I have owned the 88C for about four months, and now also have the 88D- but only for two days. Similar to HDM, I have never heard anything under $1000 that comes close. It has a good grip on a wide variety of speakers, beautiful midrange, excellent bass and is fairly detailed. It sounds a lot like pure Class A biased solid state amps without all the heat. Not quite as refined as the Plinius 9200 I recently owned, but close, and more musical than the Plinius to my ears. The 88C probably won't be good match if you are trying to balance a very bright source or speakers (not overly forgiving). Build quality and remote are excellent. A taste of the hi-end for relatively little money.
My main complaints with the 88C is that only the first 10-15 steps of the volume control are useful (it goes up to 100)- can be hard to make small adjustments at low volume. Also, I get a loud buzz whenever I attach my phono stage, which I have never been able to figure out (stage works fine with other amps). The larger 88D has the same issues with the volume steps and the incompatability with my phono stage.
Comparing the 88C to the 88D driving Usher CP 6371 speakers, so far I have been struck by how close the two amps are. The 88D runs a lot hotter, and is slightly smoother and more forgiving, but seems to have less punchy bass. Need more listening time to give a better comparison.
My main complaints with the 88C is that only the first 10-15 steps of the volume control are useful (it goes up to 100)- can be hard to make small adjustments at low volume. Also, I get a loud buzz whenever I attach my phono stage, which I have never been able to figure out (stage works fine with other amps). The larger 88D has the same issues with the volume steps and the incompatability with my phono stage.
Comparing the 88C to the 88D driving Usher CP 6371 speakers, so far I have been struck by how close the two amps are. The 88D runs a lot hotter, and is slightly smoother and more forgiving, but seems to have less punchy bass. Need more listening time to give a better comparison.