The BEST system you've ever built !!!!

I agree with most of you out there that our systems as currently configured are somewhere along in the journey to an ultimate goal, which I certainly won't reach till I get the New York Philharmonic or the New Jersey Symphony into my living room. I currently derive a good deal of pleasure out of my current system, which consists of a Basis Ovation/Graham 2.0/Benz Ruby 2 analog front end, with a Walker Motor Drive, Day Sequerra Reference tuner for the few good classical and jazz stations left in the NYC area, Forsell Mk III/dCs Purcell/Audio Logic 2400 digital front end, with a Marantz DVD-18 transport for 24/96 discs, PSAudio P300 for the digital components, Jadis JP80MC preamp, older model tubed and modified by Andy Bowman of Vintage Tube Services (I've heard the IO at length, and find the presentation and overall sound very similar), Jadis JA80's, again 10-year old models modified and tubed with MO Valve KT 88's, their preferred tube, by Andy for 200hz and up, Meitner MTR 101's, recently updated by Ed Meitner, for 200hz on down, and Sforzando JL1 speakers, of which I may be about the only owner (a four piece system with an active crossover, full range down to about 18 hz, designed by Richard Davidson, who some of the oldtimers might recall designed and made, and unfortunately lost his shirt with, the ITC-1 speakers; they have an upward firing midrange, front and back firing tweeters, and separate subs with two 10 inch drivers). Cabling is virtually all Full Spectrum cables, which were made by Ralph Romano and are a very good, high resolution and perhaps a little sweet-sounding cable. The system is not the last word in transparency, high frequency air and in-your-face detail, but is very good at recreating the original soundspace and holographic imaging, gets timbres right, sounds very natural, particularly with classical music, and really can convey the soul of the music well. Bunch of tweaks, but not extensive. The room, as with Mr. Porter, is our living room; I'm fortunate that my wife is a minister and in the forgiveness business. It's only 20x18x10 feet high, so the lower power of the Jadis amps is not a problem; it's an old Victorian, with good plaster walls and enough draperies and furnishings to get rid of reflections without too many room treatments (which is something my wife does draw the line on). Front end components are in a separate roon off of the listening room, which has advantages and disadvantages (like 40 feet of interconnect). Albert, too bad we don't live closer, yours sounds like my kind of system.

Amen to that (my wife's influence). Also, the "best" obviously is a personal matter too, based on what you value the most out of your system, your musical tastes, etc.

Rayhall, in the NYC area Audio Outlet may still have their demo unit of the Callisto, if you want to listen to it (they were listing it for sale a while). A short walk from the Mount Kisco train station, so not too difficult to get to.

Krellpower, check out Albert's earlier posts on this thread as well, he had quite an elaborate wiring setup, as I recall.

CW--Ah, nostalgia just isn't what it used to be.... Seriously, I've found the trend you noted interesting also. I really don't think the quality of audio has gone downhill (putting aside digital, analog is vastly improved over the stuff I had in college 30+ years ago), but perhaps it hasn't, in certain areas (such as amplification), improved as much as the industry would like to have you believe, and perhaps in our obsessiveness to improve the sound quality of our systems we've lost touch with what got a lot of us into this hobby in the first place, the ability to just kick back and enjoy our favorite music in the comfort of our own homes without worrying about whether the power feeding our equipment is clean, the effect of different shelving on the sound of our CD player, etc., etc.

I must admit that I've been obsessing since my initial post, although like you, Craig, I find plenty of time for pleasurable listening; the key is choosing components that can bring a smile to your face and lose you in the music, I guess.

In the last 18 months, I have upgraded my analog front end by getting the Debut platter/bearing/vacuum upgrade for my Basis Ovation, upgrading the Graham to 2.2 status, changing to a Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum cartridge, changing to a Graham IC-70 armcable and adding a Lamm LP2 phono stage when the low output of the Koetsu made a persistent rumbling noise from my JP80 too noticeable; added a Sony SCD 777ES SACD player, modded by adding an Audio Logic tubed analog stage; changed from Meitner amps to Sonogy Black Knight Mk II amps for my bass modules (integrate a little better with the Jadis amps); changed almost all of my cabling, on the front end adding some Nordost Valhalla, and from the preamp on switching to NBS Omega (I blame fellow member Ronc for this, I couldn't believe the difference his switch to Transparent made in his system), and having a speaker cable (tri-wire for the satellites) made up by a member of our NJ Audio Society; and added a large amount of isolation bases and platforms of this member's design, which have helped immeasurably with my tubed equipment. The result has been much better resolution and soundstaging, without losing the very much of the character and musicality I always liked about the system (although I sometimes miss a little of that character on some music). I'm still playing with some cables on the front end, where the NBS is too bulky to be used, but I'm done for now, honest!!!!

I can see the audiophile product now--"Baker's Racks"! Equipment stands with built-in heating coils above and below to cook your equipment to its optimum temperature! Deluxe model has doors which fold down (recycled ovens, of course).