Never Give Up!

The system view! Though doesn't quite show on the above pic, the back wall is actually a shallow bay curved gently.

I was listening to one of Danny Summer's LP's with the above song tittle on this very system, and then it suddenly dawned on me that it's how this system owner, philosophically sums up in life as in hifi, Never give up!

This gentleman has been tinkering with hifi for past 30 odd years or so, and through out all the challenges faced and conquered, never gave up or wavered. That's the spirit!

The Jeff and Adam partnership, and an almost perfect one too!

Adam back woofer view, note the top to bottom connected via professional Neutrik Speak ON lock plugs.

The hifi is set up in a dedicated room, estimated to measure something like 15ft x 23ft with 10ft ceiling. The speaker's back wall is gently curved, just like a very shallow bay design. There are some bass traps at the room corners and echo busters at the back of the listening position.

The top range Wadia 7 CD Transport.
Partnering the equally top Wadia 9 DAC.
Wadia 9 DAC power supply, in separate box.

The system starts with a 4 pc Wadia Digital CD player, comprising of a Wadia 7 transport plus power supply, and Wadia 9 DAC linked via clock link cable. The said DAC also has it's own power supply! The other source is a Thorens Prestige, SME V tone arm and Koetsu Onix cartridge, which looks like it weights 50kgs or so! Phono stage is Jeff Rowland Design Group's(JRDG) Cadence and partnering Synergy Pre amp and power supply unit. The JRDG units look very impressive when stack up with FE Cera Balls in between, isolating them. The low level signal is then amplified by JRDG 9Ti 4pc power amps. The power amps have an elegant and sumptuous look to it, each sitting on 4pcs of FE Cera Pucs!

The Wadia 7 CD Transport power supply(left) and Thorens Prestige power supply(right).
Thorens Prestige, SME V tone arm and Koetsu Onix cartridge, excellent combo!

Finally, all the amplified sound is reproduced by a pair of recently purchased, and just run in, Adam Tensor speakers. The Adam is a 3 way design top(with the famed ribbon tweeters mated to a 6.5 inch carbon fiber mids) and a coupled to a bass module, which has a pair of self amplified, with built in volume, phase, low pass and x-over slope control, 12 inch carbon fiber bass drivers at the bottom operating in push-push configuration at the front and back baffles.

From top: Jeff Rowland Desgn Group Synergy power supply, pre amp and Cadence phono stage. Note the FE Cera balls in between?
JRDG pre amp, phono stage back end!

Interconnects are from MIT, Kubala Sosna and speaker cable is from top range Transparent XL SS. PS Audio supplies all power product package in the form of UPC200 conditioner and the Statement power cord supplying to all front end and pre amp components. A PS Audio Duet filters the power source to the power amps. All cables sit on cable elevators.

High end cables galore! MIT, Kubala Sosna, and Tranparent. Cardas is DC power supply cord from power supply module.
PS Audio UPC200, with various PS Audio power cord, including the top range statement(with blue network box).

The sound is confident, big, life size scale(as a big system should be) and very open(with no shut in detected at the fringes of the sound stage). The treble quality is at once, smooth, articulate and extended. The mids very liquid, face, mouth, lips, chest, hips and all solidly anchored within the huge sound stage. Needless to say imaging is first rate. The bass is goes impressively low, loading the room down to the actual claimed spec of 22hz! If you've being a car audio nut like me, and played with the Bass Mekanik test CD, you'd know what I mean. From 25hz downwards, you could hear each bass cycle clearly loading the room, that feeling which moves the guts and heart of a music lover is priceless. In order to reproduced such solid bass, the all the flexible adjustments provided by the Adam's woofer module, has been well tweaked by the owner. The system's transparency is first class, yet always neatly integrated in to the whole presentation of the music, never calling attention to it self.

Jeff's a beast! Never get hot at all. The 2 pcs at the side is power supply units to the 2 mono blocks in the middle.
The back end of the 4pcs mono blocks. Note the cable elevators and PS Audio Duet power line filter.
Jeff Rowland 9Ti, standing loud and proud! This system is capable of ear shattering loudness.

I asked the owner what is his next hifi game plan? Without hesitant, he answered, "room treatment!" He is said to have ordered some custom Auralex stuff, and they are on route to be delivered to him soon. He further explained that because his speakers have just started to run in, he can now experiment with room treatments. Clearly a work in progress system, that can only get better with time. I can't imaging how stupendously glorious sounding it will be once complete.

Another look at the new star, Adam Tensor. Note pyramid tweak at the right of speaker on marble. Supposed to open up the sound stage!

"Never give up!" does indeed sounds like this system owner.