Sony’s new SS-NA2ES loudspeakers ($10,000/pair, to be reviewed in the September issue of Stereophile) are hardly huge speakers. Yet in a ballroom system that included Pass Labs’ highly prized X600.5 monoblocks ($22,000/pair) and XP-20 preamplifier ($8600), the Sony speakers delivered an amazingly large soundstage further distinguished by an exceedingly beautiful, warm, and clear sound.
Part of this, of course, was due to the excellence of the digital front end I heard—dCS Debussy DAC ($10,950) and EMM Labs XDS1 SA-CD player ($24,000). None of it was possible without Kimber Kable’s KS-1111 balanced cable interconnects ($750/3ft. pair), KS-3033 speaker cable ($3400/9ft. pair), PK-10 Gold power cable ($350/4fr.); and the Grand Prix Monaco Audio Rack ($4925) from a company whose products are so good that Hugh Fountain of Music Lovers Audio told me that the first time he ever put an inexpensive CD player on one of Grand Prix’s acrylic racks, it sounded so good that a customer bought the whole package. But as good as all that may be, you can’t get a big soundstage if the speaker is incapable of delivering one. Hats off, once again, to Sony’s achievement.
