Just want to add my experience for the record.
I have owned Quicksilver Silver 90 monoblocks,
Cary SLI-50, Unison Research Unico and Sr-1, AES Superamp, with VAC classic, Joule Electra LA-100 MkIII, Audible Illusions, Classe, and Bottlehead preamps, solid state amps like Odyssey Stratos, Jeff Rowland, Classe, YBA, Bryston, PS Audio, and some I've forgotten. Speakers? Harbeth, Spendor, Audio Physic, Magnepan, Avalon, Silverline, Shamrock, Gershman Acoustic, Reference 3A, Totem, Coincident Speaker technology, etc. I've been searching for my own personal audio holy Grail for 14 years. I finally found it with the lowly combination of the Decware SE34i.2+ and Klipsch Forte II speakers. Source is a Well Tempered Labs TT, Music Maker cart and EAR 834p phono pre with Amperex Bugle Boys.
The Decware has Svetlana Winged C EL34s and Mullard GZ32 rectifiers. Cables are Cardas NR and speaker cables are Anticables. By an audiophiles definition this is a budget system. And yet it's the most musically satisfying system I have ever owned. It's so good that 2 of my audiophile friends have exactly replicated my system in their own homes (different sources but same amp, speaker cables and speakers. Steve Deckert makes incredible gear at very affordable prices.
I have owned Quicksilver Silver 90 monoblocks,
Cary SLI-50, Unison Research Unico and Sr-1, AES Superamp, with VAC classic, Joule Electra LA-100 MkIII, Audible Illusions, Classe, and Bottlehead preamps, solid state amps like Odyssey Stratos, Jeff Rowland, Classe, YBA, Bryston, PS Audio, and some I've forgotten. Speakers? Harbeth, Spendor, Audio Physic, Magnepan, Avalon, Silverline, Shamrock, Gershman Acoustic, Reference 3A, Totem, Coincident Speaker technology, etc. I've been searching for my own personal audio holy Grail for 14 years. I finally found it with the lowly combination of the Decware SE34i.2+ and Klipsch Forte II speakers. Source is a Well Tempered Labs TT, Music Maker cart and EAR 834p phono pre with Amperex Bugle Boys.
The Decware has Svetlana Winged C EL34s and Mullard GZ32 rectifiers. Cables are Cardas NR and speaker cables are Anticables. By an audiophiles definition this is a budget system. And yet it's the most musically satisfying system I have ever owned. It's so good that 2 of my audiophile friends have exactly replicated my system in their own homes (different sources but same amp, speaker cables and speakers. Steve Deckert makes incredible gear at very affordable prices.