Tekton Double Impacts

Well you make some good points Terry. His Rogue amp however and cabling are not forward. The DI speakers are more forward sounding as I am sure you know. They do indeed lean towards sounding forward.  His preamp does offer the SOTA Lyngdorf room correction and this really helps this speaker sound as it should in a given room.

In the end the DI speaker does lean, I do mean just lean, on the forward more analytical side of things.

My Crescendo speakers are heavily modified and more resolved and airy compared to stock. They still deliver the tone and perspective I prefer however.

I drive my Crescendos with 100% digital gear. No tubes. Lyngdorf 2170 and a Sound Science Music server. The resulting sound is beautiful, full bodied, relaxed, vivid and sensual. No tubes. no DHT, no 2a3...

I say this because DHT tubes are not maditory for a system, total system, to deliver the kind of lovely tones some say only come from small tube watts. 

Hey jcarcopo,

I never was riding a "high horse" but also believed that in a SET design to get the "inner glow", timbres/colors, liquidity and intimacy we all love you had to use 2A3/45/300b tubes.  However, with AricAudio's SET which uses KT-88's I'm getting all those virtues plus better sound-staging and low end dynamics on the Ulf's then with other SET's using 2A3 or 300b tubes.   

my room is about 11x12, but open on one end

I am using a cheap hdmi from the JRIver to the MX151.
I just recently moved to hdmi away from usb .
I ordered a Purist Audio HDMI last Thursday .
I was running Purist audio Ultimate  usb to a usb to spdif spdif converter and a Purist Audio Dominus digital  to the MX151.
I must admit it was a more laid back sound that way, before i switched to  HDMI  , but the new HDMI will be here next week.

Hey grannyring,

Between two old timers who have been at this a long time, we will agree to disagree regarding the DI's being, " just lean, on the forward/analytical side of things".  I think they are dead on neutral and not in anyway analytical, that's way its so important what you drive them with. 

Historically, I have disliked very much many of the Magico/YG Acoustic/Wilson speakers because I found them to be analytical and did "everything right" but make music, sound like music. 

My reference of five years was the Cello's, which I believe are very close to the overall sonic signature of the AZ's, which I loved having in my system.  Both the Cello's and Crescendo's are a smidgen "warm/sweet" which I like very much and I do not found them fat or euphonic in their performance.  However, when I got the DI's tuned in both in room placement and what to drive them with I got all the musicality/beauty of my Cello's plus "aliveness" dynamics and speed with no edge at all and could not go back to my reference speakers any more with out missing what the DI's were providing.

A final note,  I still have not heard a system, and I have heard many indeed, that I can really say that I thought was great that uses a room correction device.  I totally accept that they can help greatly to overcome shortcomings in the acoustic space, and it might be significantly better then nothing at all in certain rooms, however they still do something I find slightly "artificial" to the music to my ears.  Regardless, if its correction done to OB speaker designs, Legacy's device for their speakers, or general room correction it just does not "sound" like a great natural acoustic space to me.