Accustic Arts

Docmark, I have posted here on the GON reviews of both the Drive 1-MK2 and Dac 1-MK4. Also you might find helpful a thread entitled, Reference DACS: An overall perspective, that contains information on Accustic Arts gear.

Congratulations Pubul57, you already had an excellent system, now with the addition of the Accustic Arts digital front end and the Placette Active linestage to your Cat amp and Merlin speakers you now have a "butt-kicking" reference level rig that will sound as good as anything else out there in the crazy world of high end gear. Enjoy the music, I'm sure you will!

Dev, I'm quite sure you will enjoy your Accustic Arts DAC1-MK4 in the context of your reference level system. I will be very interested in your impressions of the Bent Tap compared with the other preamps that you sonicly know already. You might want to share your opinions on the Tap review thread, it will add to the perspective of how a transformer based passive sounds compared to very high level tube linestages.

Dev, there's no doubt that the Dac1-MK4 was a vast improvement over the MK3. When I got the MK4 I was still using a reference transport from Ensemble, that's still a great piece, however when I auditioned the AA Drive1-MK2 every thing got better(transparency, details, soundstage, extension) but in small increments compared with the Ensemble. So, you might have to let the transport break-in awhile to see if there are significant sonic gains compared with your ARC player used as a transport to make the change.

Also, I don't know what digital cable you are using, but regardless what transport you decide on, I highly recommend you listen to a Stealth Sextet cable. I tried a bunch of highly regarded cables and nothing came close to the Sextet when it came to allowing the Acoustic Arts combo sing to total sonic abilities.

Finally, I use the Ensemble Duo Isolink digital transformer with the the AA combo and it improves all sonic factors by around another 10% to 20% in my system. The rest of my system downstream goes through the Running Springs Jaco power conditioner.

Just wanted to share that I had the pleasure of having in my home two new audiophile friends to listen to my system last week.

The relevancy for this thread regarding their visit is that one of these gentleman mainly came over to hear the Accustic Arts combo. In his system he had already purchased and sold the Esoteric P3/D3 combo, he and his friend both found it kinda "ruthless" and not very musical in his system, and his present DAC is an Audio Logic, the latest generation.

Well, to say the least he thought the Accustic Arts pieces were "delightful" and offered a "million dollar Sound" at a very reasonable price, was much better then his Audio Logic DAC and now wants to do a home audition.

Dev, I saw that you have your Accustic Arts Drive1-MK2 on sell here on the GON. Does that mean you got your Oracle 2000 transport already and thought it out performed the Accustic Arts Drive? Please share what has taken place if that is the case, I'm quite interested in the details of your auditioning experience.

Hassel, I have compared the Accustic Arts Combo to Esoteric pieces and find the AA to be much more musical then the Esoteric gear. Take a look at my thread, Reference DACS: An overall perspective, for alot of details regarding the sonic differences.

Dev, it sure seems like your having alot of fun! Two questions: 1) Could you share more specific details concerning the sonics of the Oracle transport compared to the AA? 2) Would you share the rest of your system's pieces so I can have a context regarding the transports? Thanks in advance.

Hotbird, thanks for the heads up on the Boston Audio CD stabilzer. In my past experience, other CD tweeks, such as the De Mat from Holland, always took away something like microdynamics, slam, etc., even if they "smoothed" over the sound or made the CD's sound warmer.

So my question is, have you experienced any sonic downside with this device? I called Boston Audio yesterday and talked to Austin the designer of their tweeks, a great guy, he explained they now make two different versions of the stabilizer which revolves around weight and thickness. Did you get the thinner and lighter weight one or the thicker one that weights more? Austin advised to order the thicker one, which I did. It seems very reasonable priced, $149.00 and you get a 30 day audition period. I'll thank you in advance regarding your feedback regarding any sonic shortcomings, if any , with this device.