and Wadia CD players (no vinyl, darn). While my listening impressions are different with these versus my AVA Insight 440H and Insight pre-amp, I feel the perceived differences are most likely due to the different room sizes and room treatments, more than any palpable electronic difference(s). So....for the $$ I spent on AVA front-end into the Maggies I dont think I'm missing
I agree with the basic idea here.
I've come to the conclusion that speakers, listening room, and the recording are 90+% of the sound of our stereo systems. Some days I feel they're 90, and some 99%.
Speaking to some of the other replies:
I feel that AVA is a good value, and I own AVA gear. In fact, I or my family still have all but one Jensen's or AVA component that I purchased. I think the present count is 8 components, of which 6 are in daily use.
I've owned a Bryston amp for use in the studio (I've listened to newer Bryston gear too). I also at one point owned a couple of dozen Crown linear amps. Frank's amps are not IMO bulletproof enough for pro use. My impression at the time was that Bryston sounded almost as good as Frank's amps did, and better than Crown. Bryston was the most expensive, followed by Crown and then AVA was a bargain for home use.
More recently, I have done some blind testing that showed that there isn't much to choose from between a lot of electronics. I'm still processing the results, but I and several other people were startled by them.
As for the EveAnna Manley gear, it has always sounded quite colored to me. I could never forget I was listening to tubes. She also gets into a lot of audiophlake ideas, so it's pretty easy for me to dismiss her products as being unsuitable. Add in their relatively high cost and they're just a non-starter. (I haven't had the chance to do any controlled comparisons of them, but to tell you the truth I'm not terribly interested in doing so.)
I would currently lean towards AVA equipment, one of NP's designs, Bryston, or perhaps one of Greg Ball, Hugh Dean, or Rod Elliott's designs. I probably would not choose Bryston or Pass Labs because of cost unless I ran into a good deal on a used piece, so I'd be more into DIY or AVA. I would also consider a Pioneer receiver.
I'm also not sure that things are really that subjective. What I've been seeing is that people agree about what is good and what isn't when controlled testing is done. Too often, our eyes get in the way of our listening.
Eliminate the distractions and a lot of the differences we "hear" seem to go away too.
