Granite Audio 770 Tube Pre-amp & its phono sec.

You are a wise man, Mariusz. Please don't apologize, I'm humbled by the invite, so a "thank you for asking me to join you" on my part is the only thing due from either of us.

In the words of someone a lot smarter than me, "buying American is unAmerican." While, I am personally as nationalistic as anyone, I feel that blind loyalty leads to long term misery. If we do not hold our domestic companies up to the highest standards, they will not meet them, and our competitiveness as a society will plummet.

Despite what most people see and regurgitate, China is not beginning to pave the streets with gold. Their fundamentals and implementation are shakier than we realize, and expect the next couple of years to see tremendous price increases on their products. The prices of things like steel, copper, plastic, labor, etc. are going through the roof, and of course, that is going to get passed along to us. It is already happening, and I expect to see some serious inflation in terms of Chinese audio over the next year or two. Hopefully, the people on this side of the ocean are thinking long-term, as opposed to the sky is falling mentality too many here are taking on, as they will miss a golden opportunity going forward.

All of this is strictly my opinion, and I realize it is definitely the minority/contrarian view...

The Granite 657 the best? No, it is not. I have several players that eclipse it, including your Droplet 5.0. But, the 657 is a very nice player.

Take care,
Joe

Thanks Joe.
And one more think.
What happend to those horn spks that you
were going/planing to show during CES.
I have not see them anywhere. Would like to hear them -
one day.

Cheers
Mariusz

Mariusz, I have a pair of those M15 horns. You are more than welcome to give them a listen. They're probably best driven by something like your Cyber 800 monoblocks, so if you ever paid me a visit, please don't hesitate to bring them along.

I did CES with my buddy, Vytas, who is a loudspeaker manufacturer. He makes a really unique and good sounding (in my opinion) product that seemed to mate very well with the Cyber 800. I have some definite opinions on loudspeakers (series crossovers, powered woofers), and a lot of them are not represented in the marketplace with very little exception. The design of his speakers lines up very well with those opinions. We got really good feedback from some of the folks who gave us a listen, but what do I know?

Not M15 Joe.
The single driver one .

AND THANKS FOR
THE INVITE
P.S
I AM A LITTLE BUSSY BUT WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THOSE SPEAKS

Maybe you are talking about the Lamhorns that Robert Lamarre of Tenor Audio manufactures, Mariusz?

I didn't bring them to CES2008, but we'll be sharing a room with Robert (he'll also have a Tenor room, obviously) in Montreal next month with these backloaded horns, with the AER drivers. The speakers are also available with Lowthers. We'll pair them with the Cyber 211 and 845 amplifiers. Of course, you lose the bottom octave or two with such a design, but for what they do well, a lot of people are more than willing to make that tradeoff. Personally, as much as I believe in the inherent superiority of the series crossover that Bud Fried pioneered, even it cannot hold a candle to using no crossover.

Interestingly enough, the typical push-pull tube amplifier doesn't put power into these loudspeakers very well. The SET models we offer bring the excitement and sense of scale to the music. It was kind of a surprise to me, but you can't argue with reality.

Perhaps, one day, we can give you a listen to the combination - we usually do so in the Northern NJ area which would be closer to you...