I don't know if it's a case of careful component and/or cable matching—Wilson Audio, after all, favors VTL electronics and Transparent Cabling, and Spectral always dems with its own, MIT-manufactured cabling—or just better engineering, but my experience of Teresonic single-driver loudspeakers has shifted dramatically for the better over the years.
When I entered the room, Teresonic's striking Ingenium loudspeaker ($15,000/pair) was playing music from Queen Margot Queen Margot by Balkan composer Goran Brejovic using Teresonic's Reference 2A3, class-A, zero-feedback, SET tube amplifier ($15,000); Berkeley Audio Designs' superb Alpha DAC 2 ($5000); the new Baetis Media Server V2 ($3000), which re-samples up to 192kHz with a bit depth of up to 64 (!); and new Teresonic Clarison Silver EXP speaker cables ($3500/set), Gold XLR interconnects ($4000/set), Clarison power cables ($395 for 1m), and new Clarison digital cable ($395). The sound was extremely transparent and beautiful.
Then Mike Zivkovic switched to the 88.2 HDTracks download of Anna Netrebko's Sempre Libera recital with Claudio Abbado. Personally, I find this album's title recording a prime example of one missed opportunity after another, but the audio presentation was very impressive. Despite a slight edge on the voice, the warmth of the midrange won me over . . . to the system, if not the soprano.
