When the Lithuania-to-Eire freight forwarder rang our evening bell, it was a man in a Ford van with two man-sized Plywood crates. Had Teddy grown up? After heaving the serious loot onto the covered back porch with the provided cloth handles, the chap wanted to know contents. "Dead people." Not missing a beat, "good or bad people?" "Bad people" I replied. "That's okay then. But why do you need Lithuanian bodies?" I explained that I was a doctor doing genetic research. Living deep in the boonies shielded my research from curious eyes and noses. He merely grinned. I told him he'd pick up the scraps in a few weeks. Once I'd undone very many T-nutted hex bolts to lift the first lid, Teddy had shrunk again. A partition left empty space presumably taken up by a bigger model in the very same crate. Clever. Stood upright, Teddy walked right out and without any tape tangles, his padded plastic-paper covers came off as one reusable hood. Frog-marching the first bear in nattily stripped slightly waxy Macassar Ebony suit was as easy as his 27kg predicted. The far heavier bigger crate had caused false alarms. With three big shipments having arrived earlier the same week, he'd have to stay in hibernation for a few days. Gediminas was simply relieved to have found a company that didn't stop short in Dublin but was willing to shoulder the extra 4-hour cross-country drive to our door. Now I was loaded for bear. Teddy's first audition would occur upstairs where Hifistay's flagship Mythology X-Frame rack had just caused a remarkable resolution upgrade.

Ursa Major not Minor meant big lungs so appropriately, the down-fire ports were of serious diameter. The tall solid-wood footers terminate in screw heads so pushing them across softer parquet should be done with care. Best would be to stick on some felt pads.

A second top-down(ish) look confirms the slight new curvature of the side walls.

This was the first setup with Soundaware D100Pro Femto SD card transport, Denafrips Terminator DAC and Bakoon AMP-13R integrated. Power by Puritan Audio Labs. It played DC (defrost central) to move from hibernation into high action. Magnets cold from transit don't sound the same even if their drivers arrive nominally broken in. Achieving room then play temps before lending a critical ear is important whenever speakers show up at the door or come out of storage. Electronics too sound better half an hour after turn-on, digital best when never turned off. Hifi 101.