CLASSE - Great amps or highly flawed?

I take umbrage at your denigration of snack food industry icon. It was totally uncalled for. At no time has Hostess ever made the claim that their cupcake was as good as, or even a substititute for, a chocolate cake made from premium ingredients.

Oh yeah ... and just where do I find one of your finely made cakes at 5:00am when I'm already 2 hours into a 10 hour drive & need a hit of caffeine and chocolate to wake me up? HUH? WEEELLL??? I KNOW where I can find a Hostess cupcake when I need one. They may not be great food, but they certainly are great junk food.

Why not more than 2 weeks ago, they saved my life during a trip to Colorado Springs. It was 7:00am & I had been on the road for 2-1/2 hours, was on low power and had to fill up the truck. After tending to the diesel duties I went into the Texaco quick stop store, and there...in front of my eyes...fresh, right off the truck...gleaming in their cellophane wrappers...joy of joys...happy..happy...HOSTESS CUP CAKES. Grab two packages..a large coffee...put some tunes in the CD player...put the cruise control on 80 ...sit back..relax and enjoy the feast...OH yeah, babe...

Whew...now I feel much better...

Why are you getting so defensive and sensitive, Kevziek? Can't you take criticism of the internal validity of your findings? They are far from empirical. The fact is auditioning is more of a bottom-up process than most care to admit, and you certainly did not rule out bias in yours'.

I too have auditioned Classe along with other amps, in a quality system. And I was a professional musician. I know there are faults of the CA series and am sure there are better values than the 201, but I have found that it still competes with other price-like amps. I

It is not that I bow down to my amp, I just do not like the polarized, biased way this thread has started and has kept going. I also have no idea what you are after. Someone gives posts what they think, and you rebut them with Stereophile article. You listen to one, and shock of shocks, you don't like it. And the hole thing starts again. It is worth nothing, just like most other threads 'exploring' the inherent 'quality' of major-brand components. On their face, they may not be a bad idea, but I never seen one yield much benefit. You may have to email me with any personally directed comment. I'm done reading this thread.

Xenon Now thats very good. I just ran out and bought a whole case of those Hostess cakes. Awesome!! The keyboard is covered in chocolate crumbs and ...i'm feeling abit, excuse me...bloated.. On to subject at hand. I,m sure classe makes a fine product. However if you go to audioreview and plug in Electro's EMC1 cdp , you'll find 33 beautiful gut soulful praises of this player. Hardly 1 bad word! I,m confident this superior craftsmanship is present in their amps as well. So if MR. Kevziek said the above about Electrocompaniet's amps, my first reaction would be anger. I would post "are you sure about what you're saying maybe you need to change the associated equipment and/or get your hearing checked" Then again i may totally ignore him. Most Electro. owners would ignore him as well. I find most "professional" reviewers comments confusing, at times not the truth. But i think they are learning. Read the review in Dec. issue of sterophile by Fremer on the Kora Cosmos($6K) vs. Audio research VTM200($11K) Kora took the prize. There may be something out there as good as AND maybe less expensive than the Kora,i don't know. Thats why i research on Audiogon. And thats why i like Kev's thread. Like i say sometimes you can spend more and get less and sometimes you can spend less and get the least. (least = repairs) Tah Tah

Don't mean to be a party pooper, but there is a little money to be made in posting public reviews on audio equipment. I think it's called hack writing. Not that all manufacturers or dealers indulge in this sort of free cyber sales approach... but some do.

I wouldn't believe Kevziek's opinion any more than I would 75 audio or videophiles raving about the product of the century. Sonics, and the same goes for visuals, are a matter of taste. Appreciation and pleasure are immeasurable and unquantifiable.

My Classe gives me immeasurable pleasure....

In 1992, I purchased one of the last Classe' Tens (125wpc) designed by the legendary Dave Reich, whose amps bore the designation DR. The last DRs--DR-10, DR-15 and DR-25 (Ten, Fifteen and Twenty-Five)--are still considered some of the best-sounding ever to come out of Lachine or elsewhere. The DR-10 continues to drive our system, while speakers, preamps, CD players, transports, DACs, tuners, wire and cable, and accessories have come and gone. There've been many other amps in the house for extended audition as a possible replacement. Except for two, one SS, the other tubed, and both costing 7-8 times the DR-10, none have equaled the Classe' in OVERALL presentation or have been better in enough areas to warrant a change. This includes a number of later and latest Classe' amps. The remainder of our system: Avalon Arcus, c-j 14LS/Mullard, Accuphase CD player and tuner, Luminous Audio Technology ICs, Symo speaker cable, Shunyata Viper PCs and Hydra. When a better OVERALL amp is available to me at a reasonable price, I'll most definitely consider buying it. Until then, the venerable DR-10 stays.