Ari's simple compact system

Ari Kilpeläinen is an audio enthusiast whose enthusiasm dates back to the 1970s. He is also an engineer by training, and although his field is not that of electronics, his technical background colors the way he does his hobby and the way he evaluates his system. But he trusts his ears too.

Ari’s first serious audio experiences are from the period when folks widely listened to Hurriganes’ “Roadrunner” and Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock”. At the time Ari only had a mono radio cassette recorder. Soon he changed that to a Sanyo tape recorder, which offered a new stereo experience. The seed was sown. Ari’s father purchased a B&O stereo system, which in Ari’s mind brought a huge improvement to the sound of his father’s system although, if compared to the system that Ari owns today, the sound quality must have been rather modest!

When Ari moved to his own apartment he first acquired a Pioneer stereo system together with Finnish OR UK-350 loudspeakers. After a couple of years of putting money aside he bought a more advanced Pioneer system and B&W 330i speakers. That system served him well for many years until he heard a combo of Yamaha integrated amp and Hifi 85/B loudspeakers (a DIY kit) at his friend’s place. He was blown away! No wonder then that when Ari moved again, this time to a relatively large apartment, those speakers soon found their way in his living room.

Ari and his wife still dreamed about a detached house. Early this century they decided to make their dreams true, and started a construction project. The plans included a dedicated listening room.

Around that time Ari started to be more and more interested in watching movies, and acquired a multi channel Pioneer system for that purpose. Unfortunately, as often happens, the sound quality in the stereo mode wasn’t particularly rewarding, and after updating the speakers to Magneplanar 1.5 Qrs, the need for new amps became more and more pressing, especially when Ari wanted to listen to bass-rich music - Depeche Mode, for instance. While searching for a better amplifier, he decided to upgrade his Mg 1.5s to 1.6s, and the Audio Pro subwoofer to a pair (!) of Velodyne SPL-1000R’s.

Ari had come to the conclusion that it would be very difficult and expensive to improve the stereo sound by purchasing a new higher quality multi channel amp and a multi format player. So he ended up separating the stereo and multi channel systems. He first took for trial Bladelius S-101 stereo amp upon his friend’s recommendation (also an audiophile). That decision he has never regretted! This amp offered Ari enough power, and a very high quality stereo sound. The amp fed the main channels when movies were watched.

For traditional Red Book music Ari bought an Audio Aero Prima Mk II and later a Bladelius Freja for a slightly more accurate sound and better looks – in Ari’s opinion. At the same time Ari realized that sonic differences between cables can be meaningful as well. He replaced his ordinary interconnects with a pair of Siltech Forbes Lakes (balanced) and Transparent Music Wave 200 speaker cables gave way to a pair of biwired Transparent Music Link Ultras.

Having done these moves Ari thought that the price/quality ratio of his system was in a good shape. He’s only dream was owning one day a pair of Magneplanar 3.6Rs, even though they most probably would be too massive for his room. But he loves Maggies for their soundstaging capability.

Ari is not a “frequency response” freak. Still he thinks it’s good to be aware of the importance of some basic measurements. When the minimum measurement requirements are satisfied the remaining challenges are easy to bring to a conclusion by listening.

Most of the time, Ari tries to analyze the listening results as a whole but sometimes it is necessary to look into details. The most important condition Ari has set for his system is that he has to be able to feel relaxed during the listening sessions, forget daily worries for a short period. Some sort of mental therapy, that is.

In Ari’s mind, the only negative side effect of owning a high quality system is that bad recordings become almost unlistenable. On the other hand, good recordings are even more enjoyable than before. Ari is not very critical about the music material he listens to, his favorites being melodic rock and pop, artists such as Dire Straits, Alan Parson, Gregorian, Chris De Burgh and Celine Dion.

The current system is the following: Bladelius Freja CD player; Bladelius S-101 amp; Magneplanar 1,6 QR; Siltech Forbes Lake Balanced interconnects; Transparent Music Link Ultra Biwired speaker cables. The power cords are standard. The listening room is approximately 3 m x 5 m x 2,5 m, and is acoustically treated.

My 2 cents on the sound

Initially I thought that the size of the listening room was simply too small to make high sound quality attainable. How wrong I was. Although I could hear some room resonances they were not prominent. The speakers fit well in the room, and it was really a pleasure to listen to all kind of music samples, and even more pleasurable to watch movies.

An important characteristic of the sound was that major flaws were non-existent. The presentation was universally enjoyable, which is utmost crucial for long term listening. If one knows the virtues of a typical Magneplanar sound, one knows also what’s good about Ari’s sound: easy to listen, good resolution, coherency and airiness. It sounded as if all the components of this system were complementing each other; eg. the somewhat analytical and dry Bladelius front end suited the Maggies very well. An good match indeed, including the cables.

Similarly, if one knows the weaknesses of the Magneplanars one knows the weaknesses of Ari’s system. Not many, and easy to leave in the background. One obvious feature is that without a subwoofer the lowest octave remains recessive even though the level of the bass was otherwise quite abundant. With the subwoofers Ari can better the bass performance in this respect to maintain the coherence and the tonal balance become more difficult.

Also, when compared to systems that I consider absolute best, the sound lacked some accuracy, control, dynamics, transparency and clarity. But the extra quality in these respects would be achievable only with huge additional cost, and might not be worthwhile. I must agree with Ari that the price/quality ratio of his system is already quite high as it is.