Speakers are 6 Feet away from each other. I have tried more and less and after hours of trial and error that is the best i can do. Stands are 4 inches tall. I removed spikes due to rug height and are tilted backwards with 1 CD jewel case under the front base plate of the stands. Distance from rear wall is 28 inches. These are nearly identical measurements that Herb Reichert from Stereophile had found as well during his month with the speakers.
Kef speakers were a little boomy at times, with a bit of resonance and stored energy. The cabinet is solid but had a noticeable hollowness and only 1 support beam. I tool liberty to adding dampening material to the chassis. At first i had lined the entire speaker with polyester over the dynamat. However, this really reduced the bass and mid range. After much trial and error i have removed all the lining except the rear which appears to have helped the excess resonance. The paneling has helped in reducing the spread of sound coming from the sides of the boxes and bass is much more directional now.
The goal of this system is to have a clean, warm to neutral sound that is not overly bright or exaggerated. I am rather sensitive to ribbon tweeters as they are somewhat fatiguing. The transfer of sound from the Kefs has delivered a good balance of detail without being too revealing.
I am very pleased with the Heed Amp. It is one of the few products that really did match the reviews. I was hesitant on purchasing it as the US market has nearly zero awareness to the company. After selling my Parasound Halo amp and Schiit Freya+ I was looking for something that would provide a very natural sounding experience. Not to say that The Freya didnt. For my tastes i just couldn't warm up to the Freya.
This Heed unit is wonderful and I can say happily its a keeper for a long while and has only gotten better over the past 2 month. The build quality is extreamly solid and its a heavy guy for being half size. I will probably pick up the separate PSU at some point. Having 50watts at 8ohms i havent had to crank it more than 40% to get to a 85db level with these speakers.
The Chord Qutest blew my socks off . I have always leaned towards vinyl being a more emotional translation of sound. That is where the Marantz DV7001 really helped me over the years providing a very musical experience with SACD's and the built in DAC made CD playing pleasant. Then came the Qutest..... Total game changer. After owning Schiit, SimAudio and Chinese DAC's my expectation of finding something refined, sophisticated and honest was looking to only come from the $3k and up range. I personally couldn't justify that investment over time as i mostly listen to a collection of albums ranging in the several hundreds.
With some reluctance i purchased the Qutest by the recommendation of my dealer. I had read a few reviews over the past 2 year about it and the FPGA chip designed by Rob Watts. I was a little put off by its size, but after living in the UK for several years I had a respect towards the build quality and attention to detail that gave me the confidence to pull the trigger. No regrets at all.
The SolidSteel S3 is great for the price at under $1k. Build is very solid and love how its modular and can be complimented by buying individual parts in the future. It can support something like 130 LBS so it will be just fine.
The Primare NP5 is a device which has been hanging out in the back of my system. Its really straightforward and lovely simple device. I owned a Bluesound Node2i prior. The node2 was fine. But it just didnt impress me. Not saying a streamer should, but the Primare is just better in every way as a dedicated streamer. The app is nice, the sound quality is good. The ONLY thing that i overlooked which is a small bummer is the USB socket doesnt not do audio out.
I'm very happy with the Nordost Purple Flare. Did an A-B test with some A.Q. Golden Gates and i happily sold them to buy more Purple's.
The Gold Note PH10 is my newest addition and is still being broken in as off 4/22/2021.
Silnote Poseidon GL's have been a very nice addition. Again i compared them to IsoTek and A.Q. and the Silnotes had a bit more character and openness that i didn't get from others. I have yet to try others but for now they are good. A little light weight but the build is well executed.
Rega P3. I can't say i love it. Purchased it this year after owning a P2 for several years. The tonearm and cart did make a nice improvement in sound. The amount of static however from this P3 vs the P2 has been dramatic for some reason. 45's sound great on the P3 but i'm struggling to enjoy non- audiophile grade pressings on the P3. I changed the mat from wool to rubber due to the static and dust collection the wool was gathering. it seams to help and the bass response was tighter with the Herbies mat and have enjoyed the swap.
More than likely I am going to sell the P3 and find something else.
The IsoTek G2 multiway is well built and does its job. I honestly have no idea how it compares to others. All i know is that it sounds better than my Furman and Panamax units of prior. At the same time, I can say that I do not like the way the EVO 3 Premier sounds and will be changing it out.
