Poor recordings that are now great.

But It seems there's an objective similarity among these early recordings that reveal corresponding similarities among the gear in that the gear does not eliminate the aparrent limitations of the recording ime, until now. Your final conclusion of using good, bad and middle of the road recordings to evaluate gear lends credence to my initial assertion, does it not? In any case, top notch gear has not had much of an influence in moving past that 'barrier' until now. I'm using two bridged TNT200 amps, Meridian 501 pre, and Oppo BDP95 as source. Speakers are not nearly as relevant imo, but just to be completely forthcoming, I have a pair of JBL L5's on the burner with a pair of Velodyne DPS 12 subs.

That could very well be. But I'm comparing my experience to the past 30+ years with various gear. I suppose you're right and I've finally come across an amp to successfully challenge those recordings. I guess a better question might have been to ask what your opinions are on the quality of those on my list. However, my intent is to identify the gear. In this case, the TNT200 FWIW. I've used plenty of recognizably great amps but they've always seemed to be challenged by those early recordings in the same way.

My last response was to Zd542. John, I have to disagree on your rational. I have not experienced the polar sonic differences you ascribe to specific amp designs. A better(imo)amp has always performed significantly better sonically in every way. There's always been a smaller, albeit significant improvement with the best recordings. Hence the logic in using the poor ones to measure sonic performance. Almarg has a very good and valid position in shooting this methodology down, but I have gotten used to knowing just what to listen for over the years. I suppose I could just as easily use his logic. However,'the better the poor ones sound, the better the overall performance will be', has rung true. The TNT200's have done just that. They ring like a bell. These are vintage IC-less amps. Cost for each including the work done is about $1,400.00. I have three with fully balanced and mono capability, and one TNT120 with only stereo/balanced operation. I'm in the process of building a fully active altered JBL 4345 system. It took a while to acquire them as they are relatively rare in the used market.

I have them all on vinyl and cd. Not one on cd sounds better than the vinyl, remastered or not, with the exception of America's greatest hits. Don't know what it is, but that one is fabulous.

Anyway, I thought it would be a good thread in identifying the good performers in terms of the gear regardless of price. I'm a vintage lover and I know there are some serious gems out there, the Acoustats being one of them. So let's hear about some other serious contenders.