Audio Research S80 with DeVORE FIDELITY O/96

For the record (is there a record?), my amps, speakers, preamp, cables, a DAC, headphone amps, and EQs (including a brilliant Loki Max I just bought) are all US made. DeVore’s cabinets are made in a furniture shop (surprisingly owned by an attorney friend’s brother in law) next to his "chimp world" or whatever he calls it, the 96 and 93 are absolutely veneered plywood that can (and does) peel off, and ARC stuff is circuit boards and tubes being sold for multiples of other brand’s components. Hand made...really? Ever seen a Collings guitar? I have owned and can recommend plenty of things equal to or better sounding than anything from ARC or DeVore, but if people need to spend on a Japanese esthetic I’m sure John and his cat will be happy.

@wolf_garcia 

I hesitate to respond at all. There is nothing in your response that calls for one-in fact it seems a bit irrational. Collings guitar?

Pricing of audio components sometimes has a black and white border such as when Lexicon took the Oppo BDP-83 Blu-Ray player at $500, put it in a fancy case, and charged thousands for it. But most times pricing is purely relative. Your "$12,000 for a box with two drivers" is someone else's "That's a pittance, I paid more than that for a phono cartridge". 

Not all circuit boards are equal. The latest Ref series of ARC amps implement premium 4 layer boards. Further, many audio circuit designers believe that circuit boards offer sonic advantages to point to point. A quick glance at the inside of your Loki Max reveals a rather pedestrian circuit board. Schiit is known, much to their credit, for coaxing fine sound out of lower priced transformers, inductors, caps, and other parts choices. Their short lived tonearm was a prime example. All the power to them!

But my main reason for responding is this; a FURNITURE SHOP makes the speaker cabinets? Oh no! Who would ever want that? Yes, Box Furniture Co, known for their artisan built equipment shelves/racks makes the DeVore cabinets in the same Brooklyn Naval Yard warehouse as DeVore's location. https://www.boxfurnitureco.com/about

I mention Collings guitars as an example of actual craftsmanship as opposed to what DeVore does. I'll always feel that ARC and DeVore are overpriced, and if ARC's recent financial troubles are any indication of this I'm not alone. Schiit makes astoundingly well designed stuff that sounds great without unnecessary frippery and sells it for a fraction of what many others might...the Max is 1500 bucks. A pedestrian circuit board that works well does that because that's all it needs. I understand that hyperbole sells and ARC and DeVore are well liked by some, but veneered plywood and machine made circuit boards simply aren't expensive enough to justify the selling price. Box Furniture is not known for "artisan built" anything...saw a board, make a box. 

On a whim I recently switched out my Cardas Clear speaker cables with Auditorium. 23 and switched from the 8 ohm taps to the 16 on my Ref 80 S. The results are quite positive.