[ylee]

As a second budget system to have in the home for the family and baby sitters to use in our kitchen, I ordered a NAD D3020 integrated with a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 225 bookshelf speakers. Upon hooking them up with AudioQuest Rocket 33 bi-wire cables, I could tell this was a very nice setup as soon as I heard the first song through it. This $1200 setup has pace, rhythm, and soul.

After a week, I got curious. I wondered what these speakers will sound like hooked up to my primary system in my listening room. It's always fun and enlightening to mix up speakers, amps, source components, etc. I disconnected the high pass filter boxes that are needed for my Vandersteen Quatro Wood CTs and ran my XLRs directly from my DAC output section to the amp. I used a pair of Benchmark Canare speaker wire with a pair of banana plugs on the speaker end and SpeakOn connectors on the amp side.

Upon firing things up, that soulful rhythmic pace of the Wharfedales I heard with the NAD was present to yet another level with my TotalDac and Benchmark setup. These speakers swing and sway. They get you up to dance, conduct, and boogie! In this respect these small $450 pair of speakers beat anything I've heard before, whether Wilsons, Magicos, Linns or Vandersteens. I have no idea what Wharfedale's engineers did to design this simple box. They should be in every dance club and any audiophile who needs motivation to exercise by getting up and dancing while enjoying their favorite hobby.