Hi All,
This is my first posting to the AVA audio circle and am happy to be reading and participating with all the rest of you. I have been a happy AVA owner for 10 years, and just last Sat was happy to visit with Frank in his listening room. I brought in my Omega III EC pre-amp, Omega III 440H amp and Omega IV DAC, and am going to upgrade all the Insight (adding remote volume/mute, new faceplates, and re-chassis the DAC to the 17 in. wide version). I had the opportunity to listen to some of Frank's new Insight gear with the Salk speakers, and the performance was no less than I have come to expect from Frank. His philosophy and passion for the build quality and sound (or lack of) in his pieces was well evident. I was really excited to see his ability to put the 'works' for the 440 amp into the chassis the size of the EC pre-amp ! Cool. Frank shared a recent story from RMAF about a cable shoot out with cables and folks from M.I.T. Salk speakers were used along with AVA hardware.......do I really need to tell you the outcome?? In true double-blind, volume matched tests, there were a lot of hang-dog faces in the room (excluding Frank of course). I recently tried some Kimber Hero interconnect between my amp and pre-amp, and I 'believe' I heard an improvement in my system of the std RCA interconnect I had been using. I currently use a many years old pair of 8 ft lengths of Monster cable to connect to my speakers (Magnaplaner 3.6R's). I intend to freshen these up with some good 14-ga wire from Home Depot, and add banana connectors for easy installation. I have always found Frank's no-nonsense, and real common sense approach refreshing. I do read the audio press (Stereophile and Absolute Sound) on and off over the years, evolving from Stereo Review and Audio magazines. It is so easy to get pulled into all the 'hype'.....
I am certain my money (initial investment, and the cost to upgrade) is well spent with Frank and AVA. I can hardly wait for the new pieces to arrive. Thank you Frank, for great products, and great listening for me!
Mark
My system: SOTA Comet/Sumiko Blackbird; AVA pre-amp, amp,DAC, TEAC z6000 cass, SONY CD/SACD/DVD, Technics 'table w/Shure V15 IV or AVA Longhorn, Maggies 3.6R.
