Ken Ken Ken...Kehut, you're so funny. I'm warning you, if you take an LS5 home, you're gonna smile....until you have to have to pay for it....but you will keep it!
Bluefin: Yes, absolutely system synergy is important here. I think of the LS5 as a front row presentation whereas the 31SE is more middle of the theatre. It's really all what you like and how it balances with other components. Just be careful with Cardas Golden Cross here: it is addicting at first, but it can be too much of a good thing quickly and much detail is lost.
At the time I changed from LS5 III to 31SE, I had the BAT 10 phono, ARC CL150s and Counterpoint NPS400 driving Talon Khorus and/or Maggie 3.5s. The LS5 was not a very good match with the CL150s as the combination made the presentation a bit too forward. The VT130 is much better balanced than the CL150s in this regard. The NPS400 has even great tonal balance than the VT130 but it gives up some of that awesome harmonic richness of the VT130. It really is about fine tuning the system and not too focused on any one link for long.
Comparing the 31SE to the LS5 III at home and at a dealer, in both cases, the 31SE had so much more extension in the lowest octave. And there was an incredible coherency across the entire band with the 31SE.
When I went to the BAT dealer, he demoed a jazz track where we could hear a string bassist slowly going up and down the register...with the 31SE you could hear a few extra notes at the bottom vs with the LS5 III. I was greatly impressed by this. He did another demo of an old jazz track where you could hear tape hiss as background noise. With the 31SE, that band of hiss went fully across the speakers which made it easier to tune out. With the LS5 III, the hiss was very much more localized at the speakers and at a higher level which made it not so easy to tune out. Coherency, smoothness and naturalness are words that come to mind with the 31SE. As for ambience, bloom, 3D, decay, etc., all the great strengths of the LS5, the 31SE sacrificed none of these in either of the 2 systems. I never felt like I was listening to a solid state preamp like the LS2, 15, 22, etc., make me feel.
It's so cool to hear how everyone here is so happy with the sound of their systems.
John
