Ok, I'll spill the beans...Classic Audio Loudspeakers' Hartsfield reproductions with John's own field coil drivers, fed by his personal Atma-Sphere MP-1 pre-amp and Atma-Sphere Novacron amps. I don't know what table and cart he has.
The Hartsfields blew my mind. I think the first speakers he played for me were his T-3.4s, which were also phenomenal, but the Hartsfields had such a massive scale, musicality and presentation that I can't stop thinking about them. He tells me they are not optimally set up in his listening room, placed in the corners (they are really too big to move around regularly), so it's hard for me to imagine how they will sound optimally positioned. I need a room big enough to appreciate their scale, and I will find the money for them.
I heard a pair of $70k speakers today being driven by ~$50k worth of very high-end and well-reviewed tube equipment from a European manufacturer...it was the same equipment that won best-in-show from a number of reviewers at a recent national show, and while it sounded great, it wasn't close to the Hartsfields. Great, but not close.
The Hartsfields blew my mind. I think the first speakers he played for me were his T-3.4s, which were also phenomenal, but the Hartsfields had such a massive scale, musicality and presentation that I can't stop thinking about them. He tells me they are not optimally set up in his listening room, placed in the corners (they are really too big to move around regularly), so it's hard for me to imagine how they will sound optimally positioned. I need a room big enough to appreciate their scale, and I will find the money for them.
I heard a pair of $70k speakers today being driven by ~$50k worth of very high-end and well-reviewed tube equipment from a European manufacturer...it was the same equipment that won best-in-show from a number of reviewers at a recent national show, and while it sounded great, it wasn't close to the Hartsfields. Great, but not close.