I never gave them the room to prove it

I thought I knew what my Wilson Yvettes and my McIntosh separates could do. I was wrong. They had more to give, a lot more, and I just never gave them the room to prove it.

Let me be direct. Nothing in my signal chain changed: same Yvettes, same C12000, same MC611 monoblocks, same Transparent cables, same sources. Only the room and the power changed, a rectangular living room in place of an L-shape and dedicated circuits in place of one shared by everything, and the improvement was not subtle; it was transformative.

The first proof was the helicopter on Pink Floyd's The Wall. For the first time in my system it came from high on the ceiling to the right, approached my seat, then moved out to the left until it vanished. It stayed high, because at the end of the day it is a helicopter and it is flying.

That is what embarrasses me. Every doubt I had about those components was really a doubt about the room, dressed up as a doubt about the gear. If you are about to spend $5,000, $10,000 or $20,000 on a component and your room has obvious problems, stop and fix the room first.

I spent years doubting the gear. The gear spent those years waiting for a room.