Tubes Do It -- Transistors Don't.

Wrong again. Jadis matches very well with most Apogees. The Scintilla stands alone as a beast for an amp. It does take lots of current, but not a powerful amp. I have a friend who is very happy with his Scintilla powered by an 80 watt class A amp of his own design.

I have never heard, under any circumstance, a more believable music system than what I had with the Scintilla. Much of my awe was due, no doubt, to being my first listen to a dipole. Any dipole will out stage a dynamic box speaker anyway. I get more air from the back wave from my dipoles than any tube can provide. Room acoustics even play more of a role in musical systems than tubes. I have a great room. Listening initiates always remark about the "ear phone" effect (meaning they are emersed in the music), and that the stage remains cohesive regardless to listener position.

As you pretend not to know, I have legs in both worlds, both valve and ss. I will drop my Pass in an instant when I hear a superior sounding tube amp in the same price range. I've done it before for a smaller system. With my present speakers, I have found listening to tubes in the first gain stage works for me. I'm dying to hear a pair of Margules on my Duettas.

Specs be damned. I am talking real world music reproduction using my ears (and mind, for those who can't make the semantic connection themselves).

I wish you would refrain from using divisive sarcasm. When you do, I can't shake the image I have of you as a hooded figure preaching from top a mountain. Sprinkling terms like "materialistic" into your writing imparts a dogmatic, "My way or the bye way" attitude.

I can't help that it was a Levinson amp, Scintilla, Koetzu, Goldmund, and the perfect room that was so real it fooled me and not the Jadis powering whatever. I'm sorry that it's such a pill for you to swallow. Before you move in and say, "You don't know real," I'll tell you my daughter is a principal string player, my son blows the trumpet, and there is often someone stretching their fingers on our old world piano.

I don't see what tubes and ss have to do with spirituality, so in your pet vein I have no recommendation for you, except this; while I listen to the band play in my house, you can as well listen reverantly to white noise, believing in your heart it is "space."

Yippers, from deep in the backwoods of the green mountains of Vermont we like the way that 6chac jawbones.

No Jetter!? Loosing here!!! I'd thrown out Ten Bulls, only get back a few trolls, and a lion! And now, my lady told me that I cannot take trolls, nor lion. Have a nice weekend everyone. :-)

Regards

On 6chac: this is what happens when someone reads too many books on "Zen". Actually, glad you are having fun, just clean up after you get out of the sandbox and go home for supper.

On Muralman: what, if I note the materialistic bias in your statements, I'm being derisive? Jeez, a guy who wants "technically clean" sound recoiling against someone noting his materialistic bias, imagine that...

As far as the Scintilla being the end-all in speakers, I think its safe to say that you need to get out more. But, again, I'm glad you had an experience that showed you something more (which, empirically-speaking, may raise the possibility that there is more for you to learn...)

"Spirituality is a pet vein", like a tangential hobby. Hmm, interestingly view.

Two guys who know it all after hearing Scintillas, or reading some Zen. What more can I say, you've perfected a perfect way to immunize your ideas; conclusions without any reasons other than, well, no reasons. You're right, Muralman, the fact that your daughter and son play instruments thoroughly deconstructs my observations. So, now that I have been so thoroughly deconstructed by a duo of zen/sound enlightened beings, I will say, have a nice wkend.

Oh, that's not sarcasm you are hearing; its broken bamboo across your back.

Asa tell me. If your ear/mind were to catch the sound of a player and piano in a nearby room, and searching, you found the two, stopped awhile for a listen, would you spend the remainder of your life searching for a more real musical experience? Seems like you would. I stumbled on just that aural experience, only the ending was different. I knew then very well what a well played piano sounded like. And after countless concerts, I have found no way to improve on my enjoyment of hands on ivory. That I was fully snookered, for a prolonged time, has left me nothing more to do, than to recapture that experience. I'm a lucky guy. So far, my journey has taken me very close. It's comforting to know what I am after.

If there is a better speaker out there than the Apogee, none of the deep pockets Apogee owners I know around the world have found any. It isn't for not looking; there is nothing in audio more important to us than to find a worthy contender to replace our aging Apogees. Obviously you have never heard one in a great setup, or you wouldn't be so cavalier about Apogees. tch tch Mr. World Wise.

As for spirituality, I find the invocation of the material versus spiritual conundrum weaved into a light hearted audio discussion to be trivializing to the latter and inconsequential to the former.

It must be painful for you, a man of professed authority, to get a spanking. That would explain your sand box antics of striking out. 6chac has me thinking more than you'll ever. Certainly he is wiser, and a lot funnier.