How good is my source?

cornfed, auditioning gear is helpful and probably essential for assembling your "ultimate rig", but unlike you I buy my equipment used, afterall this is a used equipment site, I assume you buy your equipment new, if not you must waste a lot of dealers time, my reasoning is this, my first system cost about $4000 buying new, closeout or dealer used product, it consisted of a $700 pair of paradigms, an Acurus L10, two acurus A80 amp, a cal alpha and kinergetics transport, cabling was audiostream and tributaries, these were components that local my dealers told me would work well together and it was a fine system, my current system I bought used, a Marsh 400 ($1350), a CAL CL 20 ($850), Anodyne passive ($200), AQ Diamond x3 ($260), Kimber Bifocal($450), a Richard Gray 400 ($400), two Tg audio cords HSRa and HSRi ($250) Blue Circle cord ($75) and a pair of Castle Severn 2s ($750), total about 4600 including major shipping charges. Before buying this system I figured that I could assemble a better system buying used without my dealers help than he could sell me for similar cash, which would you prefer? I prefer to buy used and take my chances on getting a piece of equipment I don't like, it can usually be resold at minimal loss and sometimes at a profit. Either way I do not intend to go waste a dealers time auditioning something I have no intentions of buying from their shop. To try and minimize making poor decisions I sometimes ask for the advice of others, I sometimes get very helpful responses like that of mrowland, what I usually get is someone like you who spends way to much time at the local audio store and takes it a little to seriously for my taste, spouting off some crap about the invalidity of reviews or the opinions of others, like yours. -mike k

mkaes, one of the pitfalls of audio reviewing is that reviewers tend to over dramitize the sonic differences between components. Yes it is true that a dCS converter sounds different than a Wadia, but the reality is the differences are not major. (My standard is musical relevance, not audiophile minutae.) In the high-end audio arena the difference between components are usually small to very small, if not in fact trivial. Good components do not sound dramatically better or worse than other good components in properly setup systems. They sound slightly different and we as audiophiles thrive on these differences, minor though they be.

Cornfed's tone may have been severe, but I agree with his basic message. You need to listen for yourself and make your own opinion.

mike, i have a cal alpha and delta - when i ren it thru and audio research sp-10 into a sonic's frontier amp the synergy is excellent, i.e. the pre-amp and amp soften the high end of the cal alpha. i love the sound for casually listening, especially jazz. i also have a bat vkd5 which i run thru an ear pre and a mesa baron amp and this combination is exceptionally detailed and musical. the bat sounds crappy on the sp10/sf and the cal sounds too bright and high fi'ish on the ear/baron. is the bat that much better - it sure is - is it worth it (used) it sure is, but its still all about synergy and it makes buying without listening a sort of crap shoot. you can do it, but you really need help from reviewers,and users, who's bias is known to you, and can help you with the synergy issue. good luck.

Hi Mike K, and cornfedboy,
Let's keep it civil and spite-free, okay guys? The events of last week have sobered me, and I'm sure you, for the indefinite future. Let's all assume the best about each other, and not bite and spite in the forums, which had really degenerated into namecalling and worse before Audiogon put on the new format. Mike, I think you bought some Audio Research cables from me, so I know you are a nice and civil guy. Please give Cornfed the benefit of the doubt, don't read too much into his message, it was not a call to arms, just his very humble opinion, for you to take or leave (without acrimonious comment). Everyone here has the best of intentions, so please let's all "just get along." The world is too horrible a place for sniping in a forum that only exists for our pleasure, entertainment, education, and possible enlightenment.
Best regards to all, and may the next week be better than the last,
Sarah

onhwy I see your point as far as a systems synergy is going to represent a good deal of the differences between highend players in any given system, as I mentioned above I guess this is what is lost buying used