CHANGING FROM AUDIO RESEARCH TO AUDIO NOTE SYSTEM 

AN UK  or Japan?

personally stop researching while back who is who ? made the SET move long ago, Contacted Robyatt listened his Tektron gear I've got smitten by it, never go back to SS, HYBRID, PP , Whatsoever, 6J5 Preamplifier truly remarkable value, suck it and see .

I'm across the pond in the UK. Firstly, I do love ANUK systems and they are hard to fault depending on which level you buy into. But, I have another recommendation for you to consider, a company that came out of the principles of Audio Note UK but developed their own signature sound and now based in the USA.  

I've had Snell speakers J's & K's which Peter Quortrup would recommend with his Audio Innovation Valve amps back in the 1980's. I've had Audio Note J's & K's speakers, but never feel in love with E's.   

A ANUK dealer back in the day was Gary Dews from Border Patrol Valve amps, know running his operation out of Maryland USA. He created 300B SET amps to improve what he believed was the initial principles set out by ANUK but to drive the newly emerging Living Voice speakers by Kevin Scott. I auditioned the first Meishu and Border Patrol 300B and ended up with buying the BP300b, and have been on a Border Patrol Valve amp journey ever since.

I would recommend auditioning a Border Patrol system with either Living Voice Auditorium speakers or Volt Audio to compare against a pure ANUK system and let your ears be the judge.

I still use ANUK Cables and AN Dac, plus a BP Dac in my system but eventually built my own speakers.     

@ethereal_beats  +1  Also great to see Living Voice in the discussion!

@david_ten I have immense respect for your postings, which are typically quite mindful. Are you and @ethereal_beats merely stating that Living Voice speakers generally deserve a look? If that's what you are saying, then I agree. They are wonderful speakers worthy of consideration and Gary is a gentleman's gentleman. If you are saying the OP should consider these for his/her application, I vehemently disagree with suggesting a rear ported speaker such as Living Voice for corner placement (unless they were designed for such ala Audio Note).

@ghasley I should have been more careful / specific and better in making the point I wanted to, in my post. Thanks for pushing for clarification.

I merely meant to state that it was great to see a mention of Living Voice,...they rarely see the light of day in posts on this forum.

My recommendation for Volti from my earlier post stands...primarily because they are front ported...and address many of the priorities of the OP.

I have a different position on Devore...but refrained (and will continue to) to be civil. : )