Late in 1989, when my wife Lisa and I walked into Sound Goods, an audio video store in Mountain View, California, a nearly quarter-century-long love affair with the combination of Perreaux Electronics and Polk Audio SDA (“Stereo Dimensional Array”) speakers began. We had recently moved from Columbus, Indiana, to Palo Alto, California, and had decided that with a new home we needed a new stereo system.

While our aging AR turntable, Sony integrated receiver and Allison 6 speakers had served us well for almost a decade, the rise of digital music reproduction influenced us to make the transition to CDs from LPs and to upgrade our stereo system. This transition was motivated not so much by our conviction that the sound would be better with a digital system as by two other factors: First, our three-years-old daughter loved to play with the tone arm of our turntable – even as it was spinning -- and consequently had damaged most of our LPs. Second, I had begun working for NeXT Computer Inc., a company that was committed to facilitating growth of digital music recording and reproduction. The NeXT Cube, the company’s revolutionary computer system, in fact, was the first computer to be shipped with a magneto-optical drive as standard equipment.

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Richard from New Zealand has assembled his ultimate home theatre audio system using Perreaux amplifiers and preamps – including two of our reference Prisma 350 stereo power amps and a 6160 six-channel power amp, along with the Prisma SM6 MkII and Audiant DP32 preamps and our Prisma CD1 CD player.

I'll let Richard explain his audio system in his own words...

“Forget attacks in the dark or subtleties or nuances. The reason why I went down the Perreaux path was completely all about the sound. The first time I ever heard a 350 was when I went to audition some JBL Ti-10ks that I saw on Trademe just over a year ago. The seller had bi-wired them with a couple of Accuphase power amps controlling the mids and trebles and the 350 was controlling the woofers. And when I say control I mean full on domination. Grip beyond anything I had ever seen or heard. Normally an amp will have a speaker on a leash but these appeared to be physically joined at the hip. I knew at that moment that my other amps were about to be given the cold shoulder.

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I’ve owned a Hewlett Packard HP11c calculator for many years now. Funny thing is it has become so much a part of my life, I couldn’t imagine using anything else.

Spending many hours a day behind my computer, it would be natural to assume that I would use the calculator function on my computer desktop... not on your life! There is just something about that HP calculator that just can’t be beaten. For me it gets down to the buttons that HP has used. They have this wonderful snap action tactile feel to them which works to confirm every keystroke that I enter. I know of several other users of the same calculator who also swear by them.

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Recently, long-time audio enthusiast, Philip G made the sound decision to invest in an all New Zealand hi fi audio system. Consisting of Image loudspeakers, Slinkylinks cables and Perreaux electronics.

Philip writes:

“I have four modes of listening to music. The first is sadly, when it is in the back ground – filling in the spaces around what else I am doing. Lets not talk about that mode, we all do it but there is no heart in it.

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The new Prisma SM6 MkII Balanced Stereo Preamplifier hasn’t been out long, however it’s already winning a few converts.

Read why longtime audio enthusiast Warren Saunders thought the SM6 MkII was full of surprises:

“I‘m compelled to write a few impressions on my findings of this surprising preamp.

Everyone likes opening presents. Christmas is a stressful time for many, but I reckon regardless of all the tensions, trappings and tears of Christmas, opening presents is always the fun part. I took great joy in opening the present with a handmade card from my two daughters. It was the latest CD from the Beatles “LOVE”. My 4 year old Celeste took great delight in saying “I picked it just for you, all by myself”. I looked at her and smiled, with a tear in my eye “thank you” I said.

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