I dropped in on Dan and Kristen a couple of times and sat through several cuts of demonstration on two occasions. I'd opine the differences were certainly NOT subtle, and were immediately apparent from the very first note each and every time. The Modwright tube modded unit brought the vocals forward and gave them larger scale. The soundstage opened up markedly going both wider and deeper. It breathed life and fullness into the music and gave it greater dimension. You might not know what was lacking until you heard the difference since the 95 on its own does a pretty decent job, but it really was no contest to my ears which I'd want to take home. Going back to the stock 95 the soundtage shrunk and vocals became more distant and smaller in scale, as if someone sucked the life out of them and pushed them away. Not at all a subtle difference, yet not one you'd necessarily think of just hearing the 95 alone (I say that because the first time I came in the room the stock player was playing and I thought it sounded pretty good...until it was switched to the modded version). It was also my first time hearing the new KWI200 integrated, and with Lou's new speakers no less. I'd first heard the Athena's at Lou's place, which I found a bit overly damped as a listening from what I'm used to (which is probably overly live). At the show Lou's new Athena's really shined in both Dan's room and Emmanuel's room downstairs. The new KWI200 sounds great and was a nice complement to the Athenas, and the new billet remotes Dan has designed are pretty slick too. The convenience of the digital interface and remote should be very enticing, along with the high WAF of the beautiful design, and the convenience of the one-box solution. I did not get to swap in the integrated in my own system when I had it here for lack of time, but I will certainly give it a listen when I get it back for pictures of the interior. Usual disclaimers apply.
