Reviewers: Marja & Henk
Financial Interests: click here
Sources: PS Audio PWT; Dr. Feickert Blackbird MKII/DFA 1o5/Zu DL-103;
Streaming sources: XXHighEnd; iTunes; Devialet AIR; La Rosita Beta; Qobuz Desktop, Tidal Desktop; Sound Galleries SGM 2015 [loaner];
DAC: T+A DAC8 [loaner]; Mytek Brooklyn [loaner]
Preamp/integrated/power: Audio Note Meishu with WE 300B (or AVVT, JJ, KR Audio 300B output tubes); dual Devialet D-Premier; PTP Audio Blok 20; Hypex Ncore 1200 based monoblocks; Trafomatic Kaivalya; Trafomatic Reference One; Trafomatic Reference Phono One; Music First Passive Magnetic;
Speakers: Avantgarde Acoustic Duo Omega; Arcadian Audio Pnoe; Podium Sound One; WLM Sub 12; Sounddeco Alpha F3; dual Zu Submisson MKII; Soltanus Virtuoso ESL; Taket Bat-Pure super tweeters; Bastanis Sagarmatha Duo [in for review]
Cables: complete loom of ASI LiveLine cables; full loom of Crystal Cable cables; full loom of Nanotec Golden Strada; Audiomica Pearl Consequence interconnect; Audiomica Pebble Consequence; Bastanis Epilog MKiii loudspeaker cables [in for review]
Power line conditioning: PS Audio Powerplant Premier; PS Audio Humbuster III; IsoTek Evo 3 Syncro; AudioMica Allbit Consequence
Equipment racks: Solid Tech and ASI amplifier and TT shelf
Indispensable accessories: Furutech DeMag; ClearAudio Double Matrix; Franc Audio Ceramic Disc Classic; Shakti Stones; Kemp polarity checker; Akiko Audio Corelli, Zanden ZVA-1
Online Music purveyors: qobuz.com, tidal.com, bandcamp.com, amazon.co.uk 
Room treatment: Acoustic System International resonators, sugar cubes, diffusers
Room size: ca. 14.50 x 7.50m with a ceiling height of 3.50m, brick walls, wooden flooring upstairs, ca 7 x 5m with a ceiling height of 3.50m, brick walls and concrete floor downstairs.
Review component retail: €27’000 in the base finish, €2’600 for the Epilog MkIII speaker cable


During the 2017 edition
of the Dutch X-Fi show in Veldhoven, we met the Bastanis Sagarmatha Duo loudspeaker system for the first time. And yes, this is a real system, multi in just about everything: multiple drivers, multiple cabinets and multiple amplifiers all working together to produce sound. In the fairly large show room, that sound was captivating, open and had a real solid foundation. Present at the show, designer Robert Bastani asked if we would like to review this demonstrator system in our own place. That meant two large subwoofers, two tall but slender open baffle mid-high sections and bass amplifiers. Because both open baffles and subwoofers are clad in genuine slate and our listening room is up one flight of stairs, we liked the idea but feared for the delivery. Robert assured us that getting things into our room would be no problem. He had been at our place to deliver and set up the Club 27 Jimi loudspeakers some time ago to be familiar with our layout.


A few weeks after the X-Fi show, a white van and sedan arrived at our door. Robert and Armin Bos, the Dutch distributor, plus his brother aka the Bastanis woodworker emerged. We were most curious how things would proceed from there. Two heavy open baffles and two 80kg/ea. subwoofers were supposed to land in our upstairs listening area. The baffles posed no big problem for the brothers Bos. On to the subwoofers. Each houses dual 18" drivers with huge magnets and matching heavy baskets to add substantial weight to the slate-clad cabinet. Where each open baffle including plinth measures 161 x 57 x 52cm, with the hour-glass shaped 5cm thick baffle a maximum 48cm wide and 39cm at the waist, each subwoofer does 108 x 59 x 37cm and a plinth adds 12cm to width and depth and 2cm to the height. Those beasts would be hard to handle if Robert did not put some clever box-in-the-box thinking to the design.


What is visible from the outside of the subwoofers—a rectangular cabinet with 11.5cm and 22cm wide slots covered with grills—is just an outer casing. Inside, each 18" driver has its own open-backed dipole enclosure. Two of those cabs get stacked before the outer casing is slid over. So 'just' two heavy cabinets, a slate-clad unifying exterior plus plinth had to make it up the stairs per bass channel; and the raw woofers and two Abacus power amps. Once all the parts had been carried up, assembly could start.