Thanks Mr. Big! I do not foresee any rabbit holes in the future. Having had much more expensive amps, cables other things in the system, the concept that I was getting close to audio nirvana began to take hold with the arrival of the X5s. Our enjoyment of these speakers increased with the addition of the all in MP-DAC. Now that the Valhalla Int.is broken in and singing we are just enjoying music.
Yes, I've owned really expensive gear during my 40 years in this hobby, and by having great systems then messing them up and then back to the search to get the magic back, at some point I learned that when it is good it is good, don't let reviews snag you, they are marketing nowadays to get you to buy, I chased my tail, spend lots of money, enjoyed it all but now I am seasoned enough to know when I hit pay dirt and leave well enough alone. To change gear for the sake of it no longer makes sense to me, they will say always something is better, well my friend has gear from the 80s with matching speaker Snell type A's. Power cords are built-in, so IEC, no power conditioners, el-natural...and his system is jaw-dropping musical. So how far have we come, like he says specs are one thing, what we can hear is another. He takes great effort to setup up his speakers, fixes his room acoustics, and make it a very enjoyable space to be in with soft lighting to boot, and his systems rocks.
