Best

Morasp, I own several MF amps, integrateds, preamps and will probably end up buying an A3cr amp/preamp combo when the time is right, it pays to be patient when buying from Audio Advisor as price will eventually come down. I have read several reviews, talked to my AA salesman, and talked to current owners, I do not own now so I cannot directly comment .....wait till Sam Tellig gives full review in Oct Stereophile, he will confirm Wes Phillips findings and then some......some of Sam Tellig's comments have been "leaked" in current fall 2000 Audio Advisor catalog

Rega Planet

Vandersteen 2C speakers-- all their models, and Adcom 600 DA Converter. These two pieces provided my first tastes of high end audio. Years ago when I plugged my old Phillips CD player into the Adcom 600 (via coax), I quickly came to realize that CDs really could sound good. Cheers. Craig.

Garfish, excellent posting about Richard's great speakers. When you look at the line up of two way $10K speakers that exist in the world, and then look at the design, construction and value in the Vandersteen 2 series, it makes you wonder how anyone can not consider these as a giant killer.

I have several giant killers: Vandersteen 2CE Signature speakers, Magnepan 1.6QR speakers, Adcom GFP-750 preamp, VTL IT and ST-85 tube amps, Nordost Blue cables, Sony XA7ES CD player. The Magnepan 1.6QR is the first serious competition to the 2CE in the 1500 price range. It is a very different speaker in that it has tremendous detail and soundstaging at the expense of bass, room placement, and amplifier compatibility. I just got another adcom preamp; In passive mode with high quality cables it is almost indiscernable from my XA7ES's variable outputs. It might sound better.