That looks superb. Congratulations on your selection. Enjoy.
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@Cohen1263 The new system looks fantastic - congratulations. Can I ask how you decided that £100k was the right amount to spend on your system? Was this driven by a financial budget or by having a sense of what sound/system you would get for £100k? Did you audition more expensive or, conversely, less expensive systems?
Having just been through a complete new system purchase myself, I found it difficult to decide how much to spend. Started off with the expectation of spending around £4k on speakers, amp and streamer/DAC, but ended up spending over £10k once I heard various different systems and understood what I could get for my money. It’s tricky to know when to get off the bus, particularly as diminishing returns kick in fairly quickly.
That was my maximum budget. Fortunately I have stayed well within it through negotiations. I can highly recommend Acoustica as a dealer.
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That’s some good negotiating. My dealer thinks the M in MSRP stands for “minimum” not “manufacturer”.
Most definitely. 
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Time for a change maybe? 
Fair enough, but drive them down far enough and they soon disappear. Nice to have somewhere with a healthy choice of products, the time to spend setting up home dems, and nice p/ex facilities. Careful what you wish for.
It’s not about driving them down though, well not for me. I want the deal that gives us both a good feeling next time I go back for more. The dealer knows what his margins are and I know how much money I have to get towards what I want. Somewhere in there is a cost that makes us both happy. As a previous retailer (non hifi) and as a customer I’ve always taken the negotiation as a pleasant experience if approached in that way.
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Well I now only buy ex dem or slightly used equipment.
I never ask my dealer for discounts. I expect superlative service, home dems and home installations. He is there to set things up and guide me through the whole process of system building. All of this is worth paying for imo. Ymmv but it works for me. The last thing I want is for them to go out of business after 30 years of support.
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I am impressed that you went with SL2s. What sorts of things did your dealer spend time on when he was setting them up?
Hi. Yes light Ash.
Initial levelling then working on getting the tweeters central within the faceplate hole and having a front to back movement similar to how the LP12 suspension should bounce.
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Cisco then EE8 works better than just EE8 for me.
Cisco 2960s function differently and have different SQ effects than EE8s.
But what works depends on your system, inc. electrical environment, your tastes, and your Ethernet cables.
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Right because the margins are razor thin on SL wire. Your dealer is probably losing money selling a 7m pair for $8,100. Is it better for a dealer to sell 5m of NACA5 @ MSRP or 5m SL @ 80% of MSRP?
Fine … as long as the dealer has a non-stop stream of customers queuing up for SL cables at long lengths for full price. You need to consider how many non-productive dems to non-productive customers have to be undertaken (before achieving what might be an occasional sale of that type of product). That could be different in every case, so for some … they NEED that sale if they’re going to continue providing the level of service we all expect.
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Did you try other makes as you first stated?
As I saw you mentioned vitus, did you try the sia030 by any chance?
Yes I did. The reports of DC issues had an effect on my decision to give Vitus the swerve though especially after the many reliability problems I have had with Audio Note. Densen also good but reliable? Not from what I’ve heard. I have factored in reliability and residuals.
ND555/552/500 combo just ticks my boxes and I regretted not buying SL2’s back in the day so when this pair were offered as part of the full system purchase it was game over.
Sounding surprisingly excellent this morning 40 hours into the long burn in. Some of the Hi-Rez Qobuz streams are outstanding! The Core rips also very good. Prepared for the bad days.
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