@grovergardner , You are the voice of reason and a wealth of knowledge. Many folks hop in to spew diarrhea of the mind with no point, or only to criticize. This is, after all, a passionate hobby for most of us! Thank you!
I'll take you up on that bet--just for fun. I'd love to hear and nice W2, 3, or 4. My 300 B (Elekit) sounds great on the Cornwalls, but at 8 watts it could use a bit more in my room--and I don't listen that loud. While the C-Walls are super efficient, I do think they like a bit more wattage than flea or minimal SET to get moving---that's only based on listening.
Yes, the Crimson does sound very good with the C-Walls. It's just sad that they did what they did with it. Maybe I'lll fix the problems: add a chassis ground, install a backlit meter, and upgrade a few other things, including isolating the transformers a bit.
And finally, I do own a Doge DAC 7. People don't believe me how good it sounds. It is stellar. The build quality on it crushes things people pay $5k for and then some. I've mated it with all sorts of preamps and integrated. It plays well, always.
I also own the Doge Clarity preamp. All Clarity caps throughout the signal side of things. Doge sources parts from all over the world and surprisingly few are Chinese. Most are German, Swiss, British, Japanese, and US. The build quality here is stellar too. There's a few nits to pick but at $2k it can play with preamps costing twofold its ask.
I think my real woe with the Crimson is (a) not likely being able to pair it with less efficient speakers; and (b) a sadness that Bob Carver's swan song is a bit blemished. I feel sorry for him, but more sorry for the folks that made the actual misrepresentations. They played the short game.
Thank you Grovergardner! You pass the audiophile "beer test" and then some!