Hello DACophiles.
It's been a long time since I last posted, but wanted to update this thread I started some years ago. Finally, after much moving around and listening to various speakers, I settled on the following:
The Vandersteen 3a Signatures... big, bold, beautiful, extended, refined, delicate and resolving - what a match for my Cherry
These are not the latest "pulp cone" version but the next-to-latest ones. Quite the deal if you ask me. Maybe when Mr. Vandersteen makes his next upgrade in driver technology I will send them in to be refreshed.
The only thing holding my system back now is (streaming) source. Alas, nothing is ever perfect, is it? I had been streaming Beats Audio, which at 384kbps sounded very nice indeed... until Apple shut it down. So then Apple music, well it sounds alright, not as good as Beats but not bad either. But the Remote. The Remote! What an embarrassment. Unstable, slow, can only control music you've already added to your iTunes... ugh. Give me a break, what are they doing over there in Cupertino, smoking past success cocaine? I also tried Spotify high res, sounds hard to me, I guess Ogg files give up something different than MP3s, but give something up nonetheless. Of course, the remote controlling of Spotify is wonderful, but it is not like control trumps sound quality. I also played with Tidal, but the interface and player SQ aren't there either. I am holding out to see if Rune+HQPlayer+Tidal (a) happens and (b) morphs into something refined and great, but as it stands it seems what I want is not yet available as a simple "purchase and play" solution. Well, if the rumors of Apple going lossless sometime in 2016 are true, maybe we will finally see something great from the sleeping giant.
Anyhow, feel free to ask any questions (or make suggestions). And Tommy, my congrats on your increasing success over the last couple of years, certainly well deserved.
