The most emotional amp out there?


OK gang, I need your votes for the amp you feel that brings the chills, the goosebumps, yes maybe even a teardrop or two when you sit down and listen to your particular music of choice. Although many responders will automatically think of tubes, I do not necessarily share that "prejudice". I'm trying to find that special amp to mate with my Virgo IIs that really takes me to the heart of the music...as opposed to just performing the requisite audiophile tricks (e.g. imaging, soundstage depth, etc.). I'm tired of appreciating the specific virtues of a well known amplifier that I am auditioning but never really being transported to a place where I forget about the gear and simply am enthralled with the music.

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy the audiophile thing as much as the next person. But I am searching for the amplifier that will transcend the need to go through the checklist of listening attributes a reviewer does and instead will simply allow me to sit back and just be enveloped by the message that the particular recording artist I am listening to is trying to communicate.

I hope I'm being somewhat inteligible here and thanks for your suggestions.

Gregg
reneaugroup309c
Oh yeah, reproducing music electronically is just like wine... The comparison is old, tedious, boring and not instructive at all. A wine does not seek to reproduce anything; it is not the ersatz of another liquid. So trotting out the old snobbish wine line is a joke.

Sorry, no cigar!

Oh, and the point about the Pioneer is simply that nothing really compares to that first system insofar as being overwhelmed by the machinery; the rest actually comes from the performance and that does not require amps from companies that want 35K for one and simply manage to bankrupt themselves in the process.
And there are some people who will happily pay top dollar for old vintage wine, even though it tastes bad. ;)
I would rather have an older well know wine than something new, unproven without the test of time. That's what you're dealing with. Junkmail.
I agree with Stanhifi...Boone's Farm for me, I have a bottle left over from 1969...the good apple stuff!

Dave