Best Digital Amp for Legacy Focus 20/20?

Muralman1, your enthusiasm sometimes compromises your opinion. Your replicating the same notions you had for the EAR gear. I don't think Ar_t is claiming any superiority between his products and anyone elese, just that some building blocks seem to share some commonalities. I don't think your opinons are wrong they sometimes just come off as a bit directed(?). Your offer for comparison would be of much interest to all of us. Just let it be understood that as Ar_t has tried to clairfy that the results(as is usual, and according to Ar_t maybe more so than usual, but, the jury may still be out on that) maybe system dependent. Ar_t like Roy of Green Mountain offer unique perspectives that I think we should encourage. I'm sure the members are taking the appropriate amount of sodium intake, not that medicinal dosages appear to be necessary.

Uh.......there is no "dead short" data. I think you mean "open" data. It won't work into a dead short, will it???

Yes, it may very well be pristine on yours. As I stated, it could be that it works out to be the right amount on your system. No one is questioning that it sounds right on your system. We are ecstatic that it has worked out so well for you. (Maybe the amp you had before it had too much, or too little HF roll-off on your system.)

It just may not sound right on the next guy's. And the chances are mine won't either in that case. That is the point.
I do think that you need to look closer at the graphs, though.

As for the ASP......some may not hear what you feel is an objectable amount of noise. In a HT system, it may well be the ticket. Lots of power in a small, light, cool running box, that is short circuit protected, has soft clipping, and will most likely be very reliable. I don't use them in any 2-channel products, but that may also have to with the user's perception of what a serious power amp should be like. Somehow, the idea of something that only weighs (say) 10 pounds putting out 500 watts seems impossible to some.

As for your generous offer.........I know how my amps stack up to the competition. Enough prospective customers have auditioned mine along with the competition. I suspect most will agree that is a more diverse, and possibly un-biased, cross section of the market.

Again, I don't think that there is enough of a difference between all the competing brands to say one stands out above, or below, the others. I tend to dismiss comments of that nature, I hear them all the time.

The only comment that makes me stand up and take notice concerns speaker cables. I have heard......many times, many sources..........that high capacitance speaker cables suck all of the midrange out of the sound. Some of that can be borne out in the performance data supplied. "Designed to be stable for capacitve loads up to 470 nF." Luckily, no load, even a 'stat, is purely capacitive.

I e-mailed the amplifier designer that said the difference between cd's and lp's were due to a frequency response difference. That's not the difference between analog and digital.

I had the eAR amp for a short time in my system. It was a revelation. It was the best sound I had on my large Apogee systems up to that time. Things just got better and better. BTW, the eAR MKII is a 500A amp.

The difference between the ASP and A versions is well documented. I am not saying the ASP amps are worthless. Henry of H2O has his own version. For a lot of speakers, an ASP amp will do wonders.

Ive used the bryston 4bst, 8bst (400 x 2 8ohms), and now a ayre v-5xe. The 8bst sounded wonderful, but I thought the ayre beat it out(150x 2 8ohm)(300@4). Although the ayre has a serious power supply and can handle any dip a speaker has(well, maybe not a large magnepan:) .Just my .02 cents