And The Nipper Goes To...
David Hicks | Published on 7/29/2024
Okay, I’ve invented the Nipper award for designating “The Best Sounding System” I’ve ever heard. You should feel free to appoint your own Nipper award to whatever system you’d like to anoint as the best you have ever heard. I chose the name “Nipper” after my goldfish’s name, though most people will assume the name derives from the dog RCA used in their advertising campaign as hearing “His Masters Voice.” I chose my Goldfish’s name to avoid any copyright infringement.
Choosing the best sounding system at a show, dealers, or at someone’s home is a bit like choosing the Best Actor at the Academy Awards. You can say you preferred the performance of one actor over another, but they were both playing different characters in different movies, with different scripts and directors, so what you are really giving the “Best Actor” award for is a combination of multiple things, including your own bias (or the Academy’s) for an actor’s physical appearance, personality, or political, ethnic, or religious identifiers, as well as the character in the movie, etc., etc. But what about the variables when we, or someone else, choose a Best Sounding Audio System? Does the appearance of the components hold any sway over whether you are attracted to hearing a system or judging its sound? I know people who would never consider a product based upon the product's looks alone, or conversely, they love a product because of its “audiophile jewelry” looks. And let’s not mention price as a factor. But having mentioned price, shouldn’t price be irrelevant to the way we judge the sound? And then, comparing systems; did you hear the same tracks played at the same volume as someone else who chose a different “Best” for their system pick? Did you sit in a similar sweet spot? Was the source material, vinyl, digital, or tape, the same? And the room?
Yeah, the room. I’m willing to bet that the best-sounding system you’ve ever heard was actually in the best-sounding room you’ve ever listened in. I’d bet that because that’s what happened to me. But let me be clear. The room wasn’t what made the sound so fabulous, it was “everything”, including the room.
But I want you to think beyond the moment and see if you can point to the best sounding system you’ve ever heard. The prompting question might be, what makes an audio system sound great? That short answer is, everything. Speakers? Source components? Amplification? Cables? Power supplies? If you’ve been in the audiophile game long enough you’ll know that there is no one simple answer beyond the “everything” answer. I learned this when I purchased my first pair of audiophile speakers a hundred years ago, the Vandersteen 2Cs. I brought them home, and the sound improvement was nice, but kind of meh in my system which was powered by a Luxman 507 integrated. I mentioned the meh to someone at the time and they asked about my turntable. I had a 1970s-era Pioneer PL-something direct drive table with a Pickering cartridge. It was pointed out to me that this was the source of my limited fidelity. I upgraded that table to a Thorens TD 160 Super, and soon after upgraded the Pickering to an Ortofon moving coil cartridge with an Ortofon SUT, and, I finally had fidelity I could live with. That, even though the sound from my system was far from the sound from the best systems.
So yes, no surprise, there’s a difference between good sound, great sound, and spectacular sound. However, after that lengthy preamble, I will state my pick for the Nipper Award without equivocation. I recently had the opportunity to listen to a system that both amazed and depressed me. The depression (not clinical) occurred when, after listening to that system, I got home and listened to my downstairs system. This is a system I had previously been well satisfied with until I moved and relocated to a different house. In my new house, I have been half-heartedly fiddling with speaker placement in the quest to recapture the best sound from my components, all the while knowing that I was pursuing a lost cause. The new room, with the components located where they are, will never yield the sound quality I know my gear is capable of delivering. Changing components is a piece of cake compared to changing your home and changing the structure of a room. But if you are determined enough, and your Spouse's Approval Factor and wallet will allow it, it can be done.
Bob Vineyard of Rhapsody Out West, one of five Rhapsody Audio locations, knows a thing or two about getting an audio system set up in a good room. But, rather than settling for a good room, he sourced Dr. Bonnie Schnitta of SoundSense to “optimize the acoustic environment” of his room and turn it into a great room.
Me telling you about the room would be a bit like me describing a beautiful painting instead of letting you see the painting. Better it would be if you went to the What’s Best Forum and scrolled through the pages of “Bob’s New Listening Room and System” and read about the room while looking at before, during, and after pictures. Be forewarned that there are many pages and comments for you to scroll through. The new listening room was not a weekend project. But, I will attest that the results are worthy of the accolades people have posted in the comments. What you will see in the beginning pages are the before photos. Photos that depict a room that looks like it would be a nice place to set up one’s stereo system. As you progress what you will see on the 3rd page is that room’s demolition which is eventually taken down to the studs with all of the drywall and ceiling removed. Page 4 will show you the installation of the sound-dampening insulation composed of “BlueJeans” material covered with NoiseOut. I think you can be sure all of the blue jeans were vintage Jordaches that had been previously worn by supermodels. As you continue scrolling and get to page 5 you will see the wall panels with their custom hole placements specific to the room and the sound dampening insulation. Continue to page 6 and you will be rewarded with a picture of Mr. Vineyard's wine room, just adjacent to the listening space. In its own way, on a slightly smaller scale than the listening space, the wine room is equally spectacular.
But continue scrolling! I’m sure Bob’s system as it appeared upon completion of the room with the Wilson speakers and the Audio Research amplifiers sounded very nice. But that’s not what I heard. You’ll need to scroll through to Page 11 to see and read about Bob’s current setup.
Bob’s Current System:
Alsyvox Botticelli X speakers
Pilium Alexander Pre-amp and Achilles Power amp.
Sources include the incredible VYGER Atlantis Generation 4 turntable with Etsuro MasterGold cartridge, into a CS Port C3EQM2 phono-stage
dCS Rossini DAC
TAIKO "Extreme" Server
4 dedicated 20 amp circuits...
Audio Racks are all by Arnold Marr at Core Audio Designs in the Bay Area (Navato).
Bob notes that “Interconnects and speaker cables are from my legacy Audio Research / Wilson Audio rig — balanced Transparent “reference mm2” interconnects and speaker cables. I had the speaker cables recalibrated for the Pilium amp. At this level, the Transparent line is calibrated for the source output impedance, so I am able to use the cables with all my speakers.” But, Bob notes that he will be selling his Transparent loom and switching to VYDA cables in the not-too-distant future as Rhapsody is the US distributor for VYDA Cables. Currently, the only place in his rig with VYDA interconnects is between the turntable and phono stage. He also has a Nordost Valhalla 2 USB cable between the server and the DAC.
In addition, he stated that, “I had just recently finalized setting up the new Vision tonearm from Giuseppe in Rome. The VYGER has vertical and horizontal air bearings, and the tonearm is also an air-bearing linear tracker.”
At this point, I could write several pages about each of the components in Bob’s system, but I will leave it to you, the reader, to look up reviews written by people other than myself who, no doubt, were paid for their time and efforts for their work. My reward for these brief scribbles was the time I got to enjoy listening to Bob’s system and sampling some of his wine. No small reward.
I will say that I have heard a great number of vinyl playback rigs, many that have been worthy of superlative comments, but until I listened to the VYGER Atlantis with the Etsuru cartridge played through all of the aforementioned electronics and the Alsyvox Botticelli X speakers, I had never heard the level of detail from vinyl recordings I knew well. Credit to the VYGER and the Vision tonearm, with an obvious nod to the Etsuru.
No matter your preference for sound reproduction, whether it is detail, bass, coherency, or imaging, this system excelled at all of that, with the possible niggling exception of imaging. Imaging with a 70-inch tall speaker is naturally going to be less than pinpoint on certain recordings, especially given that the Botticelli’s are a Ribbon panel speaker. But, they are unlike any other ribbon speaker I have heard. Their 94 dB sensitivity means that these can be played with any amplifier you are likely to plug into them. Their frequency response from 22-40,000 Hz eliminates the need for any kind of subwoofer enhancement and all of the accompanying placement and crossover configuring one would have to include if they were bass-lean. They are not bass-lean. Nor were they weight lean at around 250 lbs. each. They were simply spectacular in their ability to reproduce everything from a single voice to an entire orchestra with seamless vibrancy and coherence.
But, forget that comment about niggling the imaging. As you can imagine, Bob has more toys/products than those listed above. My second visit to Bob’s space was for his demo of the Heretic AD612 Speakers. Herb Reickert had raved about the imaging of the Heretic 614 speakers in issue #171 of Stereophile. Bob was demoing the larger brother AD612 model that retails for $10k, or around $133k less than the hand-made Alsyvox Botticelli X speakers. The Heretics do get the nod in the weight category, being easier to lift at 68 lbs. a piece while also being easier to drive with 97 dB sensitivity.
What did I expect when I went to hear the Heretics with a group of Mr. Vineyard’s friends? Bob had mentioned that the speakers sounded fun, but how could they possibly compare to the Botticellis? Well, the first words out of my mouth after listening to the opening track by Leonard Cohen were, “Is there a speaker that doesn’t sound good in this room?” I was gifted the sweet spot for the opening pieces, and though I have heard great imaging before in many systems, the solidity of Leonard Cohen’s head was such that it sounded like I should be able to get up and walk over and grab his hair. Admittedly, his hair was slightly fuzzy, but not in a bad way, it just made the image seem more 3 dimensional and textured with detail. I think that’s the key to my impressions of the speakers. They weren’t as fast and nimble as the Botticellis, but what they lacked in the detailed articulation of the Botticelli X speakers, they counteracted with the palpability of their imaging. I will note that we listened to the Heretics through the aforementioned Pilium Alexander Pre-amp and 300-watt Achilles Power amp. Bob was waiting for an unbalanced cable to arrive before using one his Triode Lab 2A3 Integrated amplifier, but I heard no one complain about the fact that the Pilium was powering the speakers. In fact, no one complained at all.
So, if you happen to be passing through the Pacific Northwest area and you are looking to upgrade your system and perhaps hear the difference a properly constructed room could make for your gear, you can get Bob Vineyard’s contact information through the Rhapsody Audio website and request an audition appointment. Rhapsody Audio has 5 locations spread around the country, but I doubt any of the other locations have the views you’ll get to enjoy from Bob’s, Rhapsody Out West listening room. And if you find another location that has better sound, let me know.
Lastly, my apologies to anyone out there who might feel that I slighted them by not choosing their system for my Nipper Award, regardless of whether or not I heard their system, but please remember, there’s always next year.
Check back soon for an update on this article, including information on the demise of the Heretic speaker!