This is typical Cinti. Bunch of well meaning folks who can't quite get on the same wavelength. Can you say the "Banks". :>) It is amazing this thread has gone on this long. The first time I have seen it.
I did e-mail Tom, "Ruebent", to say hello when one of his thread replies included a mention of "Tall Stacks". Nice guy. He mentioned his desire to pull audio lovers together from in the area, but I would imagine Tom is like most of us, fighting to find time to sit and listen for ourselves, never mind organize a club.
I have also been the Audible Elegance route. Lou is more than a little testy, but he hears like I do (old?), so the recommendatios have worked out. Mark is very different and very easy to deal with.
I started with (and still have) a pretty much out of the box system. Arcam Alpha 10 and Castle Towers from one of their scratch and dent sales. Have MG 1.6's (new), another Arcam amp and pre, and Alpha 9 and CD23 players (used from agon).
As you can see, pretty 1 dimensional in experience. It would be fun and educational to hear systems that build on a different concept. If it ever gets started include me in.
Cheers and Happy Holidays from the Queen City.
Jim Still