Sirspeedy: I can clearly understand why you question the comparison of the Kharma and the VS as they appear to have completely different strengths and applications. But I think people are drawn to the unique strengths of such products. And they clearly want all of these qualities in one product. So they jump from warmth to neutrality and back to warmth and to explosive dynamics to the subtle and then back. Since we still can't have it all, I think many of us have the desire to live with the "other half" for awhile and then ultimately determine what fits best for us for the long term.
I went through exactly such a period where I just loved the Magnepan sound. A few years later I felt I needed a more dynamic speaker so I sold the Magnepans. Then I longed for the Magnepan magic so I got another pair. Finally I realized that I needed a speaker with the Magnepan magic but also a speaker that was not so dynamically limited. It was driving my family crazy as they felt I could not make up my mind. But I simply wanted it all. And after hearing so many speakers over the years from auditioning other components, I found that magic with Soundlabs. And today, I am much much closer to that "ALL"; I will be content with these speakers for quite awhile. But it took a lot of time and listening to many products to discover this was what I had been seeking. Fortunately I was able to do quite well at much less than a $50k speaker purchase!
The desires for people here to have the very best or most expensive is hardly a uniqueness to wealthy audiophiles. The same applies to virtually all material items.
There clearly are some very "well-to-do" Audiogon members, but rather than look at them negatively as people who must have the absolute best and latest, pay attention to what they write about products that cost far less but have great musical qualities. Since these people have heard the GREAT products, their comments on the lesser priced products can be of great value to us "deal shoppers".
As for the sudden attention on the DarTZeel amp here, actually there has been much praise on this amp for over a year in these forums. This was long before the recent Stereophile review. And if anyone got much value from that review, I'd be mightily surprised.
And to answer your question on the difference between the DarTZeel and the Hovland, only a direct comparison, in a system where both amps are paired with a speaker suitable to both, could answer that question.
John
I went through exactly such a period where I just loved the Magnepan sound. A few years later I felt I needed a more dynamic speaker so I sold the Magnepans. Then I longed for the Magnepan magic so I got another pair. Finally I realized that I needed a speaker with the Magnepan magic but also a speaker that was not so dynamically limited. It was driving my family crazy as they felt I could not make up my mind. But I simply wanted it all. And after hearing so many speakers over the years from auditioning other components, I found that magic with Soundlabs. And today, I am much much closer to that "ALL"; I will be content with these speakers for quite awhile. But it took a lot of time and listening to many products to discover this was what I had been seeking. Fortunately I was able to do quite well at much less than a $50k speaker purchase!
The desires for people here to have the very best or most expensive is hardly a uniqueness to wealthy audiophiles. The same applies to virtually all material items.
There clearly are some very "well-to-do" Audiogon members, but rather than look at them negatively as people who must have the absolute best and latest, pay attention to what they write about products that cost far less but have great musical qualities. Since these people have heard the GREAT products, their comments on the lesser priced products can be of great value to us "deal shoppers".
As for the sudden attention on the DarTZeel amp here, actually there has been much praise on this amp for over a year in these forums. This was long before the recent Stereophile review. And if anyone got much value from that review, I'd be mightily surprised.
And to answer your question on the difference between the DarTZeel and the Hovland, only a direct comparison, in a system where both amps are paired with a speaker suitable to both, could answer that question.
John