Best Integrated, period.

Hi Dave, Mapman - i've responded to your questions in the review section of the forum as i didn't want to divert attention away from the central thread topic. Regards.

All, what we still do not know is what Kiwi meant by "ad a "listen" to the C500. How many hours of break in did the unit have when he performed critical listening? How many hours of active warmup did the unit have since the last power down? We do not know Kiwis expectations nor his sonic reference. Let us also consider that one audiophile's bleached sound is one other audiophile's accuracy. I have for example listened to Spectron only on SP speakers. . . and vocals where anything but sounding bleached to me, rather, I found them to sound grand and nuanced. But then, I am admittedly not fond of typical tube sound. Kiwi's 'bleached vocals" may be nothing more than a matter of differing expectations. G.

Kiwi_1282001,

It indicates you compared to MBL amplification but not what kind of hybrid amp you normally use with your planars?

If the planars are anything like Magnepan, I could relate to how hybrid amplification could add a nice touch, again depending on taste. I would expect the same to be true with MBL speaks.

Personally, I believe discussing the "best" integrated in the context of specific speaker designs and how they are different makes for a more valuable discussion.

Rowland + Magico sounds nice. Jonathan Valin recommended to run the Magicos with the Gamut Di150, so I guess that will be another nice match, but I still wonder if it can touch the Vitus SS101?
Dave is Rowland using a custom Magico sub?

I don't recall details of his sub. It looked prototype-ish, so it's likely to be something custom. Given his fondness of Magico, that would be a good suspect, but nothing more than conjecture.

Dave