Why did you purchase the equipment you have and what do you like most about it?

@ricred1 exactly.  We all have different variables.  Equipment, listening environments and combinations etc. I agree 100%. Your system is unique to you. 

First, I don't buy anything that looks wrong to me. Yes, looks. Then, if I can't audition it, and usually I can't, I listen to other people, especially some on Audiogon. Pro reviews are without exception all BS, you never know what they really hear and think. I always buy used by mail and don't communicate with any dealer.

From the 80’s and two decades ahead have been through a more traditional range of speaker brands (i.e.: lower efficiency, direct radiating) like JMLab, Snell, Spendor, JBL, Amphion, Peak Consult, Raidho and S.P. Technology before verging into the moderate to high efficiency segment of speakers from the polish hORNS, the UK-based Simon Mears Audio and now Electro-Voice/JBL/B&C. I’ve used Class D amp variants, Class A and A/B dittos (mostly SS amps, and a few tube-based), preamps from the likes of Electrocompaniet, Cary, Classé and Belles (Power Modules), and went digital source exclusively over 30 years ago. Nothing wrong with an analogue source, on the contrary, but I prioritize differently - i.e.: digital exclusively.

As a fairly young lad I favored speakers like the JBL 250Ti’s for their room filling, fairly live and dynamic sound, and later craved the larger and more expensive siblings - the 4430/4435, Everest DD55000 and particularly K2 S9500’s. Before it came to any investments however JBL "changed gear," went to other dealer hands here in Denmark, and while I liked the later K2 S9800(SE’s) they were out of my budget range. JBL’s horn-based product range these last two decades has come to divert a bit from my taste (I do like the actively configured M2’s and current Everest’s), and I actually find a range of their older models more interesting sonically.

The real change for me came with the "discovery" of a pro sound dealer who himself, more privately, is a true audio nerd and collector that merges the pro segment of speakers (older JBL and Electro-Voice cinema line, Vitavox, Altec and ATC) with high-end digital and analogue sources from Weiss, Bricasti, Mark Levinson (transport), Project (transport, RS2 T) and SME turntables (model 30, of which he has several). Not least he’s running all his setups in his large house/home firm fully actively configured through MC² Audio amps (and previously Crown Studio Ref. 1’s and McIntosh MC-2300’s) and ATC SCA2 preamps.

And so this is where I am now - in the merger of a domestic line high-end D/A-converter with studio amps and actively configured pro cinema speakers + horn-based subs. What I like about this approach is its dynamically uninhibited, effortless, very highly resolved, transparent, tonally fairly accurate and coherent, full-range presentation.

On a side note, if not an appendix: the recently added JBL Alnico tweeters are some ~50 years old, and yet they’re more resolved, smooth, effortless and dynamic than any dome tweeter I’ve heard, sitting up there with modern ribbon and AMT variants. Again: they’re pro segment and half a century old, and yet.. How’s that for the claimed progression of modern drivers?

Started my adult life working American oil fields in the early 80's and when traveling my coworkers were checking out nightspots. Not me. I was hitting music stores, record stores and anything music related. When I first heard Klipsch and McIntosh together I knew my goal. It took 30 years after buying my first Heritage line of speakers before I got my first MC252 amp. 10 years later I have owned and still have ever speaker in the Klipsch Heritage line and now use Mac amps and preamps. For me it's the combo of sweet yet powerful sound, beauty, and reliability. At night sitting in the sweet spot here in a mountain valley of southwestern Oregon, I close my eyes, drink a good bourbon and marvel at the talent of musicians from all over the world throughout the ages. Then I thank God for blessing me.

@jmalen123 great post. That’s what it’s about. Having any band from anywhere in the world right in front of you.