Some  might be wondering after spending 10’s upon 10’s of thousands of dollars on Wilson speakers what did I gain over the Thiels.  I think I can explain it- at least make up something that the wife would believe.  First of all, the costs are not proportional to the gain in sound quality.  Maybe it is cheaper than going to live concerts five times a week or hiring a live singer and band every weekend.  Concert tickets are crazy expensive.  First, the bass- the bass is goes deeper and is clearer on the Wilsons over the Thiels.  Good bass costs money.  I added subwoofers to the Thiels about 2 years ago in an attempt to stave off the Wilson purchase.  I got good quality subs.  It took me months to get them placed and integrated to the point that I liked the sound.  Still, the bass always seemed to sound better in the back of the room vs. my listening position and better when standing vs sitting.  In spite of all that the Wilson bass is better hands down.  The crazy thing is, the bass sounds the same everywhere in the room with the Wilsons- standing or sitting.  In fact, the music sounds nearly the same from anywhere in the room just more focused in the listening position.  Next, the soundstage.  The Thiels have a big and deep 3D soundstage with sharp imaging.  The Wilsons go bigger and deeper and way taller.  The Wilsons also have more resolution.  I can explain it like this.  If I close my eyes while listening to a song, the soundstage goes well beyond the walls.  After listening for a few minutes with my eyes closed, I open my eyes and am shocked to see walls in the middle of the soundstage.  I love doing that.  Still works every time.  But another thing that surprised me was the first time I played a Chorale piece on the Wilsons.  The choir was in front of me floor to ceiling.  I was dumbstruck.  I could hear the individual voices spread across the stage.  That’s the difference in resolution.  The Thiels have sharp imaging but in the case of this choir it is more like a cloud of sound.  The voices are there in front of me but they are blurred together.  The difference is like being in back of the hall vs right in front of the choir maybe.  And lastly, the highs are sweeter with the Wilsons.  Probably the difference of 15+ years of research and development in both speaker and capacitor technology.  Just wanted to talk a bit more.

The starting point was 60" from the front wall and 44" from the side walls.  The sound got chesty when I moved the speakers closer to the side walls.  

Without these footers the Wilsons had better bass than the Thiels with GAIA I footers but the Thiels were almost on par with the Wilsons for imaging and soundstage.  Now the Wilsons far surpass the Thiels in all categories.  I can't stop listening.

BTW- I wasn't sure so I left the Wilson Diodes on the speakers.  So the GAIA Titans are mated to the Wilson Diodes.  That puts the speakers 1.5" higher off the floor as compared to using the Wilson spikes with the diodes.  I can couple the Titans directly to the speakers which would bring them back down to the original height off the floor. I wanted to try them first with the Wilson Diodes.  My thinking is- the higher the woofers off the floor the better and I can position the upper tweeter/midrange module to match my listening height.

Spencer

The speed control system is near perfection.  I played a test tone and hear no w&f.  Speed drift is a thing of the past with the Roadrunner tachometer.  My iPhone app shows the same speed every time which also correlated to the Tachometer readout.  

The sound of this new table is excellent.  Perhaps it will have some break in improvement but already the improvements over my old Star are more clarity in the mid bass and the bass.  The highs are sweet.  Cymbals have a delicate sound with every detail from the stick hitting the metal to the decaying shimmer.  Older analog recordings make hearing cymbals a whole new experience.

Sound stage is a bit bigger than before and images even sharper in focus.  I think the  speed control is responsible for the improved highs and imaging.  This new Turntable looks almost the same to the casual observer.  The only notable difference over my Star is the now two silver buttons on the motor cover.  The turntable now starts/stops and toggles speed between 33 1/3 and 45 rpm by pressing the large black button which used to be the speed adjustment.  Now turning that black knob does nothing.  The two silver buttons are used to adjust speed.  One bumps the speed up in small increments and the other down.  These are only needed if someone wants to run the platter a bit fast or slow.  The Condor controller locks in the speed at 33 1/3 or 45 rpm.  The road runner tachometer uses a speed sensor under the platter to feedback speed to the Condor.  It can make small fine adjustments to compensate for speed drift due to temperature changes, etc.  One thing I noticed is that I could put my finger against the side of the platter to induce some drag but the speed did not change.

The Nova VI also features a new suspension system.  I don't have the details but one thing I did was to place a small mirror on the subchassis by the tonearm and bounce a laser beam off of it to the wall.  The multiplier of the lengths was about 30 to 1 and yet I could detect no movement of the laser spot on the wall.  This is very impressive.  That means the subchassis is not being moved as the motor pulls on the platter.  This is a big improvement over my Star.

I have heard the ARC Ref 160m amps.  Very nice and quite a looker.

I see a Pass 350…. Then a couple of Newer Pass x mono blocks… what was the difference.

I switched from my Pass x350 to an Audio Research REF 160s. Just for fun my dealer dropped off a set of ARC REF 160m mono blocks. 

I also have learned much about isolation over these past couple of months.  Springs isolate while rubber dampens.  I didn't fully realize that concept until recently- and I'm an engineer.  Rubber like Sorbathane, which I have used for years under components dampen but not completely isolate the component from external vibrations.  And since rubber dampens it can add coloration.  Springs when tuned properly completely isolate a component from external vibration.  Tuning the springs is more quickly done with some math.  The goal is to get the spring mass system (The component is the mass) to have a resonance point at around 3 Hz.  I used this formula to size springs for my Amps, Subs, Speakers and everything on the front end.  And guess what- the Sota Turntable Suspension is already tuned to 3 Hz.  Here's what happened.  The bass is no longer muddy or boomy.   I didn't know my bass was muddy until I heard the Wilson Alexia 2 Speakers in Atlanta.  Well, now my Thiels sing. The bass is crisp and clear.  Not quite Alexia 2 caliber but very good now.  Imaging improved.  Images are sharper and crisper now.  Detail went through the roof.  In fact, I have so much more detail in the music now that it was distracting or overwhelming at first.  I almost want to go back to how it was before.  But the genie was out of the bottle.  After a few days I grew used to the added detail and now I enjoy it.

Being retired and putting in the time to experiment and learn this past year has been fun.

Using a vibrometer app on my iPad I could see the difference this isolation makes.  Resting the iPad on top of the speaker and the speaker directly coupled to the floor as I have had them for years, I tap on the speaker cabinet and I see not just a pulse but ringing for a short moment.  The vibration waves are reflecting back through the speaker cabinet.  I saw exactly this on videos online. When I tap on the floor I see the same response and ringing just like tapping directly on the speaker cabinet.  After decoupling the speakers with the springs the difference is amazing.  Tap on the speaker cabinet and the app shows the spike but it doesn’t ring.  Tap on the floor and the iPad app shows nothing- complete isolation.  You might think that the speakers would rock back and forth with the music.  They do not.  It’s a 165 lb speaker that the cone drivers are pushing against.  It doesn’t move.