SOIX,
I'm perfectly content with my Kimber Hero interconnects and Kimber PK Base power cord. I'm not on a mad perfectionist pursuit; I just want a really fine system. As to your question: I purchased the Joseph Audio RM25si MKII Signature speakers and never sent them in for the upgrade when that came around. I found them light years better than the RM22si, and yet in my years with them (and there were a lot of them), I couldn't pinpoint why I didn't fully love them and always felt a desire for better, for more. I heard into the mix, and the bass was tight when I upgraded my tube complement in the amp, but I felt slighted in that representational fullness - the flesh, the weighty substance of how instruments and voices ought to sound. I learned a lot through those speakers, particularly about the importance of sources: The most important part of my system is my media - the vinyl, the CD (for some, the file). The quality of that is No. 1. Then I don't know if it's source components or speakers, but it's pretty close. When I added - modded CD player, better cartridge, better cabling - all that showed up in the RM25si speakers. But honestly? In my 13x21 room, when I swapped in Rogers Ls3/5a speakers, classic British mini monitors vs. floor standers, all the bass disappeared but I found myself going, "Oh, my God," when putting on acoustic jazz, voice or even a track by Radiohead. Suddenly imaging and the rightness of the instrument sounds were so much better. I knew if I ever got a bigger place with a small room for a second system, the Rogers would own it, but the RM25si's now had to go. I think a lot of people would have left Joseph Audio right then and gone to other brands, but I had been in those rooms with the Pearls and Pulsars (and also in rooms with a lot of other speakers I liked, especially Harbeth and Audio Note and horns and big electrostatic Martin Logans, and crazy speakers like Oskar Heil) and knew I needed to just spend my way into a better place, and I did. The Pulsars remind me of my old '88 BMW 325i - they sound tightly torqued and really grip the music. The bass, whether electric rock or acoustic jazz or a bangin' trap producer's depth charges is so off-the-charts good it's not funny. There is some review out there where the guy at the show said he looked behind a curtain for a subwoofer when he heard them because he couldn't believe the bass. I laughed when I read it because it's like that. Yet there also is a huge soundstage, clear image, a lovely subtlety about them along with that torque sensation. They are startling at low and high volumes. They don't present things passively or softly. They command attention with vividness, which the RM25si's did, but in your mind triple that and triple the representation of quality bass. I played Stephen Hough's "The Dream Album," last night (like an enchanted child's idea of a perfect classical piano recital) and wanted for nothing. But, then, I had upgraded my primary source player to a Bryston BCD-3 two days after I posted this, and realize now I might not even need to do a new amp. It's absurd how sweet the music is here. I've always been an audiophile yet only recently have had truly audiophile quality equipment. I can live contentedly without it, and most people do, but I don't need THE BEST; I just need great. I still might check out a VAC, but I'm wheeling back to the idea of components before amp and so, perhaps, that long-coveted turntable is now next in line.
