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: €375/ea.
With two or more risers installed, each Booster can take multiple cradles for when equipment stacks place power IECs or other cables in a straight vertical line.
It is amazing when you realize that nearly nothing in existence is as solid as it seems. Unless cooled down to excessive degrees, everything moves and vibrates constantly. When you dive into the world of particles, it’s all vibration. Not even the particles are solid. They’re just oscillating forms of energy. All this is so obvious to us that we only know it from science class. There we first learnt about particles like miniature marbles orbiting an atomic nucleus. Later we learnt that those balls don’t really exist. Enter quantum physics where even stranger concepts are sprung on us. Nevertheless, we can only live by the grace of these elementary particles.


On a more material level and in our audio-manic state, vibrations factor again to satisfy our urge for music or in fact our cravings for brain stimulation that releases an extra jolt of dopamine. Studies at the University of London and others show that the dopamine level rises by up to 9% when we listen to music. And wouldn’t you know it, that dopamine is the exact same pleasure hormone which releases when we enjoy food and sex - not the most unpleasant things in life to accompany music perhaps? [Dopamine is sometimes referred to as the 'chocolate hormone' because this neurotransmitter is known to be triggered by eating chocolate, even just thinking about eating chocolate - Ed.]