VPI Titan - Leonard Room
Since we successfully made great music with this combination of brands before, we were confident that we would have a sound that all of us could be proud of. Last year when Sarah and Michel rescued the Montreal Audio Fest from oblivion, we made a last minute decision to bring the Avenger to Canada and show our support for the event. Building on our great relationship with Joseph Audio we decided that their Pulsars would sound fantastic in our room. While we had never personally used Simaudio's MOON electronics before, we had heard reports about there being excellent synergy between their amplifiers and our turntables from our mutual dealers. It all came together and the visitors’ reaction to our system last year was everything we hoped and more!
We had such a great time in 2016 we knew we had to come back! (and not just for the Poutin!) We booked a larger room this time, so each of us could present our most exciting components. We brought VPI's top-of-the-line product,the Titan.
In order to retrieve every sonic detail from the record, the Titan’s upper platter is silently spun from a magnetically coupled lower platter, driven by a rim drive! The Titan floats on pneumatic air suspension, to effectively isolate the turntable from acoustically transmitted vibrations.
The Simaudio's MOON electronics are hand built in Montreal (don’t miss our Simaudio's MOON factory tour post!), and brought out the best sound we have heard from the Joseph Audio Pearl3's so far! The MOON 880M Mono amplifiers demonstrated extraordinary woofer control. Their MOON 810LP Phono preamp, was excellent and gave us the ability to dial in loading and gain perfectly for each of the different cartridges that we used during the show. Flawless build, rock solid sound. We are looking forward to bringing some Simaudio's MOON gear into the VPI listening house to recreate this experience!
We thought we had a pretty good idea of Joseph Pearl3’s capabilities. After all, we have used them as a long-term reference in the VPI listening house. We were simply not prepared for the experience of hearing them with the 800 Watt Simaudio's MOON 880M mono blocs, ! Harry declared that this was the best show sound we have achieved so far! No matter how hard we pushed the Joseph Audio Pearl 3 speakers, nothing seemed to faze them. Not only did They sail through the most demanding dynamic passages with effortless musicality, but the realism and sheer emotional power of the music actually brought some listeners to tears. This is why we have always loved using Joseph Audio speakers! As the official “room whisperer”, Jeff always knows how to arrange the system work with the room.
The Transparent Cables, made in America, tied the whole system together! The sonic signature of the of the Transparent Ultra Cables was exactly what we were looking for. We used the Transparent Ultra cables in our the VPI Listening House as well.
The most exciting demo we did at the show gave listeners a window into an important aspect of our turntable design process. Using a Technics RS1500 Reel to Reel Tape machine we let everyone compare the Titan versus the tape!! Hugh Masekela’s killer live album “Hope” was our main reference for the vinyl/tape comparison. It was exciting to hear the differences and see the audience reaction. When using the Ortofon A-95 the comparison was close but for the most part the listeners favored the tape. Harry then dialed in the setup with the Lyra Etna and Kiseki Purple Heart and the opinions became more mixed. Some now favored the Titan over the tape. This was a wonderful confirmation of our design methods, and many visitors told us it was one of the high points of the show for them as well! We are already looking forward to making great sound and new audio adventures with our friends in Canada next year!
