Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Digital Sources:Ayre Acoustics C-5xe^MP &DX-5 universal players; Apple G4 Mac mini running OS10.5.8, iTunes 10,Pure Music 1.83; Shuttle PC with Lynx AES16 soundcard & dual-core AMD Athlon processor running Windows 7, Foobar 2000, Adobe Audition 3.0;dCS Debussy,Logitech Transporter,Mark Levinson No.30.6 D/A converters;Empirical Audio Off-Ramp4 USB-S/PDIF converter.
Preamplifiers:Classé CP-800,Ayre Acoustics K-5xe^MP.
Power Amplifiers:Classé CT-M600,Lamm M1.2 Reference,MBL Reference 9007 (all monoblocks).
Loudspeakers:BBC LS3/5a,Sonus Faber Amati Futura.
Cables:Digital: DH Labs Silver Sonic. AES/EBU: AudioQuest Coffee, Belkin Gold USB. FireWire: AudioQuest FireWire 400 (prototype). Interconnect (balanced): AudioQuest Wild. Speaker: AudioQuest Wild. AC: XLO Reference 3, manufacturers' own.
Accessories:Target TT-5 equipment racks;Ayre Acoustics Myrtle Blocks;ASC Tube Traps, RPG Abffusor panels; Shunyata Research Dark Field cable elevators; Audio Power Industries 116 Mk.II & PE-1,APC S-15 AC line conditioners (computers, hard drive). AC power comes from two dedicated 20A circuits, each just 6' from breaker box.—John Atkinson