Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Thanks Wisnon. I'll look into it.

I am, very interestingly, beginning to feel that although everyone tells me my room is "medium" sized, that I would get the best sound out of a much smaller speaker. Because it is a basement room with concrete floors, solid wood door and double sheetrock with visco-elastic glue and fully insulated walls and ceiling, the room pressurized very easily with no give - like being inside a Vault.

Part of my listening comparison is to determine which is better for my room: a larger multi driver speaker (like my Der Muzik or your suggested LumenWhite Silverflame) or a smaller fewer driver design like the Hansen Prince E, Coltrane Tenor or the downright petite Boenicke W8 or essential satellite sub system that is the Perfect8 Cube.

I seam to find that because my room is only 18.5' long I am having a hard time getting the speakers properly out into the room without me being pushed pretty close to the back wall; which is an issue because that's where the boom in the room is at its worst. It appears that rear ported speakers sound more boomy then front or bottom ported speakers, or sealed designs.

My gut is telling me that I will end up with something smaller then my Muzik's to suit the room best. I'm thinking Coltrane Tenor, Kharma Exquisite Galileo, Perfect8 Cube, Boenicke W8, etc. I think the mid size Schweikert VS-55, Vandy 7, LumenWhite Silver, Muzik, etc are going to prove themselves to be too much for my room.

Let's see.

Matt, I see what you mean. I once had a looong chat with a Swiss selling only high end manufacturer called ROWEN. They make enormously powwerful amps and innovative speakers with a 5 octave band dRiver and a hf DRIVER CALLED LMT - which is somewhat similar of the Heil tweeter. Look em up at www.rowen.ch

The 90 min long conversation informed me of how much they hated bass reflex technology and how they designed for Swiss homes that are vault-like with poured concrete being the default building material, as compared to wood and dry wall in the US. Plus Swiss homes are much smaller on average, so ideal speaker placement is more difficuult. This means they designed their speakers to work in sub-optimal locations and demonstrated this to me in the show room by putting obstacle around the speakers that normally would mess of the stero image. in their case, it made little to no difference in the "real world" speaker placements they showed. Impressive.

Lumen White have the Artisan and the Aquila as well. They are pioneers in the use of ceramic drivers, and have won best in show at CES in the past and at other places too. Their turntable is to die for as well - The Mystere $60K.
Check em out as well.

Too warm as in sonically or physically? If it's sonically maybe you ought to consider all the room treatments first..Then you can back in what improves things..

Actually, Erik, both. My room is too hot as well. I had to buy a super quiet fan that I kick on when I'm between songs. It's actually a bit on an issue.

But I meant sonically. Everyone I have spoken with (including 4 acousticians and people who make a living doing dedicated rooms) says that the carpet was an obvious mistake. It's absorbing the magic between 3k and 7k and leaving the room sounding warm because it's taking the highs that balance things out. It makes sense. I need a solid floor and a small area rug.

Regarding the treatments, I have pulled every absorber out of the room except the corner base traps. It helped. But I need the corner traps as the room has nodal issues that the traps help a lot.

Matt

Go down to John at Audio Connection in Verona NJ and listen to his Vandy Sevens and then deciide if they are to much for your room. His room is about that same size and they sound great there. It will be the best decison you every made to make the trip and buy the Sevens you won't be dissapointed.