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How did you like the sound? I thought this was the best sounding room at the show... and from the buzz on the floor, many others agreed. Love those Harbeths.
The music in Son Ideal’s room was especially comforting and attractive to me. The Harbeths were being driven by Rogue Audio’s Cronus Magnum ($2200). Source at the time I entered the room was the heralded Rega Apollo CD player ($1300 CAN), but I was charmed more by the Rega P3-24 in stunning gloss pink finish, with outboard TT-PSU power supply ($1300). Awesome.
I also had the pleasure of meeting Skylan’s Noel Nolan, who explained that his stands are constructed of MDF top and bottom plates and posts of custom-extruded PVC, because steel stands ring like tuning forks, creating resonances that work against the music. He has found that loading his stands with white rice works best for Harbeth loudspeakers due to the speaker’s light wall structures. A pair of Nolan’s attractive stands, made since 1985, are shipped directly from his factory in Calgary; price includes shipping, as well as a funnel, cup, and wrench for assembly.
This was also among my favorite rooms at the show. The key, IMHO, is that the rooms generally were creating horrible bass bloat on the oversized speakers that most were showing. As a result, my favorite rooms were this one, the one with the Joseph Audio monitors and the Audio Dream room with the small $1400 monitors.