18 Oct 2019: Konstantinos Dalkalitsis

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Monthly Meeting ACA at Konstantinos Dalkalitsis

On Saturday October 18, 2019, the 2nd autumn meeting of ACA members and friends were held at the site our friend’s Konstantinos Dalkalitsis place. It was one of the few times we heard great sound in a 'living room' system and also one of the few times we auditioned the B&W speakers playing flawlessly, dynamically, analytically, musically, magically...

In this place with this system it is a kind of incompatible and untimely to talk, the only must is just sitting and listening.. Konstantinos is a music lover and a collector, especially in classical music... Being a habitue of the Megaron (The Athens Music Concert House) and almost any other music scene, he ‘spends’ most of his daytime every day watching every live, but also listening to his system.

He has also got a great vinyl records collection consisting of basics but also including many diamonds, collectible vinyls and rare recordings as well as entire valuable recording collections such as that of Manos Hadjidakis from 1st to last one, both first editions, but also audiophile reissues...

But let’s point back to the system and the glorious sound we heard that night. All this 'transformation' had to do with an amazing little object that was very responsible for all of this...
That element was the excellent VDH Colibri XGW Signature Stradivarius cartridge, the one we had sampled from Alex's description. Finally, both the words and the text were not enough to convey it’s sound... technically difficult to set up and operate, being a bare coil with a cantilever and a needle on a piece of wood, it took Kyriakos 5 whole visits in site to bring it in life. (That was before and after sending it to VDH for a 250-hour reset). At this point we heard it yesterday at 19/10 at Constantinos meeting...

The System...

Analog Source	SME 20/3 SME V+VDH Colibri XGW Signature Stradivarius
Digital Source	Ayon CD5
Preamplifiers	Audio Research Ref Phono 2SE (phono) Audio Research Ref 5 SE (line)
Power Amplifiers	Krell evolution 400E (monoblock)
Speakers	B&W 800D
Cables	Esoteric 8N Reference (phono) Transparent ref. (interconnect) Cardas Golden Reference XLR (interconnect) Synergistic research (speakers) Transparent MM2 (power) Nordost Valhallac (power)
Rack	Finite Elemente Pagode
Environment	40m² (8x5x2.8)

The audition, the sound & the program...

It’s been one of the fewest times, this particular sound as I wrote above, proved the term radical-chaotic change to the better performance of a sound system... This was an incredible performance and a reference level sound from a system mounted in a living room, without any acoustic room care... as it blew shocking dynamics, flashy transitions, analysis, picture, complexions, emotion...

I have many times heard this system from the cartridge to the speakers... this performances had nothing to do with what we heard yesterday... a different system, a much better sound and all this achieved from a 2cm piece of wood with a needle and a pin coil... VDH Colibri XGW Signature Stradivarius an incredible performance phono head, that made digital sounds seem funny to our ears, even from the best digital goodies...

1 to 13 excellent selected musical selections we listened at Kyriakos

Conclusion

More about this meeting, the increasing attendance of members from in-town and far-away, and even friends with their companions, who add warmth and a friendly atmosphere to the beautiful musical performance... In addition, the fine mood and the good company were complemented with delicious snacks and fine wine... Alex had arranged that and gave the ultimate tune in to the nice evening... Thanks to the hosts Constantine and Alex for everything...