Top manufacturers!

I would agree with the above but Vandersteen and Thiel were left out. These companies have been around a very long time and consistently offer good products. Vandersteen especially offers excellent value for the money spent. ARC also offers cutting edge products, dependability, solid engineering, product support for all products ever manufactured. I still think their D series amps and SP series pre-amps compete with the best I have heard in the past 10 years and they stopped being manufactured over 10 years ago. Market acceptance of a product year in and out is the real indicator of how good a product is. The above products fit that bill.

Hluker It goes to show you that the REAL REASON there are so many manufacturers of audio equipment is that there are so many varying opinions as to sounds good. It isn't an easy journey. The rewards can be great if you are a music lover. If you become an "Audiophile" (my definition is one who becomes enamored of the sound of system rather than a system that serves the music as produced on the recording) you might end up in the merrygoround world of the audiophile. That is changing gear like you change your clothes. What is most important is to assimilate all that you can and make your judgements based on YOUR happens is that you will be more influenced by Gerrym5