Oooh, that intangible HIGH END… Even if it the setup was a tad uneven I’d say my first venture was back in 94 when I got my poor student mitts on a pair of Gradient Revolution dipole speakers I’d had my eyes on for a looong time. They were rather tatty after spending a fair bit of time at hi-FI shows and expos but the dealer gave me about 70% off and to me they truly were the bees knees. I remember my desire for them even outweighing the, then so iconic VR4s. I had to flip my beloved Audio Innovation 500 for a Thule IA150b just to somehow satisfy their thirst for power and ran them with a Quad CD67, Ace teacher ICs and TC8s. Few years later life took a turn and a looong period of moving, on account of education and later, jobs, between tiny apartments all over the world. Not ideal for the hobby…Still have the Gradients even if they don’t get much play time, Thule went bust and the amp died but the Quad still does service as transport. Just recently got back in to the hobby and an Italian little jewel seems dead set on sending me way deeper down the rabbit hole. The rather breathtaking little Grandinote Shinai landed in my home a few week ago. Truly an astonishing piece of kit that delivers both detail, harmonies and stomping musicality in a way I thought no integrated ever could. It’s Grandinotes entry leve amp but at €12000 I guess it actually qualifies as real “high end” even with today’s rather insane costs to stay on top of this here game.
Next step, DAC, interesting and very much not so at the same time…
Next step, DAC, interesting and very much not so at the same time…