State of the Art? I don t care anymore.

I know how you feel, and I think all of us who have been in this hobby a long time have felt that way at some point. I'm no longer into constant major upgrades (my amps, preamp, turntable, transport and DAC have been pretty much the same the past 6-8 years), and have pretty much geared my system to convey musical, rather than hi-fi, values. When I started out it wasn't that way, of course, but I reached the point about 10 years ago where I decided to get off the merry-go-round and find the components that best got me involved in the music and figure a way to afford them, then hold onto them and tweak their performance from time to time. If I were starting over again now and going with that objective, after having heard this system at a non-audiophile friend's home, I would find the small Red Rose system almost ideal for what I was trying to accomplish. It's a system (tubed, of course) that works well together and lets you enjoy the music, but gives enough of a high-end sound to satisfy. It has weaknesses and certainly can be bettered, but for my tastes (principally classical) it has most everything I'm looking for except the deep bass, and for that maybe I could find a subwoofer or listen in a smaller room at quieter volumes. But perhaps the main thing about it that makes it so appealing is how it is marketed as a package by Red Rose--sort of a high-end rack system. No need to try out one component vs. another, no mixing and matching, just an all-in-one system that works and is very musical. I'm sure there are other, less expensive, combinations out there that will do the same thing, but this one just struck me because my friend, with one purchase, had bought a system which conveyed the basic values of the system I'd spent many years, and much more money, to build.

CW: I picked up an Audion Silver Night stereo 300B amp and am running a pair of Reynaud Twins. The CD source is just a CAL player with a Bel Canto DAC. It is a very simple yet musical system and will be all the way there after a few cable changes. When the money starts rolling in again I may build another one with the Audiomat 30 watt tube integrated amp and Renaud Trente's and move the current system into our spare room. I was rolling signal and output tubes in the Audion a few weeks ago and most everything sounded good just different, so there is always something to play with if I feel so inclined.

Hmmm, CW, first you say you're tired of the quest for SOTA reproduction, then you ask if there's a component that will allow you to enjoy the music. Do you see a bit of a conflict here? My suggestion is to think of yourself as having two, separate hobbies. One is the pursuit of more accurate reproduction of "the sound of real music in real space." The other is the enjoyment of music. And you don't need the first to do the second. Beethoven is still Beethoven even on a boombox. What makes his symphonies dramatic can be heard even through a thick haze of distortion. So put one of your hobbies aside for awhile. Learn a little about music, and what makes Beethoven--or whatever it is that floats your boat--move you so. (Hint: it's not his sweet tube sound!)

Go hear more live music. That will always get you more involved in the music and not the system.You'll think your system sounds better.

cw: ah, i perceive a zen question. do you really need more and bigger rocks or fewer, more pleasing rocks placed in a perfectly groomed gravel garden? it is for you, not your master, to choose your personal path to enlightenment. put another way: did the software produce the hardware or the hardware the software? corollary: does the chicken even know, much less care, whether there's a road to be crossed? -kelly