Sidebar III
What these designers listen to at home
Victor listens to Transars speakers designed by ESS in 1980. Most Transars were 3-way speakers comprising a 12" long throw subwoofer in a rigid cube designed as an end table (in the lower right-hand corner of the first photo below) covering the frequencies below 140 Hz; and a panel consisting of an Heil Air Motion Transformer woofer (a long tube-like bipolar driver running vertically up and down the panel covering the frequencies from 140Hz to 1000Hz) and a "Great Heil" bipolar Air Motion Transformer covering the midrange/tweeter frequencies from 1000Hz to 20kHz. Victor's Transars are 4-ways with an added a bipolar 'super tweeter' atop the "Great Heil" that covers the frequencies from 10kHz to 25kHz. Only two of these 4-way Transars were ever made.


Victor's components are:
Tuner: Sansui TU-X1 FM/AM Tuner, upgraded, including line balancing transformers and balanced outputs by Joseph Chow
Tube preamplifier: Audio Horizons TP 2.1nB with 4 NOS Siemens CCa tubes
Tube power amplifier: Manley designed VTL Stereo 90, 90wpc upgraded and rewired by Joseph Chow. This stereo amp drives the panels.
Solid-state power amplifier: PS Audio 200C, 200wpc to drive the Transar subwoofer.
Electronic crossover: dbx variable 2/3/4 way set as a two-way crossing over between the subwoofer and panels at 140Hz.
Turntable: Technics SP 10 MkII in a floating plinth; Origin Live Encounter Mk II arm; Shelter 901 cartridge
Tube DAC: Audio Horizons TD 3.0n tube DAC with 4 NOS Siemens E88CC tubes
Tube phono preamplifier: Audio Horizons TP 8.0.CMCpn
CD Player: Music Hall MMF CD 25 upgraded by Joseph Chow and used as a transport
Compact Disc Recorder: Sony W-66 upgraded by Joseph Chow
Dual Stereo Cassette Player: Sony TC WR901ES
Cables: Audio Horizons Transparency throughout


Joseph's components are:
Turntable: VPI Aries 2 with JMW 10.5 tone arm and Benz Micro L0.4 cartridge
Phono tube preamplifier: Audio Horizons TP 8.0sMCPn with 2 NOS Siemens E88CC tubes
Tube preamplifier: Audio Horizons TP 2.1RnB with 4 NOS Siemens E88CC tubes
Solid-state power amplifier : Mark Levinson 27.5 fully upgraded by Joseph Chow
Solid-state tuner: Yamaha T-85 with Joseph Chow's premium upgrade
CD Transport: CEC TL-2X with Joseph Chow's premium upgrade
CD Player: California Icon MkII with Joseph Chow's premium upgrade
Tube DAC: Audio Horizons TD 3.0n with 4 NOS Siemens E88CC tubes
Speaker: Wilson Audio Sophia
Cables: Audiohorizons Transparency balanced interconnects
Audiohorizons Transparency single ended interconnects
Audiohorizons Dimension speaker cable, 6 ft lengths