Jim - thanks for the suggestions. I will skip over Nebraska in my search for a more desirable state, free from degradation. Perhaps my own private Idaho. I suppose the time that might take would depend on where you are coming from and where you are going. Also, what means of travel are you using.
Rok2id - Yeah, my point exactly. Stick around and you'll see lots more of the same. To be fair, the site is actually devoted to conversation around this stuff - but, yes, it is taken way to seriously when there is no perspective or levity...it's all just stuff...life and death are certainly not remotely in the balance.
To add to the burgeoning list of "mistakes" people make - yet another is build a system without any consideration of how each of the components interact with each other, or perhaps worse, how the system interfaces with the room they'll be putting it into, and or not treating the room as if it were just as vital a component as any other. This came up with the Maggie bit, which Ill add a bit of input on: I've followed a good friend's progress as he tried to integrate Magneplanar 20.1's into his purpose built moderately sized listening room. Among things he tried; Nye stands, Tom Tutay Xover, biamping with a number of highly effective and wonderful amplifiers, adding and modifying room treatments in an already well sorted out room. In both of our opinions he could not get them to work well in that room, where other speakers shine brightly, for whatever reasons (and those reasons could be many). My own opinion is that the speakers overpowered the room and smeared the soundstage. He ended up selling them and going to (back to) conventional dynamic driver speakers which work great in his room. He'd had a similar problem with Quad 988's in the same room - they simply did not work well in that space and or with the knowledge and treatments he was utilizing. Most, if not all, of the dynamic and horn speakers I've heard in that space have sounded great and have not exhibited any tendencies that either the Maggies or Quads had.
On reproducing deep bass - my own experience is that it is a very expensive aspect of sound reproduction to get right, where the nuance of experiencing low notes the way one might in a the presence of the instrument that produced them, is actually carried out with some degree of fidelity and remotely similar impact, and are well integrated with the rest of the spectrum, and delivered without serous detriment to the rest of the range. Inexpensive solutions just don't seem to cut it, from my own experiences trying and listening to what others try. Those that do seem to do so at some significant cost. The most economical I can think of, that actually occurred to me as natural and impactful, as well as seamlessly integrated, has been the satellite subwoofer system that Audiokinesis makes, where multiple subs do the ground work.
