I've been at this for almost ten years now and I've probably listened to or owned just about every mainstream high end product out there. I'd have to say that my current system is as close to "Nirvana" as I've ever been. How do you know when you're there? When you're listening and your eyes are closed and you really believe she's there singing just for you and you can count her fillings, you're there! When your listening and the foot is tapping and you're just really enjoying the music, you're there! When your listening and finding yourself focusing in on whatever it it is that you want to...background vocals, the bass guitarist, the separation between instruments in a three dimensional plane, you're there. When you've got it really cranked and its been cranked for at least a half an hour and you find yourself still wanting to turn it up..you're there. And finally, when that special passage hits or a favorite part of a favorite song and you get goosebumps...you're there!!! And that's why we spend the crazy money that we do. After all, you can buy a Sub-Zero refrigerator for the price of a pair of cables..go figure.. so having said all that, my system is Genesis 350 speakers, conrad Johnson Premier 16LS pre-amp, VAC 30/30 (don't let their 30 watts fool you-and its worth putting the Western Electric 300B's in it), VPI Aries with JMW Memorial, Benz Mo9, and Audio Research PH3 SE, Sonic Frontiers SCT-1, Sonic Frontiers SFD2 Mark II, Assemblage Anti-Jitter/Upsampler. Speaker Cables and interconnect are all Harmonic Technology. Hey it does it for me. Isn't that all that really matters?
