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As of April 2006, the headquarters of 6moons -- and thereby my personal listening space -- have moved to the Republic of Cyprus. This former British dependency sits between Turkey to the North, Egypt in the South and Israel in the East. It's the island at the very end of the sea's easterly expanse. The Greek majority of the Republic has joined the EU and is unfortunately set to relinquish its present powerful Cyprus currency in favor of the ugly Euro by 2008, something the British have successfully avoided until today. The Turkish occupancy in the North divides the island 65/35 in favor of the Greeks and is a legacy of the Turkish invasion of 1974. Turkish acceptance into the EU is, I'm told, contingent on withdrawal from Cyprus - and Turkey apparently has applied for EU membership. So perhaps the divided nature of Cyprus will soon be a thing of the past.

Our single-story house in Coral Bay 3 miles below the hill village of Peyia is situated on the West coast waterfront below the famed Akamas peninsula where Aphrodite is said to have frolicked with Adonis. This 25-year old dwelling was constructed in typical Cyprus fashion, meaning of concrete, brick and stone. Consequently, this inert structure suffers less acoustic leakage to the outside than typical US sheetrock/2x4 affairs. Far more bass energy remains inside the room than most American audiophiles enjoy as a function of comparatively lighter construction methods. As does the entire house, the listening room sports 1" thick white stone tiles over concrete flooring. A large wool throw rug minimizes floor reflections while Venetian blinds on the large glass doors become quasi diffusers. The room proper measures 16' x 21' x 9'. It sports a large angled air space above its suspended ceiling tiles (more than 13' at the greatest height above the listening chair). A 15' x 11' entry covered by a sliding door hides behind the centrally placed seat at the rear wall. Opening or closing this door affords variable room tuning by changing the size of the space. An openly adjoining 15' x 35' living room/kitchen space connects permanently through an arch next to the left speaker. The effective air volume seen by the speakers is thus considerably greater than the apparent area as defined by the HiFi setup. That's a good thing for bass, something my Definition Pros thrive on (plus their active biamp drive allows detailed adjustments in bass weight and linearization to compensate for the effects a non-US physical environment has on the tonal balance of US speakers).
Oriented as a short-wall placement that fires into the long axis of the room, my 117V reference system first assembled in Taos/New Mexico here runs off a massive 1.5KV Plitron step-down transformer mounted inside a Wenge hardwood box. Unusually, this box is switchable on the fly, between operating as a high-quality isolation transformer or balanced power source. This 80 lbs beast of a custom-order AC solution was conceived and assembled by Peter Daniel of Canadian Audio Sector chip-amp fame. Connection between wall and transformer is via a 1-meter cord by Acrolink of Japan terminated with a massive Furutech UK plug, then double cryo'd by Alan Kafton of Audio Excellence AZ in Phoenix/Arizona [first image above].

The transformer's single duplex feeds two Walker Audio Velocitor S conditioners which, in their customary Rock Maple enclosures with lead-filled brass footers, sit atop Walker's dedicated Velocitor stands. The Walker units provide a total of 12 star-grounded, cryogenically treated Quantum Resonance Technology powered outlets. Those are hard-isolated as two banks of 6 outlets to allow for digital/analog or any other desired separation between specific components. All outlets trace back directly to a single switched AC wall outlet, my favored protocol. Avoiding multiple wall outlets eliminates different ground potentials on the mains. Two four-tier Grand Prix Audio Monaco equipment stands provide modular support for the equipment. The reference kit consists of Zanden Audio's Model 2000p/5000s digital separates which are run via Yamada-San's I²S Ethernet terminals to engage the superior clock link connection. The Signature converter runs the better-sounding 7308 triode rather than the original 6922.

Preamplification duties are handled by either a Music First Passive Magnetic, ModWright SWL 9.0SE or Hyperion Sound BEC-P25T. Amplifiers are the Yamamoto A-08S 45 SET with mesh-plate Emission Labs bottles or a FirstWatt F3 Power JFET amplifier (2 and 10 wpc respectively); and a pair of bridged 100wpc AudioSector Patek SE amps preceded by a Rane PEQ55 5-band EQ and low-pass filter. This bi-amp scheme powers a pair of 101dB Zu Audio Definition Pros which are finished in a custom reed-colored automotive lacquer. Cabling is Stealth Indra and MetaCarbon or Zu Cable Varial for low level signal, Zu Cable Ibis and Libtec for high level (Ibis to the Pro's frontal array, Libtec to the rear-firing woofer array). All power cabling downstream of the Velocitors is Crystal Cable Reference. Walker Audio Extreme SST and Super Vivid as well as Furutech's CD degausser find themselves routinely applied to electrical connections, tube pins and CD software.

Further audio kit in the house includes a pair of Zu Audio Tones in custom plum lacquer and non-stock proportions/grilles as my wife commissioned them for her artist studio during our visit to the Zu factory in Ogden; a pair of Gallo Acoustics A'Diva Ti speakers usually leashed to a lap top via an Onix/Melody SP3 integrated valve amp; and a pair of Canary Audio CA-308 300B monos that stand in for the Yamamoto and Pass amps in the main rig. A pair of AKG K-1000s with custom Stefan Audio Art harness run off a FirstWatt F1 current-source amp and audio-technica WH-1000s perform headphone duties elsewhere. A separate 13' x 15' x 10' media room with slanted ceiling houses a simple 2-channel system around a 32" wide-screen Sony Wega CRT. This rig is comprised of a SCART-connected Cambridge Audio Azur DVD player, an Opera Audio Consonance Reference 2.2 Linear CD player, Bel Canto's new PRe3/S300 pre/power combo or an Eastern Electric M520 tube integrated run with either NOS Yugoslav fat bottle 6CA7s or JJ's new KT77s. Speakers are a pair of Anthony Gallo Acoustics' Reference 3.1s with Analysis Plus Big Silver Oval and Solo Crystal cabling. Components from the media room repeatedly appear in the reference system. This creates varying review contexts for adjustments in price and compatibility as might be dictated by a particular review loaner.



While by no stretch "entry level" -- and Zanden's ultra-expensive bleeding-edge front end utterly excepted -- these systems and components reflect my ongoing realsization adventures. I enjoy identifying gear that comes within spitting distance of the state of the art without costing remotely as much as one could spend. Naturally, less obsessive 'philes will still call all of this overkill - and I couldn't fault 'em. Thankfully, I can justify things away as 'office equipment' and take respite in the fact that my small Japanese car and other household machinery are far more frugal by comparison. The only items presently lacking in my audio toy collection are a high-power SET (I'd probably opt for paralleled 845 or 211-based monos if someone like Wyetech Labs' Roger Hebert made some) and a high-power transistor amp (think XA Series by Pass Labs). But unless I suddenly fell for inefficient speakers, the need for high power hasn't presented itself as yet. Lastly, compliments and thanks are due to Cypriot audiophile Dan Florin who was single-handedly responsible for this unexpected relocation. Simply put, he invited my wife and I to visit him over New Year's of 2005 to experience his system. Once we touched down on the island, the land and its wonderful people did the rest. Three months to the day later, we had permanently moved. Let nobody claim that silly audiophilia can't be a truly life-altering hobby of charming potency and with occasionally unpredictable but glorious consequences...