Upgrading and Rebuilding a System with Audio Therapy

I have customers in literally every corner of the UK which means I regularly embark upon road trips to demonstrate and install new systems, upgrade components and improve the foundations of existing systems with all important ancillaries such as power, isolation and grounding.

Last week, I had a day trip to Hertfordshire to visit a longstanding customer.  A recent house refurbishment meant that his system was disconnected and boxed up for a period of time whilst building works were carried out, I offered to help put the system back together so it was a perfect opportunity to carry out a few upgrades.

The system was originally installed around 3 years ago, it started life as a Vitus RI-101 mk2 (with its on-board DAC board), a Melco N1ZH EX Music Library and a pair of Avalon PM1 loudspeakers.  Avalon and Vitus work together so well and I’ve a considerable number of customers using this combination in one form or another. The customer loved his system, but it was always considered a stepping stone to bigger and better things. It’s been an on-going process and through a couple of rounds of upgrades we have elevated the performance to a totally new level, the same Vitus amplifier and Avalon speakers are still in use – they have got so much to give when you know how to attack them in the correct way.

ENTREQ – ATHENA EQUIPMENT SUPPORT, SIGNAL CABLES & GROUNDING

The first upgrade introduced the customer to Entreq with their Athena equipment stand, 2 Poseidon Ground Boxes plus a pre-owned Silver Tellus. I’ve installed plenty of Athenas and keep a large bespoke one in my demonstration room, the customer was very taken with it and it started a conversation about all things Entreq and a few demonstrations followed.

The Silver Tellus was used to connect to the ground points on the Athena (each shelf has 2 ground points in a triple width configuration) – there is silver plating inside each shelf which is connected internally to the ground points and they play a clever and unique role in drawing away interference draining it to the connected box, more information on the Athena is available here.

The Poseidon is a one of Entreq’s larger ground boxes and over the years it has been very popular, it offers 3 independent ground posts, so it gives plenty of options. The first Poseidon was used to connect to the negative loudspeaker outputs of the Vitus RI-101, this requires 2 posts, the 3rd post was used to connect to one of the analogue inputs on the Vitus. Weighing in at 32kg the Poseidon is not small, but because of its size and bulk, it has enormous capacity to remove noise from whatever you connect to it.

Entreq Triton loudspeaker cable was also added and we used 2 posts on the second Poseidon for the speaker cable (1 per per channel for optimum performance), the Melco was connected to the 3rd post. Triton is Entreq’s penultimate speaker, sitting below the Olympus. The Triton replaced both Apollo and Atlantis from the old range, it’s an outstanding cable, priced at £7200 for a 2.2m pair (including an Olympus Ten Tungsten Ground Box), it’s not going to be for everyone, but it can absolutely transform the way a system renders the music.

These upgrades dramatically elevated the performance of the system, the soundstage had developed a real sense of depth and dimensionality and there was increased resolution, transparency and insight but with Entreq in play it never makes the music sound lively, forced or artificial, the presentation is just effortlessly natural. Entreq majors on low noise and refinement and they really do excel in these areas, a real sense of calmness exists with the music.

STILLPOINTS & ISOLATION

A few months after this, the next round of upgrades added Stillpoints, with Ultra 6 under the Vitus and Melco and Ultra 5 under the Avalon loudspeakers. Stillpoints increase resolution and improve space, air and dimensionality – when you introduce them into a good, well balanced system they can have a profound impact.

We do a lot with Stillpoints here at Audio Therapy, but they do come with a bit of a caveat….if you introduce Stillpoints into a system too early or you simply drop them into a system that has been randomly put together without any really thought or guidance they can often give you too much of a good thing.

I frequently describe Stilpoints to people as ‘honesty filters’, they really show you what your system does. You get all the good elements but you also get the not so great bits – in days gone by someone would borrow some Stillpoints often to come back a week later saying that the Stillpoints made the system sound forward and aggressive, the reality is that is the Stillpoints showing you your system at its most honest. With careful system curation we can eliminate any shortcomings or weak links, ensuring a system is well balanced, so as and when Stillpoints may be added their results are always positive, it’s all about the timing of when they are introdcued.

The customer’s initial reaction when he first heard Stillpoints was words to the effect of ‘is that still my system David?!’ If we had introduced Stillpoints when the original cable loom was in the system the presentation would be been much more aggressive and rougher around the edges as the Stillpoints simply open the window to the system.

The sense of 3d and dimensionality was now palpable and the sound was much more coherent with greater space and air around everything, there’s no getting away from the fact that Ultra 6 and Ultra 5 are not inexpensive (Ultra 5 are £850 each and Ultra 6 are £1100 each with an Ultra Base) but when done at the right time they can deliver a component level of upgrade.

MELCO N1-S38 DIGITAL MUSIC LIBRARY & ADOT

Fast forward to Spring 2023 and Melco announced the launch of their new flagship model, the N1-S38. I got to spend some time with the final prototype of the N1 before it was announced so I knew what was coming and the moment I received my demonstration model I rang around a number of my Melco customers to advise them that the N1 was something very special and they should listen to one. Over the next couple of months the N1 kept me very busy with lots of customer demonstrations, almost everyone who heard an N1 purchased one. The N1ZH was a really strong sweet-spot in the range, but doing a side by side comparison with an N1 you could hear the difference instantly, no back and forth or extended listening was needed at all.

The N1 is an excellent upgrade over the old flagship the N1ZS/2 as well. For those who haven’t experienced the N1, it’s all about transparency and purity, everything simply sounds clean, immediate and the music is delivered with real authority, it makes everything sound more real and live.

We also introduced a ADOT Media Converter, this converts the signal coming from the router to fibre, acting as a bit of firewall for noise essentially. If you put the Melco or any Network Streamer/Player into a quieter environment it will perform better. These have proven to be a very popular add-on, not just for Melco owners but for anyone who streams music, there are different configurations available depending on your system. We opted for a MC03 with a Plixir Power Supply – connected directly to the customers router via ethernet, with a single mode fibre connection direct into the N1.

SHUNYATA RESEARCH TYPHON T2

In the summer of 2023, we added a Shunyata Typhon T2 power conditioner, the Typhon is best thought of as a small Everest, it performs to the same level as an Everest, it just has less sockets. The Typhon has 2 UK sockets, plus a 3rd output on a proprietary connector. We connected the Vitus RI-101 and the Melco N1 to the Shunyata using 2 Sigma V2 NR power cables and it improved every single element of the system – there was improved resolution, better timing and dimensionality, air, space all were elevated up several levels – possibly the most impressive aspect the Typhon improved was the sense of scale, bass response was deeper, tighter and it developed real texture and articulation. If someone wants to make one serious improvement to an existing system this is the one component that would always get my vote. Over the past couple of years we have put this system into a really good position but for me this is arguably the most profound addition we have made to this system and it’s proving to be quite a common theme with the Typhon T2.

METRONOME LE DAC 2

The onboard DAC on the Vitus is excellent and it makes for a really compelling one box system for many people. The DAC board more than holds it’s own against lot of other things, but it can be improved upon – other than rebuilding this system last week, this was one of the main reasons for visiting – to install a Metronome Le DAC 2, plus a Melco S10 Network Switch.

The Vitus internal DAC has plenty of drive and energy and it’s a superb solution for those who want to keep their box count down without compromising performance, most RI-101 end up being supplied with the DAC board installed.  When I suggested we were taking the system to a level where an external DAC should be considered the customer was initially a little sceptical as the onboard DAC was coping really well with all of the upgrades we had carried out.

Cue a Le DAC 2 demonstration – the Metronome is just a DAC, there is no streaming, no pre-amp or volume control, it is literally just a DAC, it doesn’t even come with a remote control, all of Metronome’s resources have gone into one thing – the sound. I would describe Le DAC 2 like an excellent Napa Valley Merlot – it’s an incredibly full bodied, lush and rich sounding product. It sits just on the warmer side of neutral, but it’s never slow or heavy in the ways in delivers the music. Detail and resolution are right out of the top drawer, it doesn’t put emphasis on maximum detail retrieval or create an artificial leading edge, it certainly has no sense of digital at all, it may sound like a cliche, but it is almost analogue sounding. Everything we had improved with this system over the past couple of years was enhanced further with the addition of Le DAC 2, if you like your music with goosebumps and emotion Le DAC 2 is a superb choice!

We changed the power cable on the Vitus amplifier so it could be connected to the proprietary output on the Typhon T2 using their flagship T30C umbilical cable, this freed up a Sigma V2 NR, so we used this on the Metronome. The customer already owned a Shunyata Omega USB cable and we added an Entreq Triton XLR Interconnect to connect the Metronome to the Vitus amp, this matched the loudspeaker cables to give the wiring consistency/synergy.

Once the customer experienced Le DAC 2 in his system for himself it was clear that this would be the next step for this system.

IMPROVING QOBUZ WITH A MELCO S10

Streaming music via Tidal and Qobuz is becoming very important to people as a serious source of music and my customer is no exception to this, he has been using Qobuz more and more for streaming music, there is plenty of music stored on the N1 SSD, but around half of the listening is now from Qobuz, albums that make the grade get purchased and downloaded. For new music discovery Qobuz is excellent and it certainly allows people to expand their musical horizons which is never a bad thing. Sonically it sounds fantastic, although playing from the N1 SSD is better.

To that end, a Melco S10 Switch was added to the system to help with improving the network and streaming, it’s a great product and another one where you don’t need to spend much time with to discover its merits and there is no doubt that the lines between streaming and playing from storage get somewhat blurred with the S10 installed, we also added Melco’s new SFP+ cable, the C1-D20, which connects from the S10 to the N1.

Those looking through the images of this system may also spot a Shunyata Delta D6 power conditioner, this was used to power the S10, the ADOT/Plixir plus a couple of TV related items there are installed in the top left of the Athena.

FINAL THOUGHTS & MOVING FORWARDS

This system has grown immensely over the past 3 years, both in size and more importantly in performance. It sounded superb from the outset and to be fair many customers would have no desire or need to upgrade it from the original starting point, but this customer always said from the outset he wanted to improve the system dramatically as and when finances permitted. With some careful and measured upgrades I’ve developed and nurtured it further than the customer ever thought possible.

The original starting point of this system, the Vitus RI-101 mk2 and the Avalon PM1 are such strong products and to date we’ve not come close to hitting the end stops with them, every time something new is introduced to the system you can hear what it is doing and the results have always been hugely positive.

That focus and emphasis on lowering noise throughout the entire system really pays dividends, the system has a wonderful sense of drive and energy with fantastic transparency and dynamics, but it’s never forced or lively, it always remains incredibly composed. It’s a genuinely superb and rewarding experience spending time in front of this system, it’s a real joy to listen to, the music just flows.

It’s a system and a journey which has delighted the customer no end, but we’ve not quite finished yet, the next element of this system we will attack will be rather profound……..

the room itself