You know, you should always go with what sounds good and what's in your price range. If a $300 Sony reciever brings you happiness, buy it. I used to fall for the hype on the Stereofile magazine stuff. It's all crap. Then, I was introduced to Naim. The dealer had a set of $25,000 Krell monoblocks which which were tied to a set of $70,000 speakers. I was blown away, however, I noticed that after a few minutes I wanted to turn it down and even turn it off. It was not a pleasant experience. And the system lacked large amounts of detail, timing and control. Then, he put on a used $600 Naim Nait 2 with a set of small Castle Acoustic speakers and a $1300 used Naim CD Player. The music was pleasant, easy to listen to. You could hear every instrument clearly and the control was astounding. You wanted to stay there for hours listening. I bought the amp and the speakers and was hooked on Naim. Now, I have a full Naim system with a CDX/NAP 250, and SBL's. I've had the system for a long time and I started to wonder if there was something better out there. I went to the CES show in Las Vegas in January. I auditioned a pair of $40,000 Avanteguard speakers and a pair of $200,000 Genesis speakers. I almost puked. You could not get me to buy anything else but Naim becuase I enjoy music. Companies should be paying close attention to what Naim does. Notice that Naim systems are not usually for sale on the used market. Also, notice that they are not coming out with new versions every 18 months.
