Larsen Pneuance GamuT Pear Audio

The Larson 9 speakers ($14,995/pair) in this room were set up firing across the room width, meaning that the one row of listeners had to sit relatively close. Even so, this system, which used Gamut M250i monoblocks ($25,990/pair) and a Gamut D3i dual-mono preamplifier ($8390), all hooked up with Gamut cables, was definitely "room friendly," producing a comfortable sound from an LP cut of Chet Atkins and Mark Knopler playing "There'll be Some Changes Made."

The album was being played on a Pear Audio Blue turntable and Little John/Comet 2 tonearm ($3995) fitted with an Etsuro Urushi Cobalt Blue cartridge ($5400) amplifier with a Pear Audio Classic Phono Stage ($1995). Digital playback in this room, which I didn't hear, was with an Aurender N10 server—a favorite of mine—sending data to a Bricasti M21 DAC ($21,000). Most interesting, everything in the system other than the speakers was supported with tunable devices from Pneuance: Pneupad NP-15X17s ($495 each) NP-17X21 ($649) isolation platforms and Pneupod NP-1s ($975/3) and NP-2(HD)s ($1030/3). These can all be pressurized to match the specific mass of what is sitting on them, to create an effective filter against vibrational energy.

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