@Soix - All good points for sure. The system I heard was only "close" to mine at home, so there are still a lot of differences to be accounted for. I am able to take items home from the local shops to demo, but I'd like to be closer to a decision before I put them (and myself) through the trouble. Also I may end up going with a used amp, in which case I probably won't be able to audition it, but that's just the nature of the beast in that case.
Re: cables - I've got Cardas Quadlink interconnects throughout, just .5m or 1m lengths.
Speaker cables are a newly interesting topic for me...I was using MIT EXP-1 which I had in my system before buying the Reference 3A speakers, so I just kept the cables. Turns out they were a terrible match. My dealer gave me some Kimber 8VS to try out, which he recommended as being great for my speakers...And they were. The Kimber 8VS got rid of maybe 80% of the high-end harshness which was bothering me and also fixed a significant hole in the bass and mid-bass which I never even knew was there. So they made a huge difference for the better and are staying in my system.
With the amp I'm still looking to improve the listenability of the highs and add a little warmth and/or realism to the mids. Hope all this info helps, thanks!
Re: cables - I've got Cardas Quadlink interconnects throughout, just .5m or 1m lengths.
Speaker cables are a newly interesting topic for me...I was using MIT EXP-1 which I had in my system before buying the Reference 3A speakers, so I just kept the cables. Turns out they were a terrible match. My dealer gave me some Kimber 8VS to try out, which he recommended as being great for my speakers...And they were. The Kimber 8VS got rid of maybe 80% of the high-end harshness which was bothering me and also fixed a significant hole in the bass and mid-bass which I never even knew was there. So they made a huge difference for the better and are staying in my system.
With the amp I'm still looking to improve the listenability of the highs and add a little warmth and/or realism to the mids. Hope all this info helps, thanks!