Nope, electric guitarists single-handedly kept the tube world alive long before we audiophiles got involved. They LIVE FOR that even-order distortion. ;)

We're on the same page, then. In any case, I am so blissfully happy with my RCA dual black plates that I fortunately feel no inclination to go down that rabbit hole myself. ;)

Immanii? The collective plural would be "a ribbon of Immanii" ;)

Audeze definitely had a map, it led right to being acquired by Sony. :wink: Seriously, though, Audeze's lcd-5 was a huge leap forward in both design/ergonomics and neutrality. I think we haven't seen any further steps along that path since then because Sony is more interested in capturing a...

Yes! I've often wished WE would make a 2A3. It's so closely related to their famous 300B it would make sense, though I suppose the market for 2A3s is negligible compared to 300Bs. I recently bought the Shanling ET3, because it turns out I actually own a surprising number of CDs from the 90's...

Do they really sound different? My understanding is that the single plate variant was made for a year or two until they realized that the single plate was prone to failure and a dual plate version was introduced for redundance & reliability. The high cost of NOS single plates being more a...

IMHO the vinyl resurgence is a parallel to the rise of the luxury watch industry after the quartz crisis of the 1970s. Suddenly, access to [music/watches] becomes cheap and easy, and anyone can get anything they want anytime they want for virtually no money. It all becomes very watered down...

That's a really helpful response, thanks. :) I have a thorough understanding of why certain tube amps are "better" than other tube amps, but I am stumped when it comes to "TOTL" solid state amps. I guess I need to go deeper down that rabbit hole (even if only to maybe find there is no THERE...

Shou sugi ban excellence FTW! :fire::volcano:😍

Translation: if you're looking for a REALLY great bargain on a OG Susvara, now is the time to buy. Before the Sus Unveiled hype wears off and the panic sellers go back to a more sane price for a pre-owned Sus-OG. I can't FATHOM that the actual value of a Sus-OG is $3K. Then again, the value...

I don't understand this. I understand the perceptual advantage of a zero feedback amp over a nested feedback design, and I understand the perceptual advantage of class a vs class a/b, and I understand the perceptual advantage of a discrete point-to-point design vs a chip/circuitboard design...

I am admittedly one of those plebians. ;) I am a wine lover (drinking a fine chardonnay right now!), but try as I might I just cannot find a strong correlation between cost and quality. I've had many a $100+ bottles of wine from France, Australia, etc. that were no better than my tried-n-true...

"Susvara Arya Grilled" doesn't have the same marketing ring as "Susvara UNVEILED" ;)

I think this is a great point. If "uncolored" was the summit of hifi, then studio monitors would be the $250K speakers in the 2-channel world. But they aren't. The OBSCENELY expensive speakers are the ones that present the sound in a particularly pleasing way, NOT the most "neutral" way...

Don't just do it for the sake of doing it, do it only if you really find (and can GET) the ZMF of your dreams. They won't sound materially different, so it's only worth it if it's a MAJOR aesthetic upgrade for you. Speaking from experience, I waited a few years, knowing what my 'dream ZMF'...

This, very much this. I've tried to use Legend EVO on my commute, but no matter how much better those drivers sound than my Bose TWS, they are just no substitute for active noise cancelling on the subway. I am [im]patiently waiting for the day that someone (probably Noble Audio?) finally...

...they like it better, but if said person is listening to acoustic jazz or german techno plays a HUGE part in which pairing they find "better". I *LOVE* Sus-OG on Stellaris, which most people would say is not capable of adequately driving it. But listening to acoustic jazz, the spaciousness...

Yeah, @JCworld under $4K I don't think you can get better than Holo Bliss. Also, while I understand this list was originally compiled based on actual mentions in this thread, I am a bit surprised to not see Wells Audio Headtrip II on it. I'm under the impression that Headtrip would rank right...

I think it would be perfect if Sus-U sounds EXCELLENT on "any old amp", but scales to PEERLESS on a carefully curated summit-fi chain. I agree that chasing the dragon endlessly to try to capture some elusive "better" presentation on an unobtainium amp is tiresome - it's why I waited so long to...

As bored as I am of this sub-subject, I would like to point out here that Andrew regularly talks about his "sensitivity to 6K peaks" in his headphone reviews. It seems he has the ability to discern at least this particular frequency, possibly from the sheer breadth of his experience with so...

I'm all about USE CASE(S). I want THE BEST thing I can find for every use case that I find valuable. If it's not THE BEST for that use case, or if it's the best for a use case I don't particularly value, then I have no use for it. The way I see it, every headphone and every amp (+headphone...

I went about it all wrong: bought Caldera because I didn't want to deal with Susvara's bs, then decided I still needed a solid state amp for Caldera (and wasn't about to buy some mid-fi thing), so I bought Holo Bliss, then decided "if I have Bliss I would almost be remiss NOT to buy a...

Nice list! I think Flux Mentor is ranking low only because it is very new. I haven't heard it myself, but based on the stats and everything I've read about it from people who have tried it, I'm pretty sure it's at least "High" tier. Also, Mogwai SE makes me giggle. Not Nautilus or Red...

Tbh I've never heard of this brand before, but I am certainly intrigued after his glowing review. My tastes don't always align with his, but I find him to be particularly trustworthy if only because he is a known personality with a real life reputation to uphold - this audiophile reviewer thing...

So true. This is why it took me so long to finally buy a Sus-OG. I heard it briefly a couple of times at CanJams, but never enough to give me a confident impression until this year when I made a point of spending as much time as I could, on as many systems as I could, with Sus-OG in the...