This review page is supported in part by the sponsors whose ad banners are displayed below I started listening to audio when I was 5. My parents very often enjoyed the radio and 78s and I was fascinated by their music and spent a lot of time with Caruso, La Callas, Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel and so on. When I was 10 my father decided to offer me Philips equipment. It was my first personal system and thanks to it I discovered the Blues and Rock. That was a shock and it completely changed my relationship with music. When I was 14 my father bought me a Dual system. By 1982 we added a Pioneer CD player and thereafter never stopped to improve the system which eventually included a Proton power amplifier, Cabasse Fregatte speakers and a Micromega CD player. For the Millennium, I decided to acquire a Yamaha home cinema system (power amplifier and speakers). I replaced it very quickly for something better and now this system is composed of: • Denon 3910 DVD player • Atoll PR5.1 Line Stage • Atoll AM100 + AV100 power amplifiers • Ditton Celestion Speakers • Mitsubishi HC4900 video-projector • 2.7m Cinelux cinema screen But the greatest pleasure comes from superior sound which is difficult to achieve with a combined HT/hifi system. So I built a dedicated audio system with: • Consonance Droplet 5.0 CD player • Consonance Cyber 222 MKII Line stage • Consonance Cyber 211/845 Mono block power amplifiers • Cabasse Artis Thor II Subwoofer • Cabasse Artis Egea II Speakers Because I was very fortunate to meet people who gave me much good advice on hifi and because I consider it a duty to give back at least as much as what I received, I provide regular advice on the Atoll forum. There I communicated a lot with Frederic Beudot who eventually suggested I should write for 6moons. My slogan is that the emotions be with us. In the summer of 2009, we decided to build two new rooms, one for home cinema and one for audio. They are ready for listening with really good acoustics but not completely finished yet. What remains are embellishments and decorations. I will update the above photo with others as soon as the rooms are ready. To serve as reference for the reader, the following is a description of my current audio system entitled "Consonance Droplet 5.0 + Cyber 222 MKII + Cyber 211/845 - finally a High-end system for less than €11000 €". I may be used to it by now but sighting Opera Consonance packaging is a shock each time and the boxes around the Droplet, Cyber 222 MKII and two Cyber 211/845 monos did not escape the rule. Fortunately I had my Toyota Land Cruiser to pick them up. I always wonder what I would have done had I chosen a smaller car. I will never forget the look of panic at home when my wife discovered  four large boxes in the heart of her living room: "Do you really imagine I would accept whatever monstrosities are in there in my living room?" My triumph seemed squashed before it ever began. The two 845s the size of small 50cl beer bottles were very easy to fix in their bayonet sockets. On  the back of each Consonance model, the inter RCA distance is big enough to make for very comfortable cable connections. Because it is strongly advised to use a torpedo level to ensure each product is perfectly horizontal, at least one hour of work was necessary to find the proper place for each component and correctly  set up the complete system. Luckily, Consonance makes 100% WAF-approved hifi products. After my installation was finished, I knew the game was won when my  wife smiled and agreed “Oh that's wonderful, those can stay." Phew. The Droplet is a fully balanced tube CD player that uses 24/192 multi-level Sigma-Delta conversion with synchronous upsampling and two Sovtek 6H30. Weight is a very stout 30kg and price in France is €3000. The Cyber 222MkII line stage with outboard power supply offers 5 relay-switched inputs and runs 4 x 6SN7 and one 5AR4 rectifier in a class A circuit. It comes with remote, weighs 15kg and sells for €1800. The Cyber 211/845 monos already reviewed by the late John Potis in these pages are zero global feedback SET designs with an E88CC input tube which couples to the grid of an 5687 for voltage gain and to drive the 211/845 output tube that is transformer-coupled to the speakers. These monos produce 16 watts with 211s, 28 watts with 845s, weigh 30kg a piece and sell for €6000/pr. Partnering gear includes Cabasse Artis Egea II speakers with a Cabasse Artis Thor II subwoofer, HMS Sestetto Mk3 interconnects, Chord Odyssee speaker cables, MIT Z-Cord2 power cords and a Real Cable Reflex subwoofer cable. I might as well say it right off: this Consonance trio is one of  the five best systems I have heard since I began to enjoy high-quality audio 35 years ago. With their top-line Droplet 5.0 CD player, Cyber 222 MKII line stage and Cyber 211/845 monos, the Consonance brand of Opera Audio in China demonstrates that it is a very high-value audio makers First, the look of these three beautiful, making it a pleasure to show them off in your living room as you would  an artistic sculpture. In addition, the sound is  impressively natural to not only feel the music as though you were close to the stage but as though the artists were physically present and playing for your own enjoyment. Even though these Consonance component provide very high audio quality as soon as you start them, they really deliver their  best after the first 200 hours. Moreover whenever you  restart them, a 2-hour warm-up is strongly recommended to reach their maximum capabilities. 3MA - "Awal": The slap! This disk is one of the better ones I know for recording  quality. I use it for tests because there are only three instrumentals and singers and it is very hard to perfectly capture the stage. As soon as the first arpeggios start, the presence of  each instrument is striking. Closing your eyes is sufficient to start shivering. No doubt the instruments are in the room. It is very  hard to describe these sensations because words are insufficient to explain how the illusion is completed. It seems as though there was a talented conjurer in front of a a child whose eyes are open wide being enthralled by magnificent moments of magic. The sound of the strings is produced naturally, making it easy to feel their vibrations. Attacks are frank and fast, the sustains of  the notes are perfect and their fades endless. As for the voices, they are simply natural - neither too warm nor too  analytical. Hadouk Trio - Live at Fip – "Vol De Nuit" Once more the realism and sensation of being close  to the stageof the FIP broadcast studio dominates. The stage is restored to three dimensions without excess or  weakness and the three artists are perfectly localizable. The air circulates, the images breathe and the sound is at once soft and energetic, hard-hitting but not rough, dynamic but not aggressive. A myriad of micro details are apparent to stress the feeling that one has gone beyond hifi toa live concert. When the listener moves around the premises, the stage remains stable to walk between rows of virtual seats. Bass is solid and robust. There are no trailing resonance effects that  would obscure the upper bass and lower midrange. The balance is  assured and voices are produced with torsos yet no emphasis. As for the applause interludes, they are marvelously real. Jacques Brel – Les Marquises – "Jojo" How could I forget this track after an audition I had with an Audio  Research and Wilson Audio Alexandria system a few years ago? Since then “Jojo” has become one of my favorite test tracks. My Egea IIs are certainly no Alexandrias but still, the result  with the Consonance set is amazing. The system I heard at the show was based on the Audio Research Reference CD7 player, Reference 3 line  stage and Reference 210 monos. It was so impressive  that it redefined a new audio reference for me. The differences between Alexandria and Egea II make a direct comparison impossible of course. In terms of  naturalism however, the Consonance and Cabasse setup creates a similar experience. Before adding the Consonance components, I never heard  my speakers sing so beautifully. The natural perspective, sweetness, dynamics, holographic imaging, the respect for instrumental tone, the evidence of music-making now are so close to what I remember that "I caught myself a second time being on first-name  terms with the angels”. Bernard Lallement – Missa Gallica – "Kyrie” &  “Gloria" This Missa Gallica is another of my favorite test disks. Bernard Neuveu recorded it and he succeeded at capturing the beautiful acoustics of  the Notre-Dame du Liban church in Paris. For this recording,  our lady welcomed not less than 3 choirs, 15  soloists, 5 orchestras and added groups of ancient, classic and folks instruments. My CD player, line stage and monaural amplifiers are all tube-based. However, the listening is never close to the vintage  sound that was dominated by curves and an excess of sweetness and heat. Neither are they plagued by an excess of electronic sound which  would become too sharp, dry, brilliant and analytical.  The overall result is a fine balance between tube and transistor virtues.   The sound is very dynamic and associated with speakers of at least 93dB sensitivity, the two Cyber 845 appear unlimited without the slightest hint of strain. Transient return is quick without being shifted in time. The warmth of the woods competes with the agility of the metal flutes and orchestral tutti are  luxurious. Every performer remains in place and the mass fusion is complete without turning chaotic. The listener can effortlessly isolate sections of instruments to  follow their specific melodic progressions. The church acoustic is fully evident and it is easy to  feel the coldness of the place. The room walls melt as Notre Dame du Liban overlays. I could go on but you already know that these Consonance products impressed me greatly. Before discovering them I remained convinced that such excellent performance would not be possible in my system unless I had €50,000 to €60,000 to spend. The Droplet 5.0, Cyber 222 MKII and two Cyber 211/845s allowed me to assemble a very high-performance system for less than 11000€. Considering the results, that's very attractive. As I stated earlier quite strongly, considering my tastes, sensibility and expectations, this is one of the five best audio groupings I've come across until now. I was so impressed that I just had to own this set and this very system will form the backdrop against which I shall evaluate my first 6moons review assignments to come...