Incidentally, if you're really curious, you can read a review of the Monitor 40s here:
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0801/harbeth40.htm Or log on to avguide.com (worthwhile; these are TAS archives, and TAS is rather more slanted toward objectivity than Stereophile) and look up the speaker. Of course, it really sucks, you know. Hell, all my components are just crappy, and very inexpensive, to boot. In fact, the reason I like the SB3 so much is precisely because it is reasonably priced and performs so well. Had a "high end" company produced the same thing, you could rest assured that it would cost three or four times the price, or more, and come in a fancy, brush-aluminum case. Now, objectively, and whether people like you choose to believe it or not, the single most important factor in getting good sound is optimizing the relationship between the speaker, the room, and consequently your room. Dave Wilson famously demo'd a set of Watt Puppys using an iPod as source. Famously, a Krell CD player was on the equipment rack and, famously, reviewers commented on how fabulous the CD player was. Don't believe me? Call Wilson and talk to them about it. Very nice and open people -- who make excellent and very, very expensive speakers. Amplification, at least in the solid state realm, is a solved problem and what differences there are between competent solid state amps are more marginal, or negligible, than most people think. Remember, the placebo effect is powerful. Ditto for preamps. (I like the Bel Canto simply because it is neutral, it has the outputs and inputs that I need, and, most importantly, a very cool programmable menu.) So, what do you need for good sound? Preferably, highly directional speakers (Harbeths; some Spendors; definitely Quads, which are point-source; line array speakers, like some McIntosh and Dali models; Gradients; some B&Ws; etc.). Next, and probably, you need competent equalization and/or room treatments. You need to deal with reflections with treatments or very careful positioning. You can additionally deal with room anomalies and speaker anomalies through EQ. For this, you really do need some way to measure frequency response -- whether using mics and software or an SPL meter, test CD, and graph paper. Harbeths are the speaker of choice in BBC studios and mastering rooms. They also use some Dynaudios -- also excellent speakers -- in some situations. The BBC has been at the forefront of speaker design and technology for god-knows-how-long. Anyway, after years of trial and error, I more or less nailed the speaker/room thing to my satisfaction. It is not the only way to do it AND IT IS NOT THE BEST WAY FOR EVERY ROOM OR EVERY LISTENER. So, the point is, my system is quite revealing. The SB3's output, while not the best in the world, is highly competent and perfectly satisfying for a lot of music. For solo piano, wild orchestral work, acoustic jazz, etc., the DAC makes some difference. For most pop music, there is little to no difference. Or course, this is a matter of taste. As it happens, I can afford to play around with this stuff, I've been doing it for twenty years, and I'm pretty happy with what I've got. I have a background in physics, too, so I more or less understand what's going on with transports and DACs, to say nothing of cables and amps. But, of course, you know better. Even if I were, say, Peter Lyngdorf (whose TacT equipment is truly wonderful), you would disagree with me -- because that's what contrarian, immature, and pretty much ill-informed chumps like you do. Have a nice life -- and try to get a grip on your ennui and free-floating anger and sense of inferiority. -- highdudgeon ------------------------------------------------------------------------ highdudgeon's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2195 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=19475 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
