Bob,

A quick note to tell you how much I’m enjoying the Sonus Faber Cremona M's I got from you several months ago. Your assessment of there sonic character was spot on. Because I have no dealer close to listen, I must rely on our relationship and your integrity for the truth. You have been right every time going back to the very first Speaker I purchased from you the GREAT Audio Physics Virgo!   Also, the Aesthetix Calypso Pre-Amp has worked well and the ability to change tubes to customize the the sound  has been fun and quite revealing. Keep up the great work you do for your customers.  I’ll always be grateful.    

Sincerely,  

Casey Bradham 

Bob and Victoria,

I just wanted to express my thanks to you for providing me with an exceptional audiophile system.  When I was looking to take my 2 channel system to a serious level I visited several local shops.  You’re expertise and experience made it easy to choose your shop to do business with.  After listening to my needs you steered my towards an Ayre Acoustics matched system along with Sonus Faber speakers.  I have to say that once my components were run in and speaker placement was fine tuned, I have a system that rivals my expectations.  The resolution and natural ease of music flow makes it hard to stop listening!  I really appreciate that you didn’t arbitrarily push me towards “x” or “y” brand, but spent the time and guided me towards what suited my preferences.  Well done!

Regards,

Phil Viruso


LINN EKOS SE TONEARM
 
- Installed By The Analog Shop, Inc.
 
 
The Linn Ekos SE is a big step up from the Ittok LVII that I had been using for ages. Bass is more firm and present, and sounds throughout the frequency range are more penetrating and persistent. While I would never have described notes as wavering with the Ittok, there’s more of a palpable sense with the Ekos SE that the fundamental sound of a piano string for example is ringing out at a particular frequency.
 
I produced some frequency spectra of parallel 20-second samples of organ music from an LP that I had digitized first with the Ittok and then with the Ekos SE, and there was more energy in the low frequencies with the Ekos SE, below about 60 Hz. There was also what appeared to be resonant peaks at around roughly 150 and 250 Hz with the Ittok that were gone with the Ekos SE. I didn’t survey this exhaustively, but that could be a product of the less resonant titanium in the Ekos SE vs. whatever metal the Ittok is made of.
 
But the most remarkable effect of the Ekos SE was in making acoustic instruments sound more nakedly real. Yes, any improvement to an audio system should increase realism, but other improvements I’ve made to amplifiers, cartridges, etc., have produced what I would describe as cleaner and more detailed sound that is more real because it’s cleaner and more detailed, while the effect of the Ekos SE struck me more as an almost disconcerting realism. It didn’t take an effort to imagine a piano or saxophone in the room, it was rather as though it’s reality had been forced upon me.
 
With some favorite recordings, this effect took some getting used to. I suspect that the slight resonances of the Ittok had sweetened the sound of those recordings in ways that I actually rather liked and had got used to, while the Ekos SE produced what is presumably a more legitimate sound but one that sometimes seemed a bit cold and dry at first. Fortepianos that sounded lovely with the Ittok now have the gritty complexity of old pianos. There is more of a sound of a fortepiano actually playing in my living room, but it’s not as pretty as I’d thought. This is certainly not the first time that an improvement to my system has changed my view of which recordings are especially well-engineered. With the Ekos SE, the firmer bass made some cherished recordings sound a bit bass-heavy, while others that had sounded thin now sound quite nice. I also toed in my speakers a bit after I’d had the tonearm a few days, to compensate for the increase in low frequencies.
 
In the first few weeks I had the Ekos SE, I listened to a lot of LPs that had bugged me in the past because of varying degrees of tracking distortion with the Ittok. The Ekos SE solved most but not all of these problems. The slight edge of distortion that some recordings of pianos and voices used to have in louder and more complex passages is now reduced or eliminated, and that’s a huge relief. In fact, I’ve been listening to much more piano music than I had, because there are now fewer tracking imperfections. Organ music also tracks much better, but some of the intensely complex passages still distort a bit.
 
Tracking distortion in the inner groove of many LPs is reduced or eliminated with the Ekos SE. There’s still a congested sound in the last minute or two sometimes, but less than before, and in many cases it’s gone away almost entirely. When there is still some inner groove distortion, that may in fact be distortion produced in the cutting of the master or wear from the LP having been played with mid-fi equipment. Most of my LPs are non-audiophile releases bought used over the years. None of the bona-fide audiophile releases I have distort at all that I can hear, but then few did with the Ittok either.
 
The cartridge I’ve been using is a Lyra Helikon, which fit the Ittok headshell fine but is a very tight fit with the Ekos SE. At first, I thought it wouldn’t work at all. But by using Dynavector leads, and bending the tags gently to allow the back corner of the cartridge to fit between the leads for the left and right channels, I was able to align the cartridge with the proper overhang. The only snag is that the stylus cover has to be removed when fitting the cartridge and won’t fit on as long as the cartridge is on the headshell. So it’s not the ideal marriage of cartridge and tonearm, but it does work.
 
The Ekos SE certainly isn’t cheap, and the price tag did put me off for a few years. But if you’ve got some money to spare and you love the sound of LPs, it’s well worth it in my opinion.
 
All The Best, J.B.