My Dream Hifi System, For The Chinese New Year Of The Tiger 2010.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Folks, here's a wish list of hifi equipment I hope to put together for the year 2010, should if everything comes my way, such as those listed below in no particular order:
1) A new bigger house with purpose built "golden ratio" hifi room and 3 phase 415V power supply.This can only be the result of things happening from 2) onwards.

2) I had struck 1st prize for the lottery[At last count RM$8 million(USD$2.5 in case for our international readers are wondering) in cash].

3) My boss had suffered a remorse for underpaying us employees for so long that he decides to make up for it with a super duper big, big ang pow this Chinese New Year!

4) My other half doesn't divorce me to get half my new found wealth after learning about my next "grand" hifi upgrade scheme. This is to prevent me from spending all my dosh away! See, she really, really loves me! He!He!

With all those mundane everyday life's shackles taken away,here we go!

Source: I'll start with a stack of DCS Scarlatti digital front end. These have probably gotta be the most "un digital" sounding digital products that I've ever heard. They sound superbly natural and organic but not quite like analog either. It's quite hard to describe the sound unless one has heard a DCS Scarlatti stack in optimum conditions to know what I am getting at.
DCS Scarlatti stck of digital components.
For analog source,I'd like to have the latest Clearaudio Master Reference with CMB bearing and clad in the lovely Panzerholtz wood trim too. And yes, please add the Clearaudio Goldfinger V2 cartridge too , if that's not too much to ask? Many would probably question my choice of analog turn table, but I've heard this combo many times over and still feel that it's one of the best analog rigs around so far, only beaten by it's much, much more expensive and sophisticated big brother, the Clearaudio Statement.
Clearaudio Master Reference turn table.
Clearaudio Goldfinger V2.

Pre amp: Burmester 808 mkV or VI by the time I get it! He!He! It must come with all the extra balanced input and output cards, plus that excellent mc phono stage card too! Why Burmester, you ask? I've also heard this with the Clearaudio combo mentioned above and the sound is absolutely fabulous. They are like perfect partners! After all, both are Germans.
Burmester 808 mkV pre amp.
Power amp: That would be the all time classic Krell KAS 2 mono blocks(actually, they come in power supply and one chanel amp box per side, that makes it 4 blocks for stereo pair!) . I know these are grand ol' dames from the 90's! KAS means Krell Audio Standard, and sound wise I still think they do hold the "standard" till this day. Why that blast from the past??? For me, I see the 90's as the "Golden Age" for solid state transistor amps. There's beauty in the sound of balanced topology full class A out put designs, just like my Pass Aleph 0.(except the Krell is a few levels up altogether in the high end niche)
Krell KAS 2 mono block, sound quality un surpassed till this very day!

Speakers: This is easy, it's gotta be the JM Lab(or is it Focal now?) Grande Utopia EM. Technically the most advanced state of the art speaker design available today. Though I've not heard the latest version yet, but if the previous Grande Utopia BE is anything to measure by, the EM will take musical enlightenment a few notches up!
JM Lab Grande Utopia EM. State of the art speaker design available today.
Cables: Siltech Royal Signature series all round! Just because I like the ultimate refinement they bring to the final sound. It's just like my hifi has just graduated from finishing school.
Siltech Prince/ Princess interconnects.
Siltech Emperor speaker cables makes up Royal Signature series.
Power Conditioner: Torus Power RM32A. This is the biggest, meanest power supply Torus makes. One is probably enough for all the front end plus the Grand Utopia's EM powered modules! But I can always add more if required!
Torus Power PLC, Need I say more about them?
Hifi Racks: All Finite Element of course! No other rack is any more worthy for all the components that sits on them!
Finite Element racks.
I guess all those purchases would certainly add up to nearly RM$2 million or so, guess I'll just keep on dreaming.

GONG XI FA CAI!!! And may all your audiophile and musical dreams come true in the year of the Tiger 2010.