energy veritas 2.4i

If you are into Classical mr. Mavroudakis than you must check on Harbeth Studio 30 or 40. Some of the BEST speakers in the world.

I would suggest that, Yes, it's worth waiting for 300 hrs break-in -- just to be on the safe side.

While the Shanling did seem to be the ultimate in detail extraction (pleasant, articulate, and "musical" though!),
I suggest you also TRY (i.e. borrow -- do NOT buy) another pre and another pair of speakers. There are many british speakers with good tonal balance and upper extension (that helps bring out the detail you seek) -- if that's what you're looking for. ATC is one of the best in this respect. They also manufacture drive units; their upper mid driver is one of the best in the market (and you get it on their speakers).
Cheers

I can guarantee to you that the problem is NOT the veritas. The convergent source module in these speakers already rates up there with electrostats as it relates to their ability to discern detail. Not only is this my personal assesment with the more than a year I've owned them but energy touts the specifications which back this claim up rather vehemently. Very few company's can boast such a low level of inertia in their midrange driver (how many 2" midranges have you heard of that can still reproduce frequencies in the 500hz range?? (thanks to the fourth order linkwitz riley crossovers) and as we all know the less inertia, the more responsive the driver can be and the more detail that can be discerned. This is there philosophy through out this speaker design... 6" woofers anyone? which again... the design philosophy is to allow for more agile drivers. sure energy had to put a total of 6 woofers in a pair of these in order to get a flat frequency responce but they felt it was well worth it for the gained agility when compared to a large sluggish 12" woofer which would be needed to reproduce about the same amount of bass. The thing you'll notice with the veritas is that they are very discerning about the sonic qualities of the equipment in an audio setup. they can sound anywhere from extremely warm to extremely cynical (however, they average a touch on the analytical side when compared to your average speaker)I'm betting you're using tubes in your setup which are great for that warm sound but keep in mind, unless you pay alot more it's very hard to get tube gear that is both warm and extremely detailed. At this price point i'd go with a solid state setup that has a sound a little on the "smooth" side and you'll get all the detail you'll ever need and provide a great balance with these. With these speakers, what you hook to them is EVERYTHING. they'll completely change their sonic character when you audition some more analytical equipment to hook to them

Make sure you have them set up on concrete blocks and biwire them.It takes me hours to dial my energy's in but when its done its done.

Dear rabid-exabyte@cox.net,
Thank you for your response. My current setup is shanling scd-t200 tube sacd player, premier 18ls conrad johnson preamp, and mf2500a conrad johnson amp. amp and preamp are both solid state.