Cost no Object but Small Room

The V3 was setup to a pure Zanden system, the 90 watt monoblock push-pull 845 amps, the preamp, and the transport/dac signature combo. I did not check the wires, but I did notice the Nordost speaker wire. They were in a large room about 8 feet up from the back wall. I do not know the room measurements.

Detail was there, bass was there, but I was not able to critically listen because I did not have my own CDs. I was just getting a casual sense for them. But I heard all I needed, they didn't do much for me.

I was disappointed in the Zanden monoblocks. But then again, different system completely and setup in the dealer may have been less than optimal.

I went into a much smaller room (about half the size of the last) where the Minis were playing, driven by Burmester gear with a Metronome CD player. I think the amp was about 280 watts per channel.

Now I can see why these speakers are getting attention, tremendous detail, and coherency that is in a whole other league from the V3.

The Burmester gear I've heard before, good, but not my cup of tea. I would love to hear the Mini on a high power tube amp of some kind. They do require lots of power from what Mr. Wolf replied to me, when I asked about my ML2s. He said they would be fine with the V3, not the Mini.

Thanks James. I listened to the Minis a cple of times and really liked them but concerned my Darts will not be enuff for them...and don't want to chg my amps again. A fellow goner did say he has such a set up (Dart-Mini) and said the match was very good, so a bit confused actually. Over here, they don;t allow home auditions so I wld have to drag my amp to the dealership...yuk. The Minis at the dealership were driven by Spectral and Audio Rsch 210s, the latter sounding particularly good w/ the Minis.

James,
Just curious - which Metronome model did you hear with the Minis?

As the US Met distributor, I enjoyed reading your comments as my experience indicates the Metronome-Magico combo is quite exceptional. Our SF dealer, Audio Image, now represents Magico in addition to Metronome.

Sun Light Engineering SE 308 Concentric, a concentric is time alined and works wonderful in nearfield.

Henry, that's interesting you heard them with ARC gear. Do you remember the configuration of the system? Was it all ARC?

I was curious about the CJ line as well, they make high powered monoblocks recently reviewed in HiFi+.
I wonder what a pair of the 270 watt monoblocks would be like? I wonder how much heat those amps put out?

As for the Metronome cdp, I don't recall the exact model number, I just went to the website to check to see if I would recognize it, but wow, Metronome has expanded quite a bit since I last saw them. It was a larger 1 chassis unit I think...on the Signature line. But yes, it did not draw attention to itself at all which is complementary to itself in that system. Very resolute and coherent, and at the same time musical.

I prefer tubes however, so the over all sound was a bit thin for my taste, which is purely personal.

Henry, what were your thought listening to the ARC gear vs the Dart?