Spend my $8,000 pt. 2

R_f_sayles: It seems Jim White is good at customer service (some say he's slow, but I've had not experience, clearly, so I'll reserve any opinion) so should a problem develop I'm confident he'll stand behind the product. As far as the reviews go, it's nice, but ultimately not a deal breaker. I did a little rading on the Atma-Spheres, but I think I'm going to stick with SS for now. I want tubes somewhere in the chain, but I think I'll start with the Pre, as this is my first tube exposure and I want to take my time getting used to it. Likely contenders would be a sim w-5, Rowland 201s, McCormack 250, and there are some nice classe's out there, or maybe an old rowland, but I'd prefer to buy new. What do your buddies use with their Aesthetix gear?

To answer your query, my friends us Atma-Sphere or other tube gear with their Aesthetix. It's not a requirement but rather a choice. I understand your like of SS to do the power end of the scenario and see nothing wrong with that. There are a lot of great SS amps out there. If it hadn't been for a number of events coming together; a good friend with Atma-Sphere OTL's and two years of my listening at his home and the fact that the amps are not flea powered by any means (mine, MA-1 MK2.3 Silver editions are 140w@8ohms and I'm driving 14ohm speakers) and the fact that I found an excellent deal on a demo pair through a great dealer on A'gon, I might still be SS myself. Not to try to sell you on tubes or Atma-Sphere yet, I find these amps handle the full musical range very completely. Their ability to give great textural detail in a solid lower registry is more than I have heard from a number of SS amps. Solid state is known for fast, rock solid bass and extended high end and in general tubes are not. Here is where Ralph’s OTL’s break all the rules. IMHO these amps leave nothing to be desired. They show lots of air, throw a great sound stage, very fast, pitch accurate, and highly detailed without being analytical at all. I find them just very musical and quite complete. The one caveat is that some speaker loads, I think 4ohm, cause difficulties and are not the best suited for pairing with these amps. Personally I know little of the compatibility problems, as I have no experience with trying to pair them.

Just a note about Jim White or for that matter Ralph Karsten equally, you would be hard pressed to find two more helpful and knowledgeable, true audiophile gentlemen if you tried. Read A’gon threads and I believe you will not find one curse word about either.

I do not have a tremendously varied background of experience as many on A’gon do with a plethora of various equipment. I have always listened carefully and long and then spent my money. As an example I have owned a Linn Sondek Lp12 TT since 1983 and don’t see the need to try a hundred other decks to figure out which flavor I like (this week). For you, and especially because this is my first tube foray and potentially my last due to the excellent quality of this equipment and excellent quality of support, I would not be the most unbiased and diversely knowledgeable for recommendations. I hope this longwinded explanation has been helpful.
Happy hunting and in the words of Elmer Fudd “Shhhhhh! Quiet, we’re hunting wabbit! Cheers!

If your considering a Simaudio i-7 then you might want to also consider this combo of the Simaudio W-5 and Copland CTA 305. In addition to the five sets of line level inputs, the CTA 305 offers a high quality phono level amplifier.

also see UHF, Reference Systems;
http://www.uhfmag.com/reference.html

Heli_dog: Thanks for the heads up. What are you using the Copland with? Have you compared its phono stage with anything else? I can't seem to find who reps them in NY, so I guess I'll email the copland people. Anyone have an idea?

Also, any Rowland 201 users want to chime in on what they think of the sound? Man am I demanding!

Thanks everyone for your help...I'll continue to update this thread as I audition (starting this friday!) just in case anyone is interested. Maybe someday I'll even be able to add pics of my system, if I ever get to set it up. If you're selling/renting an apt. in downtown manhattan let me know!!!!

So I finally got to audition the rowland gear. I couldn't listen to the integrated, but I heard the concerto pre with the rowland 201s, with a meridian cd player and some B&Ws. The sound was unimpressive. Everything sounded rather condensed, especially in the lows and mids. The soundstage was pretty deep, and the imaging was rather nice, but something about the highs seemed to assault my ears. It seemed a little grating, and didn't make me want to listen. I'm not a B&W fan in general, although I have liked some of their stuff in my time, but this was just a bad match. I tried to get them to switch in some proacs, which I'm much more familiar with, but they only had them on special order. I think it's hysterical that a store of this size and inventory only has B&W speakers to audition with...filling quotas much? So that wasn't my cup of tea.

The Sim i-7 is apparently still not available, which is a bit of a drag. I mean, I know shipment dates aren't concrete things, but that's why it's better to say "Available in Fall 2005" instead of "Available in August 2005". I listened to an ayre K1xe at a friends place and ultimately think it's pretty great, but not for me. I listened to the Aesthetix Janus with a Cary 303/300, Bat VK-250, an Avid TT, and a pair of Audio Physics. The sound was great in the mids highs, but the bass, although it had great extension into the lower registers, sounded a little sluggish and murky. We swapped in some Electra 927BEs and it was a different ballgame altogether. If I was just looking for a line stage or just looking for a phono stage, I think I'd still get the Janus. Jesus, what a piece of equipment. I liked the BAT quite a bit too, and I think it had remarkably little signature. I almost wonder what their tube amp would sound like in this setup, but I'm still partial to SS at this stage. The Avid table sounded killer, and I need to find out the model # of it, because it's the first Avid I've heard and I _really_ enjoyed it. Some people have said they sound slow, but I disagree in this case. Also, I noted none of the tube rush on the Janus that others have cited. It was exceedingly quiet and not nearly as hot as I feared. Okay, so it's not winning any awards for power conservation, but if it sounds this good, who f-in cares.

So it looks like the Aesthetix is the winner. Next up: TT and cables.