Most resolving, transparent amps.

Tubegroover, I am a very happy owner of two pairs of Apogee Scintillas, the hardest speakers to drive in the world.

I have class D monos servicing these babies, and I can't imagine any SS amp approaching these class D amps in bringing the real out of 16 bits.

Since I got my second pair of Scintillas rebuilt by Richard Murry, the resolution has become so complete, I am finding CDs that need chucking. The worst of the lot are newer popular CDs.

That's Ok, because the other CDs sound sublime.

The trick with class D amps you have to know how to match them to other components. I have found naked is better in wires. Power cords must be shielded. The preamp has to be pristine. My Fire is. Most of all, the source must be vinyl, or a real good non-oversampling DAC. All oversampling CDPs and DACs sound terribly contrived and simpleton.

Based on what others have told me, Atmasphere. Based on what I have heard, CAT JL2s.

Is the end-game of the ultimate resolving system the inability to enjoy many recordings that sound poor?

Seems like an unfortunate by-product of attaining the goal.

Tvad, poor sounding CDs are few and far between in my experience. It is nothing to sweat about. What I love is when listeners come in and say, "Let's see what this really bad disc sounds like on this system. When it sounds more horrible than they imagined they blame it on the system, instead of finally tossing the crummy thing.

Do great recordings sound better on systems that make bad CDs really terrible, or those on which they to sound decent? I ezpect the answer leads to two types of systems.