Mr Peabody
04-05-2015, 07:10 PM
A dealer/friend had an audio event this weekend. In case this gets long I will start with the most exciting to me, the Bricasti DAC. I'm not aware of the entire story but Bricasti are former Levinson engineers. In fact, cosmetically the DAC looks like Levinson. It's a hefty piece of gear with good build but more slim line than some I've seen. The sound was... well, exciting is a good adjective. This thing was like audio super ninja, I never experienced such transient, nimble response, when some horns came in on one song it was startling, detail and resolution is top notch, excellent bass control. It did all that with still good pace, rhythm & timing. It was neutral while being a very fun listen. Downstream was Levinson 326s pre, 532H power into Revel Salon 2's. I'm very familiar with this system with different front ends. Next was all new to my ears, Cary system driving Kef LS-50's and sometimes R300's. The dealer demos from his home, he is working on new show areas but the Cary wasn't in the best environment, it was like a sitting area with fireplace with no rear wall, just a big open area. However, I liked the Kefs. I was especially taken by the sound of the little LS-50. It had a nice frequency balance with lively response. It had a sound I can't quite put into words, open with an energetic mid to top end, remember though, I said they were balanced. The Cary I don't know model numbers, there was a top end DAC, SE version, with disc tray, it had both a tube & SS output; a SS preamp & tube power amp which was 120x2 ultralinear/60 triode using KT-88's. The Cary sounded good with the monitors but I hate to say much without more exposure. I will say when some one was playing Beatles the system had what I can only call a nice bounce to the music. Also, the Cary was all recent so not sure how broke in it was.