Quote Originally Posted by tube fan
Today I got them to play my vinyl at realistic levels in the Lotus room. Fantastic sound in all respects. On Cds I prefered the Audio Notes. Best sound, by far, was still via tapes (made from masters or close copies) in the Evolution Acoustics room. Not close. I went to the room 5 times, and everyone who was there with me agreed that it was the best sound, by far.

Gordon Holt used to use the goose bump factor to rate equipment. The rooms that brought me goose bumps (or tears, in two cases) were the Lotus (today at proper volume), the Evolution Acoustics (via their close-to-master tapes), the Teresonic, and the Audio Note rooms. The King electrostatic, the Quad, the YG (I hope this was one of their lesser speakers, as I hated the sound), and the Magico speakers did not move me.
For me, all art is chiefly about comunication of beauty and emotion. Numbers are fine, but, live music often gives me goose bumps, and I want my musical system to elicit the same response.
Dude, you honestly cried twice?!? You're a sensitive man. To me, there's no emotion like that, if it's not my gear. Seems logical rather than emotional that gear priced in the 10's of thousands should sound good.