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I decided to start a new thread for the GtG at my place. The old thread is here: http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/index.php?/topic/61664-gtg-etiquette/ And the system is here: http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/index.php?/topic/59166-stereophilus-system/#entry1008253 10th of May. I am close to the Ballarat train station, 5 minutes walk. I'm not much chop in kitchen, but I'll supply beers, wine and pizza (from The Forge, which is awarded in the Age Good Food Guide 2014). Ladies can also be catered for at my wife's Dayspa, but bookings are essential. I have 8 spots available, but I need confirmation here from those who were "hands up" on the other thread. Cheers, John

Part 1. I spent a very pleasant afternoon in Carlton yesterday, indulging in hifi gear and experimenting with the sound of 2 very good good preamps. To make the day interesting I packed up my CSLS, replete with PSvane 1:1 replica tubes and made the trip down from Ballarat. The system set up at Carlton AV is very similar the one at my home, and reassuringly sounded very familiar to me, despite the different room. Carlton have the MB2ses, hooked up with ARC ref 250 monoblocks, the ARC ref 5SE and the ARC CD9. Balanced cabling throughout, and there was some serious room treatment, although the room was a little small. For my tastes, the CD9 was a little less airy and less detailed than the PSAudio DirectStream, but it served the purpose for the real test which was the preamp comparison. The ref 5SE was already warmed up and waiting. It is a beautiful piece, in keeping with traditional ARC design methodologies. It sports a dizzying array of both balanced and unbalanced inputs and outputs. A potential owner would not run out of connection options. The CSLS by comparison is quite a brashly simplistic design; polished steel and outboard tubes. Twin volume controls are transformer based, and there are only 1 set of balanced inputs and outputs, although multiple unbalanced options are available. It's other points of difference are the unique 101D tubes used for amplification, and the lack of any resistors and capacitors in the signal path. The ARC would be the one I'd buy based just on looks alone. The controls are smooth, svelte and the digital display is usefully large and clear. The AudioResearch label also inspires some significant degree of confidence in support and resale value, but the price tag next to it read $16995. The CSLS although somewhat rugged in its own right, with chunky dual volume knobs and flick switches. Quite reasonably you can land one in Australia for around $6000, depending on the exchange rate. You must deal through Israel Blume to order one, and there is no local support. The PSvane replica tubes were an addititional $600. Part 2 to follow....

Jonesy had a GTG at his new home yesterday. As it turned out , his gear loves the new place too because the sound was incredible. His system consists of Dynaudio Evidence Masters loudspeakers, Gryphon Colosseum Mono-block Power amps, Soulution 710 Preamp and EMM labs 2 box SACD player. This system is truly something to behold and it played every type of music superbly. Full scale orchestral sound was presented on a massive scale while the fans of Pink Floyd were similarly impressed with "The Wall" The system is the best I have ever heard at someone's place and I suspect it will remain so for some time to come. Heavy concentration - or are they sleeping? Rear view of the mighty Evidence Masters. Despite appearances, these speakers cannot be bi-wired. The centre sealed unit houses the crossover The Gryphon up close We also tried Tuyen's Coincident statement Linestage This time around the $5k Coincident Vs the $40K Soulution results differed from the last GTG. The whole system synergy has improved incredibly in the new environment since the last encounter. Inserting the Coincident preamp did make some changes however . Most notably the sound stage opened up more and seemed more spacious while the tonal balance became a more organic and a touch warmer. However, the Soulution had a perfectly acceptable tonal balance and was resolving more detail and was even faster than the Coincident. I expressed it like that because amongst a number of preamps I am familiar with ( in a similar price range to the CSLS) , the Coincident was ahead on speed and dynamics so the Soulution's performance was outstanding. So a big thank you to our gracious host Jonesy, who opened his new home to us yesterday. A sensational time was had by all.