Jungson 88D vs Dk Design MKII

I have to agree with Markmendenhall. Although I don't own the DK, I just purchased the 88D LE and have listened to it for 2 days now. I did have a chance to listen to the DK at the 2005 HE Show in NY. I was really impressed with the sound of the DK with NOS Mullards at the Show. It imaged and soundstaged like no tomorrow and was dynamic as hell driving the VS VR4jrs, but I did find some irritating quality to the high frequency (grit for lack of better word) that started to bother me a little after half hour of listening. I have heard this before and in the long run I can't live with this. The Jungson on the other hand has none of this grit. The highs are extremely detailed and smooth at the same time. The imaging, I find, is holographic although rarely I do hear what Mark refers to as sound comming from the speaker. But these are only initial observations and must be taken with a grain of salt as my Jungson has only about 20 hours on them with a new cheap Sony 595 SACD as the digital source for now. I still hear some fog to the sound which I attribute to new out-of-the-box sound without significant break in.

Maxx I posted a question for you on my original Jungson 88D thread. Please take a look.

Lrsky, you make very good points. But everyone's musical taste is different and sometimes it's hard to figure out why some choose one component with another if one doesn't accept this. As I have said earlier, there is one aspect of the DK sound (with NOS Mullard) that bothered me (may be it was the speaker)and can't live with. At least from my experience with both these amps, the high frequency performance of the Jungson is superior. I loved the imaging and staging and jet black background of the DK. So far with about 30 hours of breakin, the Jungson has not reached that level of performance - may be it never will. I find the midrange of the Jungson to be smoother. Bass definitely goes to the DK. But the DK has the advantage of tube rolling so you can really taylor the sound to your taste. But no amp sounds good in all systems, as I know several audiophiles have heard or owned DKs (and traded it for Jungsons) who do not like the sound of the Dks. So what I'm really trying to say is, it's not only dependent on your preference but also your system. Some amps just don't sound good in some systems.