Thought I should update the thread, I meant to earlier but it slipped my mind these past few weeks. Quite a bit has happened since I last posted and I do have a new amp that I've been running for the last couple months.
I listened to a few amps when making my decision. The first audition was a Bryston B100SST and Bryston BCD-1 powering some Monitor Audio Platinum towers. A great system! The music had nice body and weight to it, conveyed power and musicality, the room was just filled with sound.
Moved on to a Nait Supernait and Naim CD5i combo with the same speakers (same room) and it just fell flat. I guess these are common complaints against Naim by those who don't love the sound - but it was very thin sounding, the body and smoothness of the Bryston system was gone. And the music felt like it wasn't in front of the speakers at all. Rather, it was at speaker depth. I felt distant to the music. I hadn't heard anything like this before in a system, and maybe it's something I could eventually get used to as I'm sure Naim does a lot of things right, but the sound was so distracting that I found myself just looking at the Bryston gear and wishing that it was playing instead.
I then went to another dealer and heard the Simaudio i-1 integrated with a CD-1 player. Sound coming from tiny bookshelf ELAC speakers. It wasn't the speaker I wanted to hear but I arrived at the store late and they were about to close so I had to make due. I could sense that with speakers like Dynaudio (a brand they also sell) I'd probably hear a lot of what I heard earlier with the Bryston system. I've no doubt the ELACs are good speakers, but they were a brighter speaker than I would normally like. Other than that brightness I thought this system sounded very good, but wasn't quite at the other system's level (understandable when compared to MA Platinum series speakers - an unfair comparison).
I felt like I had two options I liked - the Bryston of course (though it was probably over budget) and Simaudio (within budget and if I didn't like Exposure I would certainly go back for a proper audition with Dynaudio speakers).
On to the Exposure audition. Exposure 2010s2 amp, Exposure MCX CD player, and Tannoy Glenair 10 speakers. The amp was severely outclassed, but nevertheless it sounded fantastic! Mid-bass was ever so slightly emphasized with this system, but of course not muddy at all. There was a fantastic sense of PRaT, and what I was hoping for, that being a bit of bite in the music. Attack and decay was a treat, drums had a nice snap to their sound. Unlike Naim, the Exposure gear had very nice imaging.
Of course then I ended up buying the 2010s2 and have been using it for the past month or two. I ended up changing speakers though...
The Monitor Audio RS5 proved to be too bright for my liking. It wasn't fatiguing really, I could listen to the speaker for a long time and it didn't bother me in that way. The problem was in musical passages with high frequencies mixed with mids or bass, the highs were so loud that they hid what was happening beneath. It's too bad as I enjoyed the RS5 in most other respects.
So I opted to buy a pair of Quad 12L2 speakers from right here on Audiogon (Lanemart) and they have proven to be a great match. No loss of PRaT, attack/decay are top notch, the highs are not harsh or overpowering at all, bass is quick and tuneful, musical instruments sound very real, and one thing I wasn't expecting that was the nicest surprise of all - integration of the woofer and tweeter is top notch. I never really understood this before, but now I realize that most (all?) other speakers I've owned have never had this right. A lot of speakers just seem to have highs plastered on top of the lows; they fit but not perfectly. It just doesn't sound quite right. But with the Quads all music sounds like one cohesive performance.
So things seem to be working out. I still have my Saturn but will likely trade it in for the matching 2010s2 CD player and speaker stands, and the Monitor Audio speakers will likely be traded in for a turntable.
