The best speaker you ever heard?

JC51373, I am very critical of my own equipment and that of which I demo. That being said, often times it takes time to fully get to know a product and determine what works best with each piece i.e..power cords, interconnects etc... I have sold my C4's, Evo 402 and 202. At the end of the day, the C4's had a homogenous nature to their presentation..slightly blended and softened up a bit much for my taste..high frequencies were too soft and imaging was a tad left/right sounding. The 402 was brittle and flat albeit with a big bottom end...the class A sound is gone and the music suffers greatly from a lack of tonal color and liquidity. The 202 was OK but not killer dynamic and explosive with great tonal accuracy like the ref 3...the soundstage is expansive and deep with a truth of timbre and contrast not heard from any other preamp! My initial demo of the ref 3 was with a unit using a shunyata anaconda helix PC....Shunyata deadens anything I've ever heard them used on and it was no exception in this case...it made the ref 3 sound hazy! My instincts and more demo's lead me to my current rig which consists of the following:

ARC Ref 3
ARC HD220
Krell SACD Standard V5.1
Krell Resolution 2 speakers
MIT Oracle V2.1 cabling
Transparent MM Ref PC's
Wattgate Recepticles

The system has 400 hours on it and I just want to keep listening every time I fire it up...big, bold, expansive, dynamic, tonal truth, extensive, explosive yet nuanced and full of life. The best sound I have ever heard anywhere! The ref 3 and HD220 hybrid amp gives me the closest approach to re-creating the elusive sound of live music without the normal drawbacks of SS or tubes...it just presents the music sans distracting artifacts!

Truth, Class A, Dynamic, bass, blah, blah, blah...Someday you will stop listening to the vast amounts of equipment you have already owned in such an incredibly short time, and actually start listening to the music. Until then good luck.

I'm sorry if my journey for the best reproduced sound I can obtain distasteful for you Jc. I am curious however why you are upset? Most of my audio journeys have been an attempt to fuse tube dynamics and 3 dimensionality with the transient accuracy of solid state. Technology has caught up with me...simple as that! I was spoiled at an early age with exposure to great sound from the likes of the BSO.

Dave,
I'm curious about your impressions of the HD220.
I have a 300.2,and I'm thinking of upgrading.I've been unable to audition the HD220.The rest of my system consist of a ARC CD3MK2,a ARC LS26 and proac 1sc speakers.

Check out my review of the HD220 on A'gon! It has turned into one of the finest amplifiers ever to grace any of my systems. Words can hardly describe how happy I am with my purchase..it is reference caliber sound for sure!! The HD220 controls my Res 2's with great finesse....kick ass dynamic, full of life and detail with no grain or strain. It re-creates the event of a live performance like few other amps can...phenomenal with my Ref 3. For power cable specifics see the review or call Dave @ 610-399-1398.