's are a few years old (a friend loaned them to me recently), and the Sennheiser's are brand new, less than 12 hours of break in. Plugged them in to the headphone output of the T7 preamp and the verdict mirrored my own opinions - Sony's sound boosted in the mid bass and the treble is hashy and too prominent. The Sennheiser's sound a little boring at first compared to the Sony's because the Senn's have a flat frequency response, but are much easier to listen to and are more musical. Of course, even the Senn 280's don't really compare to the Sennheiser HD600's that I have in my dedicated headphone rig, but the 280's are closed and sealed, while the 600's leak sound, not a good thing for late night game playing or music listening while the wife is trying to sleep. For $75 delivered from Amazon.com, the 280's are a steal. Oh, one other thing - the V-6's are lighter and smaller and fit the curves of your head a bit better. The 280's are bigger and clunkier looking. Wearing the V-6's, you look like an audio geek, but wearing the 280s makes you look like a dork. They dwarfed Jason's little head
Anyway, I've done enough typing in one shot here, I'll turn it over for the comments from the others. . .
