EleKit TU-8600R integrated amplifier, Sparkler Audio S503 Spiral CD Player/Transport, AER Excenter Loudspeakers

You’re going to need to indulge me a bit, because, due to some communication difficulties, I’m not totally confident of some prices and components in this room. If I understood correctly, the handmade-in-Japan, 1-bit Sparkler Audio S503 CD Player/Transport costs $1650, and the build-it-yourself EleKit TU-8600R integrated amplifier, also from Japan, goes for $1785. The loudspeaker system appears to be custom, from AER, including that company's BD2 driver (€3000 each, according to the AER website) in an acrylic stand that looks like AER's Custom (€5500/pair) but with the addition of the larger (1280mm) excenterhorn acrylic horn (€6120 each) and a subway subwoofer (€3000). This closely resembles the system the website describes as Custom + Subway (€8500) but with added of the excenterhorns€much like AER's excenter model but with different stands and apparently a different driver.

I was drawn to the room by the beauty of Cecilia Bartoli’s voice on an aria from her recent Antonio Vivaldi CD. I frequently play tracks from this disc at home, so I know that orchestral instruments should have had more weight and body than they did here. The recorder, on the other hand, sounded drop-dead beautiful. I also heard a 1992 direct-to-disc recording of Joe Pass playing “Unforgettable;” the quality of attack and fineness of line were very special. This system, then,like many systems based on full-range drivers, has many virtues but is suited to particular tastes.

COMMENTS
Ortofan's picture

... JVS assembling the EleKit amp before he reviews it.
HR could be called in to provide US-based tech support.

Bogolu Haranath's picture

We demand that it should be measured first, after JVS builds it, before any such review is published :-) .......

Ortofan's picture

... soldering skills of JVS?

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Not at all ...... I have great trust in the soldering skills of JVS ....... All I'm trying to do is to prove to the world, how skilled JVS is with soldering ....... in addition to his many other skills :-) ........

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