I think I've made up my mind

BTW... were these amp + speaker combos you mention connected up for demo purposes when you auditioned pieces?

or were all listed items ala carte... here and there pieces that you heard separately?

.... just wondering.

If so, then what cables were in play when you chose the combo you seek out now... 3.7 + JC 1's?

that might be your answer too.

I liked the MIT Magnum ICs, myself. Though only for spot duty... on the source. I found more than one link of MIT M's was too too much and the sound lost it's moisture and began heading towards less vibrantly colored and more towards a pastel of the original timber & tome. you may feel otherwise however.

Again, recalling those wires that were in place when you heard those speakers might aid you a lot here.

From what a friend of mine says about the 3.7's... the previous post is onto something here pointing out the possible addition of a tube preamp for those Halo's & Thiels. With as much control as the mono blocks ought to provide them, perhaps trying Nirvana SX or HT Magic IIs ICs should be a very good thought IMHO.

Good luck.

Wow,you got to audition all that different equipment together.You are indeed lucky.Jim brings up some very good points in his post.

Ritmo, you can find my reasons in my other threads: 1. Let down by Wilson Sasha/ARC Ref 3 combo 2. My findings on Magico....what now?

Rtn1, I have considered the Avalon Indra but have no chance of auditioning them as no dealer in my country carries them. I've inquired from a dealer in a neighboring country and the cost of getting the Indra's is prohibitive (about $25k which is $5k more than retail) because of the shipping charges due to the very heavy wooden crates they come in.

Blindjim and Tpreaves, they were set up for demo purposes although at different dealers over the past few months.

Thanks to all for the helpful suggestions on the cables.

All very good stuff. Looks like you considered a nice variety of system types before deciding, which is very smart.

Two things worth considering I might add:

1) A tube pre-amp might work very well with that amp!

2) Did you consider OHM Walsh speakers by chance? Might be worth taking advantage of OHMs extensive in-house trial period first if you might be interested in perhaps halving or better the cost for the speakers, depending on room size. Sound should compete well with the Thiels I would think however styling and appearance is way different.

How many of you believed Spectral when they said their amps would go into oscillation if you didn't use MIT speaker cable?