As fate would have it, on my third attempt to enter the Venice Audio Suite—intense conversation made the other passes futile—Mark Waldrep of AIX Records/iTrax had brought in some of his hi-res files for store proprietor Peter Selesnick to hear. The room was quiet, and for good reason: the sound was too beautiful to talk over.

Mark was playing Robert Prosseda's 96/24 DVD-A of Chopin's Ballade in G minor and The Old City String Quartet's 96/24 Blu-ray of Mozart's Clarinet Quintet. The music was heavenly, and the lovely sound of the system supplied perfect end-of-day solace.

Doing the honors were Kudos Audio C20 loudspeakers ($6590/pair), Naim Audio NDX network player/streamer ($5145) with HiCap power supply ($2145) and Naim Audio SuperNait integrated amplifier ($4995), Tellurium Q Black loudspeaker cable ($498/3m pair), Audience PDC power distribution center ($1500), and Quadraspire Q4 Evo equipment stand ($175 per level).