[TOGA]

Jeffkad, I 've been through this before. I love stereo since I was young, my first high end when I was 21 were Thiel CS1.6, driving them with Proceed amp and Onkyo AVR as a pre made me happy enough. One day I made an upgrade to Thiel CS3.7, oh man. it sounded so metallic and hard. I though good speakers = good music. It's not. I bought Mark Levinson pre/power and new Cambridge 840C Cd player. Still not as I expected.. Then I changed CD to ARC CD7, things has improved, but still too metallic sounding. I upgrade cables. not work. Finally I get rid of Thiel CS3.7 and I got the best speakers I ever heard ( at that time), The Revel Ultima Salon2, soon I feel that while it made satisfying sound, I need more punch and power, then I found Moon W7M and P8. and I lived happily with Salon2 since then. After that the upgrade was just for fun rather than to improve. Even now that I have wonderful Magico Q3 in listening room too, if one not tell me price of each, I really can't tell which one is a more expensive one. Then one might ask why I purchase Magico, it's because I wanted to know what is all about this Q speakers, and it turned out that it 's really a good speakers. So you may need more forgiving speakers or invest more in front ends and cables to see how good Salon2 really are. Of many amplifiers I have tried, I think those that can make good bass out of Salons are Moon Evolution Series, Pass Labs XA160.5, Vitus 50W amps ( yes, 50W).with Mcintosh MC402, Pass X350.5, Audio Research Reference250,Mark Levinson 432 and 436, bass was rather light weight and weak. With salon2, just one wrong AC wall outlet will make it sound unnatural, that's how sensitive they're.

TOga