Best

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.

Another vote for Vandersteen 2 series. Like you Craig the 2C was my first "Hi-End" love affair that I owned for 10 years and was chosen OVER Magnepan 2.6 speakers. It was a tough choice but the Vandy's won out, it was that natural bass that the Maggie's didn't have. I am sure the only reason I still don't own those wonderful speakers was the fact that I moved and I could not get them to work their magic like they did in my prior room as much as I tried. I always recommend them and they stand out to me as consistently the best value in Hi-End audio. The money saved in the speakers can be used in better electronics. But as much as I like the 2 series the 3A Signature's are an equally great value at their price point and you wonder, How does Richard Vandersteen do it?