Listening in Room 2
The listening in room 2 was very special because this was accompanied by wine tasting and a 5-course dinner. If only my favorite Amsterdam restaurants had such great sound!
Buddy JW taking a close look.
Ha: these components are familiar. Antipodes DX3 and Core: quite simply the best Music Server I heard so far.
Gryphon Kalliope DAC
Yup: that’s the new Artesania Krion/Panzerholz platform, this time with a big T+A A3000HV Power amp on top. Behind it is the Exoteryc Rack in tandem form, in silver, as a variant to the graphite colour. The racks are also available in black.
The T+A amp may look gimmicky, but the sound in combination with the Raidho’s was really good!
The sound of this system was silky-smooth and very rich and very easy to relax into. The treble was super-airy and free-flowing, with a neutral mid-band and the bass was articulate nicely full-bodied. These speakers’ treble was also very much to JW’s liking. When he was only in his early 30’s, his first system already contained Apogee Centaur hybrid ribbon speakers (and – cough – Sony amps) so it is no wonder that he likes the Raidho’s ribbon tweeters.
Will you look at those perfectly laid out tables! We were expected at 14:00 but when JW and I showed up exactly on time, there was no-one! Half an hour later some people were playing the audio system but no food in sight. An hour later we could see the tables getting occupied slowly. Still half an hour later (now almost 2 hours later than the announced start) almost everyone had been seated, so that’s when JW and I joined. This is when we learned that it is better to not hurry and just take it slowly. Manhana manhana is still a thing in Spain, it seems:-)
This is Olalla Elorriaga, best Sommelier 2014 of Spain. She explained various aspects of wine tasting and the pairing with the food. I was later told that she can tell the grape and wine brand just by smelling a glass of wine!
Above: the menu. Alas, my Spanish is not good enough to understand anything mentioned here… Oh wait: frutos is fruit, right?
Razor clams with two different toppings. Before this there was another dish of which sadly I forgot to take a picture: duck liver with special herbs and ground nuts in a small liquor glass.
Heek (hake) filet with a mixture of pork and octopus. The Heek filet was simply sublime and although I was a little scared of the mixture, it actually matched very well with the pork/octopus/calamari mixture.
Super-savory Oxtail in a package of thin dough with forrest fruit compote. This was soooo tasty I could eat 6 of them.
Dessert: cooked pear with vanilla ice cream – yummy
Here’s Bibiana Castallano, owner of the Hotel Convent San Roque and responsible for its beautiful interiors. My seat was to Bibiana’s left, and with the audio system right behind her, my position could not have been more perfect!
Hi Christiaan, HiFi always sounds better with some good wine and food 😉 i suggestthat no listening should be without it.
Haha, that’s for sure:-)