It took two tries over the course of two days to find a seat, but on Sunday afternoon, I finally squeezed into the room shared by EAR and PranaFidelity. The wait was worth it.

After the overplayed “These Bones Will Rise Again” from a CD of the Fairfield Four—a recording whose limited octave compass established the beauty of the system’s midrange—EAR’s Dan Meinwald took over and it was on to “Stratusphunk” from an LP of the George Russell Sextet. The bass line was excellent—absolutely firm—and the balance between highs and lows ideal.

Then, as if my mind had not been shattered enough by 2.5 days at the show, it was on to the unique Joanna Newsom, whose squeeky little voice, sadly overshadowed by engineering that over-emphasized her accompaniment, revealed the fineness of the tweeter in PranaFidelity’s Vayu/fs loudspeakers ($8950/pair). Some resonant nodes seem to have been activated in the room, but that didn’t stop me from giving two thumbs up to an EAR/Technics RS-1500 tape deck, modified by Tim de Paravicini ($10,000) and EAR Acute Classic CD Player ($6795), Helius Designs Viridia turntable ($7195) with Omega Standard tonearm ($3695) and Denon DL-103R cartridge ($449), PranaFidelity purna/ca preamplifier ($4500-$9950 depending upon configuration and options), purna/ma amplifier ($8950), and Furutech cabling & AC distribution.

Click Here: St Kilda Saints Guernsey