Not one to think small, Brian Walsh of Essential Audio in Barrington, IL needed a very big room to house the Sound Lab Majestic 845 electrostatic loudspeakers ($35,840/pair), Atma-Sphere MP-1 Mk.III.2 preamplifier ($16,940) and MA-2 Mk III.2 output transformer-less amplifiers ($41,600/pair), Aurender W20 reference music server ($16,800), Bricasti M1 DAC ($8995), Kuzma Stabi XL 2-motor turntable with all the trimmings ($32,280 total), Teo Audio equipment racks, and cabling from Teo Audio, Clarity Cable, and Creative Cable Concepts. Try saying that on one breath.
Listening to a DSD64 version of a piano recording from 2L, and a 16/44.1 rip from an early digital-era transfer of Solti's recording of Mahler Symphony 1, it was clear that nothing short of an entire team of engineers or a huge truck filled with room tuning devices and DSP equipment could have tamed the echo in the room. Despite some whiteness, room-associated noise, and far more noise from industry reps who wouldn't shut up, the system did a great job on depth and bass.
