Has anyone found Audio Nirvana?

Hi Demar; I've really enjoyed reading the above posts and can identify with much that has already been said. I admit to being an equipment junkie too. Seven to eight years ago, I was listening through mid-fi equipment. My first two pieces of actual high end equipment were Vandersteen 2Ce speakers and an Adcom 600 DAC, and they made a big improvement. Since then, my philosophy has been to "never go backwards" in this quest for audio ecstacy (although I have gone sideways occasionally)-- and it seems to have worked. I made my way through a lot of entry level and Stereophile class B and C equipment. But this year I've finally gotten it all together, and sometimes-- especially late at night, I feel I have reached audio nirvana. Diana Krall, Margo Timmins and the Cowboy Junkies, and my own compilation (CD-R) "Blues and Soul, Nice and Slow" can be beautiful to the point of magical. This spring I had a dedicated AC and ground system installed, and that touched off a bunch of additional up-grades, and yes I'll be in debt for awhile. So I now have Levinson ML 37 transport and 360S DAC, Sonic Frontiers Line 2 pre-amp, and McCormack DNA-2DX amp with Vandersteen 3A sig. speakers. ICs and speaker cables are Synergistic Research Phase two-- about mid-priced wire. Digital cables are Cardas Lightning, and I have Syn. Res. Master Couplers on amp and transport, but I'm also putting them on pre-amp and DAC this week (hope this won't be TOO much of a good thing). Happy Listening Everyone. Craig.

I have achieved Audio Nirvana, (in fact this is my user name on another site). All my friends... audiophiles and non audiophiles agree. We sit spellbound over the awesome imaging and detail in the system. Most would think it a complete fluke. But there is a lot of system synergy. I have a Wadia 860 with audio quest lapis cable, running into Bryston 4b amps powering a set of Infinity RS1 speakers which are flanked by a pair of Entec sw-1 subwoofers. Everyone swears there is a band playing in my room. Even neighbors have come downstairs to ask where I play music because they are convinced it is real. Funny how that works as the Infinity RS1-s are too bright and the Wadia 860 has been refered to as rolled off. The Brystons are a little bright, but my crappy Monster cable dulls that. The Infinitys don't go super low, but the Entecs do and because the entecs pair crosses over at 100hz the 12 8" infinity midbass woofers only have to operate over an octave or so and don't get beamy as a result my off axis response is amazing. Massive massive sweet spot. Sounds better than $250K + systems I have heard. With the 1000 watts of Bryston amplification and 500 watts of the self powered Entecs with 6 ten inch servo controlled woofers I hit realistic live levels. Analog is better than Digital, but the Wadia makes digital real. Don't get jealous yet though. I have had to move out of that place and now have no place for my enormous speakers and now have nothing to listen to. Should have bought a great set of headphones. I''m selling the speakers in this forum .......sigh....... at least I reached it .... don't stop searching for it because it was great while it lasted.

Audiophiles never reach audio nirvana, its the nature of the "beast". However, music lovers do. Once in a while the audiophile in me crosses over to the music lover in me and I briefly reach audio nirvana. Good luck finding it. My advice is enjoy the music you play and try not to worry so much about the equipment. If I could only take my own advice.

i think slowhand's got it just right. the set-up that helps the audio entheusiast in me cross over with the music lover in me (with fairly impressive frequency): wadia's 850 driven by a pair of cj prem. 12's through jm labs' mezzo utopias. wired with transparent reference speaker & kcag interconnects. simple, synergistic and fun.

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I've found it several times since 1975.

I'll probably find it a few more times before I'm done.

Kinda like getting married.  You find her, sincerely with all your heart tell the world that you will be together til death do you part.  You divorce, find her again and profess your love til death do you part...repeat, repeat....
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