By Manos Bitsakakis
Monthly Meeting ACA at Apostolos Raptis
Sunday 26 of January 2020 was the day we met for the annual meeting of the Club at Apostolos Raptis place...
This annual meeting every January, is in some way a wider social gathering, an official ACA event, a happy celebration not only for music audition but also for the new year’s cake cutting...
As every time, there were cool discussions, wishes and hugs, hot friendly atmosphere and happy people all around... In cake cutting, it was the first time we have dedicated cake for members and friends-guests separately, so the lucky coin to be earned by a member... and the lucky one was our member Giannis Vlachos...






The System...
Analog Source | Goldmund Studio Goldmund T3 + VDH Colibri XGP Alphason Sonata Alfason HR100s + EMT Van Den Hul Micro Seiki DDX1500 Zeta + Ortofon MC5000 Opal + Signet Linn Sonkek LP12 Zeta + EMT Van Den Hul |
Digital Source | Audio Research CD3 |
SACD Player | Pioneer DV 757Ai |
Tuner | Tandberg 3001A |
Preamplifiers | Audio Research SP10 (phono) Audio Research LS5 MKII |
Amplifiers Tube | Audio Research VT150 SE monoblocks (KT120 Tubes) |
Amplifiers Solid Home Cinema | Rotel RB993 |
Speakers | B&W 800 Matrix |
Speakers Rear | Martin Logan CLSIIZ |
Speakers Center | Martin Logan Logos |
Cables | VDH Silver (phono) Siltech SQ 88B G3 (interconn) VDH Silver (interconnects) MENA Silver (interconnects) Siltech LS 180 G3 (speakers) |
Rack | Custom metal and granite |
Environment | 80m2 (11.2x7.2x3) |
This meeting was quite different of any other Club meeting... Even the house location was preparing people for what will come to life, being the first impression, with the second one being the inner house, where the system was laying... and finally the view of that unbelievable system with 3 advanced turntables laying on the upper level of the wide rack, the hot tubes amps and the speakers like twin Cerberus guarding all that valuable stuff...
That night could be a well prepared movie scenario, Apostolos is indeed a film maker... It was the hotness of the tubes paring the flames of the fireplace, it was the trophies collection on the walls reminding early 20th century air battles, it was the vintage movie-maker staff and the big light projector, all those things placed in a darkened atmosphere all around... All those things and icons, along with the huge glorious room and the music itself, spreading around an amazing feeling of cool sentimentalism and the sensation of mysterious happiness of a lush life!!






The Listening...
Tremendous power, controlled dynamism, deep bass, molecular details, sensational musicality, big sound, beautiful selections... All those things were mirroring the system’s performance blowing our minds and fulfilling our ears with and pleasant listening and ecstatic feelings.. spectators and auditioners, all of us, enjoying big musical moments...
We like analog orientated systems and that was a major sample of how analog can sing.. that particular night we were performed comparisons, discussions, disagreements and agreements, assumptions and conclusions, but nothing could blow the real feeling of music played by a grand system located in a grand room... great night, good wine and drinks, friendly company, we all thank Apostolos!!






Apostolo’s noticed to us some upgrades made in the stuff, but although he virtually changed nothing, those minimal changes along with some tubes rolling, made a distinct difference in sound. The fact was that music was blowing off the speakers being massive and solid... the B&W’s were virtually vanished from the room, succeeding both to be auditioned and watched with distinct differences than before...






Next thing was that deep illusion, been created by the enormous character of those speakers...system succeed to inspire everyone’s feelings and fantasy, while listening to their soulful performance in a guitar or a trumpet solo... talking about Dire Straits "Sultans of Swing" and Miles Davis "Sketches of Spain", they were sounded simply amazing and soulful. Music tempi were blinking in the air modeling a spaceship traveling us to the past...
Ending up…
We would like thank Apostolos once again for his hospitality and for the nice event at his home.
It is always a pleasure for all of us to listen to this very good system and the music that Apostolos choose.



























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