The main speakers were the Aries Cerat Symphonias, at $125,000/pair. They were accompanied by the Aries Cerat Erevus 5 passive basshorn system at $105,000/pair. The speakers were amplified by the Aries Achilleas Legend Series SET amplifier ($350,000) and Impera II Reference preamplifier ($35,000).
Sources were equally exotic. For digital, there was a Pink Faun 2.6x streamer ($32,000) feeding the Kassandra II Sig DAC ($65,000). For analogue, there was a $59,000 Rui Borges turntable with a Thales Simplicty II arm ($9450) and a Top Wing Red Sparrow moving coil cartridge ($16,500). The phono stage was an Aries Cerat Talos Signature ($65,000). Cables were Signal Project’s Atlantis Series; including Hydra Series power strips, cabling totalled $70,000. Equipment support was provided by a Stacore 6 tier pneumatic system ($60,000).
That is a lot of zeros.
But did this Aries Cerat system sound better than my Schiit Ragnarock integrated and KEF LS50’s? Absolutely. How much better? I cannot quantify that, but this Believe High Fidelity system played much bigger, much louder, much more colorfully, much more layered with detail, much fresher, much airier in the top octaves, more real and less phony in the bottom octaves. Overall this system had so much Thor’s hammer blown-hemi race car power it scared me. When it finished sweeping me away like a flash flood, it picked me up and kissed me like Sophia Loren. My Schiit-KEF system definitely falls short when it comes to flash flooding and movie-star kissing.
