The Reference Room

Three complete reference systems share this room, and the reason they share it is comparison. Each argues a different case for what reference means, and any of them can be played against the others in one sitting without moving a cable or changing a seat.

System 1 — Wilson Autobiography on an all-Burmester chain

The Autobiography is one of seven demonstration pairs in the world. Burmester drives it from cartridge to loudspeaker terminal: the 175 Turntable feeds the 100 Phono Preamplifier, into the 077 Reference Line preamplifier, out to a pair of 159 Signature Line Mono Power Amplifiers.

A single-house chain end to end is rarer than it sounds, and it removes the usual variable. Every handoff between components was designed by the same engineers against the same assumptions, so nothing here is a compromise struck between two manufacturers’ ideas of how a signal should be treated. The 159 sits at the very top of the Burmester catalogue in the Signature Line, and the 100 ahead of it is a full phono stage in its own chassis rather than a card folded into a preamplifier — which is what allows the analogue path to be taken as seriously as the digital one.

A full loom of Transparent Audio Opus ties the chain together: interconnect, speaker cable and power.

System 2 — Wilson Alexia V, D’Agostino and dCS

Alexia V on Dan D’Agostino Momentum Z monoblocks, driven by the Momentum C2/C2Z preamplifier. Digital is a full dCS Rossini APEX DAC with its matching Master Clock.

Vinyl arrives on an Akurate LP12 upgraded with Klimax Radikal motor control — reference-tier speed accuracy grafted onto the Akurate platform. That is the sort of partial upgrade Linn’s architecture exists to allow, and it is worth hearing precisely because it demonstrates what a single well-chosen upgrade does to a turntable that is otherwise unchanged.

This is the solid-state case: precision and dynamic control, on the loudspeaker Wilson designed for real reference-room dimensions rather than for a hall.

System 3 — Chronosonic XVX with Subsonic

The Wilson Chronosonic XVX with a pair of Wilson Subsonic subwoofers beneath it is the full-range configuration here. Burmester again — the 077 Reference Line preamplifier into 159 Signature Line monoblocks, with a 218 covering supplementary channels — and the dCS Varèse Music System handling digital across transport, DAC and Master Clock.

This system produces the room’s widest dynamic range and its most complete frequency envelope. It is also the closest thing in the building to the WAMM Room’s approach expressed within a configuration that can be specified for a client’s own room.

The racks

Every system here sits on HRS isolation racks, as they do throughout both showrooms. In a room where three reference chains run within feet of one another, mechanical isolation stops being a refinement — a turntable and a pair of monoblocks sharing a floor with loudspeakers of this output need their support structure to be as deliberately engineered as the electronics standing on it.

Why three systems in one room

Because the differences between them are the differences worth hearing, and they only mean anything under controlled conditions. Same room, same acoustic treatment, same mains, same seat. What changes is the equipment and nothing else.

Most people arrive having read about two or three of these chains and having never heard any of them in the same afternoon, let alone in the same room. Burmester against D’Agostino Momentum. dCS Varèse against dCS Rossini. A loudspeaker built without compromise against one built for a room you might actually own. Those comparisons are usually separated by a flight.

The systems in this room

• Wilson Audio Autobiography loudspeakers — one of seven demonstration pairs worldwide
• Burmester 175 Turntable and 100 Phono Preamplifier
• Burmester 077 Reference Line preamplifier
• Burmester 159 Signature Line Mono Power Amplifiers
• Wilson Audio Alexia V loudspeakers
• Dan D’Agostino Momentum Z monoblocks and Momentum C2/C2Z preamplifier
• dCS Rossini APEX DAC and Rossini Master Clock
• Linn Akurate LP12 with Klimax Radikal motor control
• Wilson Audio Chronosonic XVX with Subsonic subwoofers
• Burmester 218 Power Amplifier
• dCS Varèse Music System — Transport, DAC and Master Clock
• Transparent Audio Opus loom — interconnect, speaker cable and power
• HRS equipment racks

Hearing it

This is the room for anyone choosing between reference-tier chains rather than individual components, and for anyone who wants to hear what a loudspeaker sounds like when the electronics ahead of it stop being the limiting factor. It is also the natural first stop before the WAMM Room, which takes the same thinking past the point of practical constraint.

The Reference Room is in the Scottsdale showroom. Walk in during business hours, or book ahead if you want more than one of these systems set up and time to move between them properly.