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.
