In the same vein as the original post above, I just hooked up my 15 year old Mission Cyrus One integrated as a phono preamp feeding into an Anthem line stage. I recently sold my AI M3a, which was Class A rated and Mike Fremer raved about its phono stage. The Cyrus One through the Anthem is better. Clean, natural unforced bass, smooth treble and an utterly convincing midrange. Palpable 3 dimensional and all the right size and height. No grain. Lacking only in deep bass, I think (my speakers dont go there anyway). Remarkable. It is NOT for sale.
Pleasant surprises, what have you run across?
Not a biggie, but the other day I am working on a pair of speakers(Infinity 2.5, new surrounds) and while having them disconnected from my main system, I hooked up a pair of Epi M50's to it because it was quick and so I could have music during the repair. Now of course I had heard them before, used them in other rooms, etc. But I was just tremendously surprised again about how good an inexpensive(yes cheap)speaker could sound when hooked up to some decent gear(Perreaux SM2/3150,Elite DV 09, Scott 350B). Then I got to thinking about other pleasant surprises like the 1st Sonus Blue label, 1st real sound system,an AR System with AR 2AX's, 1st Advents,1st Stereo 70(about 1980), 1st Scott 350B(just recently) and some others. And now I wonder if any of the rest of you would share that experience, be interesting to read.