RMAF 2017

I always enjoy my time in Gordon Rankin's room because a) I always learn something, b) he plays real music, and c) he gets great sound. "Did you hear Gordon's room?" being a common refrain. Gordon was showing his new Secant DAC ($5000) with a system powered by his tube amps and the Plasma Signature speakers ($20,000/pair) from Vaughn Loudspeakers.

Details on Secant from Wavelength:

Secant 32/384 PCM, DSD64/128 USB DAC using the ESS ES9038 DAC chip. Directly heated triode design with external tube rectified power supply and transformer coupled outputs. Full LED display of samples rates and other info. Optically isolated at the I2S level, with the use of the Microchip PIC32MZ processor. Available 4th quarter (msrp $5000).

Gordon is a guitar player, among other things, and he makes a line of guitar amps for musicians you may know like Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies. This beauty was perched off to the side of the system where, at another show, it would be front and center.