Reproduced from email 2 May 2008.  This was the result of a Vertex demo carried out with the customer by Jeremy Baldwin (JB) of The Right Note, Bath.  Comments from JB are included for clarity.  The email has not been edited by Vertex AQ.

I’d like to share what, for me, was a truly revelatory experience in hearing the impact of various pieces of VertexAQ equipment on my system.  Jeremy Baldwin (JB) from The Right Note came to my house to demonstrate, step-by-step, the improvements from quite a wide range of the Vertex kit.  I should add here that the whole process took several hours and Jeremy was only too glad to give me this time, including collecting, moving and de-installing/installing the Vertex kit at both ends.  Great service, without doubt and something you just don’t get in a normal hi-fi shop.

My system is:

TAG McLaren’s two-box CD player
Meridian 502 preamp
Two Meridian 557 power amps, running bridged mono
Merlin VSM SE speakers (US made two-way floor-stander)
Interconnects: Chord Company Indigo XLRs + Signature Digital
Speaker cable: Chord Signature
Equipment rack: Townshend Seismic Sink (air-suspended)

I’ve just ordered new versions of the Merlins – VSM MMe (class A-rated by Stereophile).  When I first talked to Jeremy, I was also on a mission to replace my CD player, which I figured was just behind the times and, in search of real music, I was eyeing up some pretty costly machines.

Before Jeremy’s visit, my system was sounding very ‘hi-fi’, but disappointing in the way of musicality and excitement.  It got confused and grungy at high volumes, the bass just didn’t seem right and it all felt a bit thin, two-dimensional, often showing that digital glare and hardness (which I had always blamed on the TAG CD player).

Step one (very pleasantly surprised):

The first step mainly focused on the support side of things.  Jeremy put in Super Kinabalu plinths under all my components (each one already “isolated” by sitting on top of the air-suspended Townshend platforms), with the Vertex Hi-Res version under the CD transport.  At the same time, he put in a Taga distribution block (feeding the amps), with Roraima mains leads from Taga to each amp.  We stayed with my original Chord mains cords on all three front-end components.  (JB: The Taga removes RF from the mains and, in conjunction with the Roirama mains leads, drains significant damaging acoustic energy from the amplifiers.  We had to do both platform and this mains upgrade at the same time for reasons of practical layout.)

The change in sound was way beyond my expectation.  Things got much more coherent and most of the original muddle disappeared, with voices and instruments sounding clearer and more weighty.  The bass picked up significant speed, clout and tunefulness and things just felt a lot more snappy and dynamic.

Step two (laughed out loud):

This was an apparently simple step, but it had huge impact on the sound.  Jeremy put Hi-Res coupling cones and tripods under each of the front-end components (between component and Kinabalu plinth) and the standard versions under the power amps. (JB: Note that the cones are supplied with the platforms and the hard steel alloy cone is fundamental in “earthing” acoustic energy from the component to be absorbed by the platform.)

When we listened again, I really did just laugh out loud, because the change just seemed too big from such metal cones.  DYNAMIC was my first and instant reaction; there was so much snap and vivacity now that I felt the system was starting to move into another league.  There was more than just big dynamics: the sound got more open and transparent, with a much better sense of instruments and singers in the soundstage.  The best bit here was how the bass really came out to play and finally felt like it was bouncing along as part of the music, with convincing weight and tunefulness.  I realised how much I’d been missing out on proper, decent bass.

Step three (un-stoppable grin):

While I was out fetching sandwiches, Jeremy slipped in the Elbrus balanced power supply to feed the front end components.  He also put in Silver Roraima mains leads from the Elbrus to each component.  (JB: This particular Elbrus had four balanced power outlets for a total of 300W.  Current versions offer two high power sockets for the amplifiers.)

This time, the big change was in smoothness and texture of instruments and voices.  Where I had still been hearing a little of the original digital glare before lunch, I was now hearing a sound which I’d always thought the TAG was incapable of producing: smooth, clean but textured voices and instruments with a real sense of weight and tactile presence (like you could walk over and touch the singer) where before I’d heard thinness.  Once again, there was an improvement in overall coherence, with things now sounding really musical – just wanted to keep listening.

Step four (mad cackling laughter & frantic rush for my CD collection):

I genuinely though that Jeremy was all but finished and I was pretty much sold already on the benefits.  He started talking about adding acoustic damping to the speaker cables and fitted ‘Moncayo’ boxes between the speaker and my Chord Signature cable.  (JB: These boxes are a way of introducing acoustic absorption between speaker and amp when a customer already has good quality speaker cables.)  He also put in Mini Moncayos on each speaker between low and high range terminals (replacing my existing silver links).  It all looked slightly messy, but Jeremy pointed out that I’d only need one box per speaker, as here we were actually jury-rigging a bi-wire version of the Moncayos.

Having heard radical improvements from stages 1, 2 and 3, I was expecting improvements, but on the scale of tweaks and refinements.  But when the music started this time, it took my breath away.  I looked stupidly at Jeremy and then just started laughing.  This was a sound in a different league altogether - it was as if the Moncayos had taken the collective effect of all the other steps and intensified them dramatically.  I used the word coherent earlier and now I need a much bigger version of the same word.  Before, I’d been hearing a pretty impressive soundstage – one that was wide and placed musicians quite precisely.  But now each individual instrument and singer sat vividly and palpably right in front of me, giving their own very clear and distinct performance.  And the whole thing now hung together much better than before, with deep, deep, driving and incredibly tuneful base carrying the music along.  Best of all, this ultra-coherence held steady even at really high volumes (properly high with over 700wpc channel to play with).  Incredibly addictive … music how it should sound!

When Jeremy went out to make tea, knowing that I didn’t have long before things had to go back to pre-Vertex state, I started grabbing CDs greedily to hear what they sounded like.  Each one made me laugh - the sound was just so ridiculously good.

 It’s nearly impossible to convey the overall scale of improvement from the Vertex kit in words.  What I can say is that I’d have believed that someone had snuck into my living room and swapped all the old electronics and speakers for mega-high-end exotic stuff.  Without doubt, I’m not going to be able to resist buying a fair chunk of what Jeremy demonstrated, but the reason I’m writing this is that I’ve seen the light on getting fundamentals right.  (JB: my emphasis)  And I thought I was already a convert, being geeky enough to install three dedicated, heavy-duty mains spurs from fuse box to my system and already having a fairly radical support system under components and speakers (Townshend), but nothing could have prepared me for the scale of improvement from the Vertex system.

So I’d say hold off on your big upgrade – don’t spend money on components, speakers or even interconnects until you’ve given some real thought to what might be holding your current kit back.  The Vertex stuff is not cheap, but in my current system it sounds quite incredible and I know that, when I do try out new CD players, I’ll really be able to hear what they do to the music. To think that (before the Vertex trial) I was messing around trying out an 8k CD player when 80% of my current system’s abilities were being strangled.

I got the system back up and running after Jeremy had left, taking the demo kit, and it sounds detailed, but I just don’t have the urge to sit and listen … it’s like having something wonderful taken away and I’m in mourning.

Regards