A few weeks into auditioning the Vista with all supplied cabling, my usual audiophile cravings kicked in and I did the one thing that would have Sam pulled his hair out now, and again at the end of the Review: I replaced the supplied interconnects with the Audio Note AN SOGON 42-strand silver RCA from the two-chassis Destination Audio 417A phono stage to the 76 preamplifier. Another pair of the Audio Note AN-Vx 20-strand silver RCA ran from the 76 linestage to the 45 monoblocks. I also swapped out the cabling between the amplifier and the crossover box with Audio Note AN-SPx 27-strand silver bi-wired speaker cables in banana termination. The AN was selected because it was designed for use with SET amplifiers.
The 105dB sensitive Vista horn amplified all, noise and signal, so in the first phase it became necessary to connect the entire Destination Audio amplification system with four of the $599 MIT Cables Predator 3 Headphone Amp AC filter power cables. The Predator 3 contained a miniaturized version of the company’s patented parallel AC Filterpoles from the Z Powerbar, a specially tuned series of networks that convert reflected noise to thermal heat, which was further discharged to ground. Since the Predator 3 was designed for use with low wattage devices such as headphone amplifiers for noise suppression, and since neither the phono stage nor the preamplifier drew tremendous current from the wall, I found the Predator 3 to be a very good and economical fit especially if you have spent a hundred grand on the system and have only pittance left for power cables.
Thus connected, AC and electromagnetic noises were filtered out to the point there was no sound from the horn with the 76 preamplifier’s volume turned all the way up.
The next phase involved using over $20k of Super and Analyst power cables from Audio Reference Technology, including four $2,950 A.R.T. Super power cables on the DA system, and the result was overwhelming. Utilizing a proprietary ratio of gold, silver and copper, all power cables were plugged into the $2,800 upright Audio Reference Technology Power Distributor, connected to the wall via the company’s $7,300 Analyst power cable.
Signal cables were also changed to the $8,850, 1.5-meter A.R.T. Analyst SE RCA between the 417A phono stage and the 76 linestage, and again from the 76 to the 45 monoblocks. The Analyst were constructed with a proprietary ‘Q-Damper’ filter that reduced EMI noise supposedly and increasing signal-to-noise ratio. The plug was made of green copper in rose gold plated finish.
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What an informative and very well written article. Being a horn/tube owner, it was easy to understand and concur with your conclusions. It would have been nice to compare this gear with the equivalent Audio Note pieces, but not easily possible.
Constantine, what an informative and very thorough review of such a big and imposing horn and tube system. I listened to them at the California Audio Show last year and thought they had huge potential. Knowing your ability to dial in a system in your room it was easy to understand your conclusions. I would love to bring over David Bearning’s latest ZOTL MZ5 1 watt pure class A tube integrated amp and hear these speakers. It drives my 104dB speakers to real rock levels. Thanks for such a great review.
As a lucky owner of those magnificent speakers I can only say kudos to the reviewer. I just moved and after a 2 year gap – I am re installing the DA system in my new living room tomorrow. What a day it will be ! Sam pozdrawiam Cie serdecznie !
Thank you for the kind words. Especially from you Lukasz.
Wielkie dzięki.
Thanks to Constantine for such a great review. Sam has created something truly special, of heirloom quality and incredibly infectious to hear. He is also one of the nicest guys in audio. Thanks also to Art Smuck in Tejas, who felt what was possible in Sam and put his money on it…takes some resolve. best regards, Fred Crane
A very nice review, however, I have no idea what this means:
“Readers putting powerful solid-state amplifications to use with the Vista horns are advised to be extra cautious for thunderous transients from accidents in misconnections and operations.”
Can you please elaborate?
Sam,
Thank you for your readership and comment.
To elaborate, the large Destination Audio Vista horns are capable of producing very high volume and dynamics even with the companion, 1.8 watt per channel 45 monoblocks that sudden bursts of energy from bad connections to powerful, 100 watts solid-state amplifiers can excite the horns into producing 100 dB+ transients. It probably won’t hurt the horns but human hearings are susceptible to damages in close range at those levels.