"What is this music?" asked Jason Serinus (above).
We were sitting in the VTL room, where a pair of Wilson Alexia speakers ($48,500/pair) were being driven by VTL's S-400 stereo amplifier ($33,500), TL-7.5 Series III preamp ($20,000), and TP-6.5 phono preamplifier ($10,500 with transformer).
"It's 'Lose Yourself to Dance,' my favorite track from Daft Punk's Random Access Memories LP," I whispered, played on a Spiral Groove SG1.1 turntable and Centroid arm ($31,000) fitted with Lyra's new Etna MC cartridge ($6995). The rest of the system included dCS's Paganini 4-box SACD player, master clock, upsampler, and D/A processor ($55,000), Transparent Opus MM2 audio cables, and Nordost Odin and Valhalla digital and power cables and conditioner.
This best-selling album, mixing EDM with retro disco grooves and superbly mastered by Bob Ludwig, is an audiophile special with wide dynamic range and a superbly clean sound. The bass lines, however, sounded tightest, ie, most musically compelling, with the S-400's feedback set to its maximum, though this diminished some of the midrange magic that the Alexia is capable of. (I am reviewing the Alexia in the December issue of Stereophile.
