http://www.stlouisstereo.com/
I got to hear a few products I haven't before.

First a pair of the Kudos driven by a Naim 50 watt integrated and CDP, both Naim units $1595.00 each and I thought a good deal for the money. I hadn't heard Naim in a while but they still are doing good things. The Kudos were good as well but didn't listen long to them. Just getting started, you know

Next, the Harbeth, C7 I believe, driven by a Leben tube integrated with Resolution CDP. I could probably criticize the Harbeth but the bottomline I found them terribly seductive and rich with harmonic tone. They also exhibited a solid bottom end, sound stage a bit back from the listening plane, and a better than average sense of front to back spacial info with musician placement. Frenchmon noted he thought the Harbeth's high end may not have been as extended but I didn't notice, I think I was captivated by other aspects of what I was hearing. The Leben was a 30 watt tube integrated which I thought sounded very good, no tube stereotype negatives, the bass very detailed etc but this unit was nearly $5500.00 and I did not feel the amp was, that, good. In fact, the 40 watt Octave Audio I thought expensive at $4k but the OA is a superior sounding unit in my opinion. I can't say much about the CDP as I really didn't have a good comparison with anything else in the same system.

Then, we hooked up a set of DeVore to compare to the Harbeth. Boy, opposites. I didn't much like the DeVore, finding them a bit unbalanced with a lack of low end. Frenchmon liked them a lot. The DeVore had a more forward sound and vibrant midrange. We were thinking maybe the Harbeth lacked some detail in comparison. The DeVore we heard was over $1k more expensive than the Harbeth. Interestingly the Harbeth is voiced to keep the grill on and the sales consultant said they could be removed but with great difficulty.

Then back to the Naim system but hooked to a set of Totem Hawks. He bi-wired them. I didn't ask but asumed they must have found an advantage to that. At $2800.00 a pair, I was impressed by what I was hearing from the Hawks. A big sound from a 2-way with such a small footprint. And, he hooked up a Hans (not sure if spelled correctly) turntable with a Dynavector cartridge in the same system. With that TT as the source I was in aw of what I was hearing from this fairly modest system. The Hawks really delivered, excellent sound stage, and frequency response. I definitely plan to try the Dynavector 10 in the future on my rig. The turntable was around $1700.00 without cart, it put on quite a show.

This is lengthy but one other very noteworthy observation. While listening to the Harbeth they were sitting on a name brand stand, but for the life of me I can't think of it, in the middle of things he replaced the stands with another brand. I didn't expect to really hear any difference but Frenchmon and I were both caught off guard by the improvement we heard, which was quite noticeable. So maybe you monitor guys knew this and if you didn't we both learned something, stands are important to sound quality. Geez, another link to worry about

Needless to say a very enjoyable afternoon.