Opinions on why this system is uninvolving

charles, try to swing the Supra amps, maybe get package deal. Jud Barber is an old friend of mine at Joule, great guy and I have his pre, but the amps are different. The amps are more thin than the pre's. I haven't heard the Stargate, but would be surprised if sound of those amps are that much off what I've heard earlier. Since getting TAS attention, not the value as when they started, but still good stuff, and, again, Jud, like Mick, is a class act. I just think the Supra's are a hell of a lot for the money - you are essentially getting the $15K LAMM's super customized. That said, you can't go wrong with Jud or his products.

Kana, The EAD T7000 is old and flakey making it a hassle to use. The drawer on most T7000's closes before you can get the cd in the tray. So.... when using you have to hold the drawer with your left hand (as it pulls against you) and drop the CD with your right. While this problem is common, it cannot be fixed as EAD is not much of a company anymore and philips does not make the same mechanisim any longer.

This is why I recommend folks try the Theta Data (not the BASIC) because it is in essence the same as the T7000 and is still supported by Theta.

I haven't been able to find a good used Theta or an EAD and that's why I don't use it.

BbTuna - the EAD is hard to find. As I stated in the post above, I cannot find one myself. I think the reason why the EAD T7000 is so good is that it was completely overbuilt since it was a first generation Laser Disk Player. Newer models are crap by comparison and have none of the sonic virtues of the old T7000. EAD will try to convince you otherwise but they are flat out lieing.

Given the EAD-T7000's performance (when it works) is so far superior to other more expensive transports, I'd have to say it would fit most anyones listening preference when paired with the right DAC.

As for Audiomeca/Audio Note, I like 'em both but my taste is pretty expensive on the AudioNote side. Every step up the ladder gives you a tremendous increase in performance. The 3.1x Audio Note is what *I'd* shoot for as a starter but the 2's and 1's are not bad.

The Enkianthus by Audiomeca is outstanding as well but isn't everyones cup-of tea. Its a very, relaxed sound with less dynamics than say an Electrocompaniet or Audio Aero based machine. The Audiomeca astonishes you with seduction while the others seem to get similar results with a slap in the face (EC). Perhaps I am being a little too harsh saying the EC is a slap in the face but I wanted to paint the contrast between the two DAC's.

Even with a Krell HTS (home theater processor) used as a DAC, the EAD sounds at par with ANY one box player.

As for speakers, a close friend of mine is a Dynaudio Maniac. He has owned all the Confidence series speakers (earlier C3 and C5's) but has upgraded to the Consequence. This is truly an amazing speaker and I am sure (having not listened to the C2 or C4's yet) that they try very hard to reproduce what the Consequence does. In the grand scale of things, if you can afford big amps to power the Dyn's, it would be a revelation for you to bypass the newer C2's and C4's and jump back in time to a pair of Consequence - which was the Dynaudio flagship prior to the 90K Evidence.

if the old EAD T7000 isn't reliable and isn't available, what then?

The new C2 and C4 don't require the same kind of power...that is one of the new characteristics of the new line. As I said I heard them first on a $1000 intergrated 30w EL34s...marvelous.

cd

Hi I wonder if you are starting to get audio hyper sensitivity. This usually happens when we change our equipt.a lot. We start to try to hear from pocket to ear and you are now in the area of huge dollars compaired to the returns. If you do anything with your system start with better quality cables. Start putting in cables that treat the thing you dislike the most. Eg. to thin sounding or to fat or over analitical. If you look at your system with the attidude of my [SPEAKERS] either like what I add or dont you won't go too far wrong. Start with one piece at a time and please let it break in first. Also if you have a local person that cooks cables get that done first.