Guido De Laet's
System
Date of "Visit":
02 March 2003


the system


electronics


DIY amps


DIY speaker

  

e-mail to:
Guido De Laet


I live in Belgium, Schilde which is about 17 km from Antwerp. I'm maried with Katrien and have 4 fine kids. My wife is also a big music lover and that's why the "WAF" factor is unknown to me.

Music has always been in my life even since Iwas a child. At home, my father often played the records from musicians like Count Basie, Toots Tielemans, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand and many others. They continue to be my favorites. When I got older I discovered Pink Floyd and Steely Dan and thus, also pop music came into my life.

During the time I was studying photography, I had Luxman electronics and Celestion speakers. Later on, I owned several other speakers (Magnepan, Stax, Quad and Audiostatic) aned several other amps: Krell, Audio Research, Tube Technology and many others.

At this moment I play with home brew DIY equipment. I have a dual mono preamp with a Ba open plate tube. My power amps are build around the famous KR 300BXLS Kanthal tube. The speakers are also DIY and they are made with very fine components like Thiel Ceramique units.

My listening room dimensions are 8 x 4 m (and the heigth is 2.65m).

I listen mostly to 70% pop music and 30% jazz music.

My Favorite Pop CD's are:
Aja - Steely Dan
Wish you were here - Pink Floyd
Peter Gabriel- 3the CD
Sting-All this time
Janis Ian - Breaking Silence

My favorite Jazz CD's are:
Jay Leonarth - Salamander Pie
Oscar Peterson - Whe get request
Diana Schuur - Deedless
Diana Krall - All for you

And many others.....

System's Components

CD player:

Sony Scd 555 modified with a new precision clock and a transformer output. I'm a real fan off SACD, sound great!!!!

Tuner:

Luxman T 530

Preamp:

DIY. Mu stage with Open Plate Ba tubes and build in dual mono configuration

Power Amps:

DIY with a 300BXLS Kr output tube. Many thanks goes to Dick for his great inspiration and also because he's a good friend.

Speakers:

DIY with Thiel ceramique units.

All cables:

DIY. They are all made with 99.999% pure silver wire!

Guido's comments about his system:

AA: "Guido, how would you describe your system's sound?"

GDL: "I find my system very neutral with a big sounstage and good 'pin-point' focus."

AA: "Do you think there is room for improvement?"

GDL: "My room is rather small and that I can't change. I have all the time to optimise my room in the future."  

AA: "Have you got plans for upgrading?"

GDL: "At this moment I'm building a new pair of speakers with bigger woofers (Eton 11 Inch) so the low frequencies will be have more presence and impact. The Mid and High units will still remain to be Thiel units. The new system will be called Gydolon Reference. I also have a new tube preamplifier project. It will be almost the same as the previous one but with much better components. My Luxman tuner will be changed, I recently bought a tube tuner in the US."

Home