Imahawki,

Wyred4Sound and Red Dragon were on my short list. The Wyred4Sounds get great reviews and their cost is reasonable. Let us know what you decide and how it sounds.

Cheers,

T Cobe

Decisions, decisions....

I know my GEt speakers are the soul of my system. I keep thinking "this is it, it can't get any better than this", and then I try something (power cords, external stereo amp, speaker cables, new AVR), and low and behold, those gorgeous GEt speakers reward me with even better SQ.

So.. how much better can it get? I read about the Marantz AV 8802 and how folks "lust" for it, and think about what my gorgeous speakers would deliver with a 8802 pre, maybe an NAD M27, 7 channel amp, plus amps for the other channels (I don't have room for mono blocks for every channel), and I wonder... and then I read about Anthem AV's and amps, and how it was the best sounding system they ever installed...

I think of the gorgeous components some use to maximize their SQ on their GEt speakers (Vincent amps, Anthem d2v, Torii amp.. you know who you are).

I KNOW I have great speakers, we ALL are lucky to have GEt speakers (may add a 2nd GEt height channel)... don't feel ANY need to revisit speaker decisions.

So, what floats through my mind is, how much additional SQ have I left on the table. I am NOT unhappy with my system!!! BUT I have HEARD myself how GEt speakers respond to incremental improvements in the stream feed...they reward every little nuance. How much is left to harvest??

At some point I will make another chip in the piggy bank and invest in another component upgrade. My ultimate complement of a system would be ""butter", "velvet". I'm SO close!

Any comments/suggestions/personal experiences/recommendations from folks who have gone the next step to separates, really great components greatly appreciated, on what they heard/experienced as they did this. (I do know that room acoustics need addressing also and will do that.)

Rick

WOW, Bro Rick,
First of all, you have an awesome system, enjoy what you have!!!!
I am sure you know that though.
We all get, or perhaps always have, upgraditis. It comes from reading too much here and in the mags about
other systems, and people's glowing reports on this and that. You know that too. I consider you one of the
most level-headed guys here.
BUT you asked, so I will try and offer something other than just the above, "enjoy what you have".
You mention words you want to describe your system like "buttery, velvety, etc." I have never personally heard
a system that sounded that way to me that did not have tubes in it. TOOBS will get you the butter, the cream, the
velvety smooth round sounds. BUT BEWARE, they can come at a cost. Tubes can introduce some wonderful distortions
or round some corners off that you might not want to have rounded off. They can smooth out the sound and make it less
articulate, less than honest, less revealing.
The BEST tube systems give you the best of both worlds IMHO.
Imagine with me for a second that you started your system all over, and bought some super efficient speakers, some horn types or
such, and a small tube amp running 300Bs in Class A SET, very little power but enough for you to play Norah Jones, "Come Away With Me" and you would wet your pants at the smooth, velvety, buttery vocals. Play Jesse Cook and really hear his guitar, sweet as can be. BUT THAT IS THE ONLY KIND OF MUSIC YOU CAN REASONABLY PLAY, NO ROCK, NO FULL ON ORCHESTRAS, AND PRETTY FLABBY BASS USUALLY!!!!!
Now, stop dreaming of butter and come back to reality and you and I both know you have the best speakers any of us can afford, the Triton Ones!!!!! As you already said, this is the starting point. And with them you can play ANY MUSIC at ANY LEVEL you want.
So to make them sing sweetly with some butter and velvet, you might want to add some tube magic, but NOT TOO MUCH!!!! For me,
my experience has been that I could not afford the huge OTL tube amps that sound pretty great if you can stand to be in the room with all that heat! So I went hybrid. Either a tube pre-amp (The Conrad Johnson ET3 is WELL WORTH LISTENING TO) with solid state amp, or the other way around, or I went with hybrid amps with a tube input (not that buttery/velvety) which is just MUSICAL to my ears. No hard edges, no screechy sounds, no analytical harshness, but at the same time, I don't find anything rolled off and missing either. Some badly recorded "digital" sounding CDs are still crap on my system.
You will just have to listen, audition some equipment to find what works best for you.
BUT you are in the area of BIG TIME diminishing returns. I think you will have to spend quite a lot to improve your system another 5%. To improve it 10% you will have to get into nosebleed audiophile stuff!!!!
Dude, I hope this helps,
God Bless,
Wayne
www.conradjohnson.com/It_just_sounds_right/et3.html

Rick,

Wayne has really hit the nail on the head on all counts! All I can add is that I really like having the dedicated pre-amp with home theater bypass and monoblock amps in my system. Of course I listen to a lot of 2-channel music. A good pre-amp is going to sound better than an AVR. In my experience with dedicated amps, monoblocks really sounded better. When I switched from the XPA-5 to the XPA-1Ls, it was a very noticeable improvement, and that was without the pre-amp.

I've said this here on the forums frequently but it bears repeating, I'd audition a Hegel (H-360). It is solid state and should be good for all music and at the same time, it is extremely smooth and has near tube like sound. It also has a great DAC and HT bypass.

I'll admit, I am curious about tube sound. Wayne has already provided a good explanation and options here. I'd love to hear those Vincents! BUT, I'd also love to hear the Decware amp that Anthem is running or their Mystery amp. I'd bet both would sound fantastic but it sounds like Anthem does not have the tube amp in his home theater playback. Most people do not. So the question is, do you listen to enough 2-channel music to make a tube amp or pre-amp worthwhile? If not, the recommendation shifts to some good monoblock amps.

All just my two cents. Take it with a grain of salt and make the decision that's best for you. A few auditions at a few good dealers should offer you several options. It sounds like your primary dealer will even offer an in home audition. That may be your best bet. Please let us know what you decide.

Cheers,

T Cobe

Thanks T. Cobe for the kind words and backing me up.
Great points to about external amps.
The Conrad Johnson I suggested has a home theater bypass too.
Of course ext. power amps are a great choice, but I find tube amps that are powerful enough to
use in home theater too tend to be too colored AND when you play loud can be rattled by the speakers'
power output causing distortion. But a cage over the tubes can help that.
Anyway Rick, what we agree on the most is, go out there and listen!!!
Have fun with it.
God Bless,
Wayne

Thanks, Wayne and T. Cobe for some great feedback.

I've never played around with tube amps/hybrids. Great summary, Wayne, of the benefits and limits of TOOBS! That's very helpful.

I'm not in any huge hurry to make instant changes to the front end. I DO love and enjoy what I have. I find time to listen every day. You both helped fill in some notches in my "curiosity index" about options and what they can and can't do. That helps me refine my "some day" wish list. Part of the fun is thinking about how to evolve a system over time, while being realistic about diminishing marginal returns. This forum is a great place to get the benefit of everyone else's experience!

Patience, Rick, patience. First comes some modest, aesthetic acoustic treatments. Then, over time, some at home listening to some options (add an amp to the current set-up for the center channel? try a pre/pro?? TBD) ... I feel really blessed that I get to enjoy a system whose SQ right now is something I could only have dreamed of before discovering GEt.

Happy listening!

Rick