Given the considerable very asymmetrical weight seen by the hammer-finish bottom plate, Attilio added six beefy stand-offs across the mid section to not rely exclusively on a few screws along the side edges for support. Hover your mouse over the next three photos to activate the loupe enlarger function; or right-click each image to open it at full size in a new window.

Parts pornographers will have a field day identifying various bits and bobs from such well-sorted spacious innards.

Structural architects meanwhile appreciate the stout curvaceously cut cross braces which give this enclosure extra strength and rigidity.

Whilst we won't see any of it in daily use, it's gratifying to know that our serious investment here rests on a very solid mechanical foundation indeed. As to parts pedigree, you'll be the judge.

The only low point is the small plastic remote. It telegraphs as utterly declassé in a €20K context and would even at 1/4th. We'll meet it soon enough. Even for low-volume artisanal constructors there are much nicer alternatives available. Pál Nagy uses such a one for his Lifesaver Audio range of icOn autoformer preamps and Gradient Box smart crossovers. Whatever your Neptune perch of choice, you'll need room for a 36x36cm centre-to-centre footprint for its spacing of the four stock footers. That square sits forward of the actual chassis midline so there's more amp past the rear footers than the front's. My only realistic option was atop the force-cancelling dual 15-inch sound|kaos cardioid subwoofer. Using a quad of Carbide Base Diamond isolators as the best heavy-duty such solution I've experience with, soon Neptune floated atop dual roller-ball layers and serious viscoelastics. This also left my usual amps in place for rather more convenient A/B involving no lengthy downtime from serial rejigging of the setup.