Back in the real world, you could reduce that front-end investment easily. You could perm almost any combination of the various Kuzma Stabi S or Stabi R, Stogi S or Stogi Ref models. You could look at the AMG Giro with 9W2 tonearm or the Brinkmann Bardo. You could shop second hand for something like the remarkable Telefunken CS-20. If digital is your thing, you could invest in a Neodio Origine S2, or even the Konus Digitale 2000 DAC with either a Roon Nucleus or a CEC transport – perhaps both. The high value options are many and varied – and the bi-amped Konus Integrale/R25A system is ready, willing and able to exploit every last ounce of musical quality and enthusiasm you can provide.
Hitting the right Chord…
Which brings us back to that vexed question of cabling. Unashamedly exploiting my ‘status’ as a reviewer, I called those nice people at The Chord Co. (purveyors of resolutely sensible , cost effective and consistently musical cables) and demanded service appropriate to my station! Actually, I rang them up and grovelled and, as a review of their excellent mid-level Epic cables is already long overdue and, in the meantime they’ve also launched the rather interesting PowerHAUS distribution block, we quickly rolled both projects together, with second sets of interconnects and speaker cables added to the original plan, along with an M6 PowerHAUS to keep things coherently Chord, from wall sockets to speaker binding posts (there’s also a simpler version of the MG, called the S6, that costs around half as much).
Of course, assembling all those bits and bobs takes a while (though not as long as traversing French customs), so while I waited for the Epic power cables, interconnects and speaker cables to turn up, I carried on listening to the system with its ludicrously expensive, mix and match cable loom. And very enjoyable it was too: articulate, lively and engaging. So much so that I started to wonder a little about the need to replace the cables: Was I being just a little too pedantic? Isn’t such a ‘disciplined’ approach somewhat alien to the sheer fun-factor of such a laissez-faire system?
The arrival of the Chord cables quickly dispelled any such notions. Sure, the (vastly more expensive) mix-and-match collection of cables I had been using might have had the edge in terms of transparency and resolution, but the Epics unceremoniously, almost brutally stamped them into the ground when it came to substance, presence, overall coherence, musical shape and above all, a natural sense of musical proportion. Where separation had been stark, pulling instruments out of the mix and pulling the sense of a musical whole apart, the Epics brought things back together, (re)establishing the relationships between instruments and players, recreating the performance as a single, coherent entity. That singular sense of purpose, individual body and presence yet collective intent, binds rhythmic nuance and dynamic expression to the musical narrative, allowing the system to communicate in a far more direct, connected and emphatic fashion.
