Jeff Rowlands Amp and Dac vs. VAC amp and DAC

rinpoche for a purchase of this magnitude any good store should let you do an in-home audtion, I assume the store is local to you? Perhaps the owner can bring the amps over and at least do an audition with your speakers if he won't lend you an amp? I would expect better service than what you're describing for a good brick and mortar shop.

rinpoche I would say Al's technical wizardry and completely correct explanation notwithstanding try each output tap until you find the one that sounds best to you. It's likely to be the one Al suggests but it may not be, we all have different ears. Have fun!

Ugh sorry to hear that Rin sounds like a lousy dealer and I'm assuming a different dealer than the one offering JRDG and VAC? Hopefully so and don't look back, no reason to return to a dealer that would treat you like that!  And good for you keeping an open mind and auditioning other amps, but sounds like your heart is pretty set on either JRDG or VAC so I hope you are ultimately able to arrange an in-home audition on those two.

 rinpoche an overall piece of advice, one i learned later in this hobby, slow down and perhaps try to just enjoy the process as much as your goal. I mean your shopping for a new stereo system how exciting is that?? And as I like to sometimes tell people the very best deal out there........is equipment you already own! So totally check out the Crystal Cables with your new gear it costs nothing and you may love the combo. Not to mention those are very well regarded cables in their own right the sister company of Siltech if I remember correctly.

rinpoche not sure what your system configuration is now or how you were listening to music before or if your going to need balanced or single ended cables. All that being said given the fact that you have Crystal speaker cables this looked interesting:
https://www.audiogon.com/listings/interconnects-crystal-micro-silver-60-interconnect-2016-05-29-cabl...
Same brand so hopefully some synergy there, affordable at $275 used and the seller is in Canada. I don't know the seller but plenty of positive feedback and buying affordable used cable is typically an easy and very low risk proposition.

rinpoche I was seeing that cable as an easy relatively low cost way to get you started and listen before you blew big bucks on a pair of interconnects. Also an advantage of buying cables use is the good old audition and flip, buy, listen, evaluate, and resell if the cable doesn't suit. A break even proposition and a great way to evaluate cables in your own system. Cheers!

There are a ton of good deals out there on used cd players as people abandon optical discs, if you need one check the listings here. And going back a bit I read inna’s comment to Guido to be tongue in cheek and rather amusing I don’t think she was taking Guido to task whatsoever.

rinpoche congratulations sounds like you're very happy and that's awesome after all your agonizing! Happy early birthday I know you're in Canada but I'm sure you know the significance of July 4th here in the states! Have a great one!
Cheers,
Jon

rinpoche if you are soliciting opinions on Tidal then I will weigh in as loving it. I think the sound quality is excellent for the most part one thing to keep in mind though is the source they are using, i.e. some are remasters some are not, some were recorded well, some were not. But I think it sounds as good as CD's that I've ripped and stream, and its tough to beat the selection. I listen daily and love it. The one thing Tidal doesn't have yet is high rez, that may or may not be coming down the road.