Musical Heaven, NOT Audio or Speaker heaven …

By the way, I ALSO once owned a pair of Polk LSi 15 speakers. This is not a joke, they are incredibly good, and not just for the money. Too ''low end'' for snobish hifi shops to put beside a B&W OR Totem speaker in the showroom (would make the B&W a harder sell), yet, too expensive for Boxstore electronics to carry - they are WORTH seeking out. No kidding. They are a steal.

Hifisoundguy: I'm waiting for the all new Polk Audio LSI series to come out sometime this year...

Any rumors / pre-release info on what the new line might contain? I must say Polk's LSi line seems very good and caught me off guard. Quad's L-series and Usher seem other great values.

Sonicbeauty: I once owned a $ 20,000 pair of Verity Audio Parsifals...
By the way, I ALSO once owned a pair of Polk LSi 15 speakers. This is not a joke, they are incredibly good, and not just for the money. Too ''low end'' for snobish hifi shops to put beside a B&W OR Totem speaker in the showroom (would make the B&W a harder sell), yet, too expensive for Boxstore electronics to carry - they are WORTH seeking out. No kidding. They are a steal

You have quite a range of experience! Besides the LSi15, do you have any thoughts on what are other "best bangs for the buck" speakers out there?

Aktchi - I can only respond to what I have actually owned in the past and my degree of ''satisfaction'' with them.

This is very subjective of course, here's a quick list of past gear I owned, and not just speakers !

QUAD L22 - ''romantic'' and forgiving, a best buy for sure.

Polk LSi - amazing and compares to many times it's price

Sonus Faber Grand Piano - Seductive but ulitmately not very dynamic, sounds congested at higher volumes, tweeter a tad bright.

Canton Ergo floorstanding : Nicely built, but ultimately too bland for my taste - nowhere near the LSi 15, and it cost 2X as much.

Verity Audio Parsifal - in a league all it's own (so are many others in this price range)

Totem forest : Classy speaker, very lively, for detail freaks, lot's of bass energy.

B&W's - A few samples for extended listening in my home - what can I say, not my cup of tea.

Opera SP Callas: PERFECT combination of size, great design, and sound. Beautiful speaker all-around, with so many details, angles. In true Italian fashion. Surprising bass for it's size. Tweeter can get a bit too much with some cd's (it has a rear-firing tweeter too) but overall a great speaker. Beats equivalent Sonus Fabers in my opinion - more dynamic, deeper bass and cinerama soundstage (I think this is where that rear tweeter contributes).Opera is like Avis, they try harder. Underrated for sure.

Electronics

Musical Fidelity A-300 : powerfull but too edgy

Electocompaniet EC-3 : Closest to tube sound from Solid state

Audiomat Arpège: Very, very nice - passes on LOTS of information - one of my favorites, but unfortunately had service issues.

Sim Audio: I was foolish enough to buy two I-5 amps, years apart, hoping the sound would match the looks. Big let down, thumpy, artificially-induced bass. Major service issue with both the dealer and Sim Audio (will leave it at that...) Sim is on my ''never again'' list.

Sonic Frontiers : Power2 and Line2 combo: Best built machines I ever owned. Sound was a bit too butterscotch and creamy for my taste - I felt I was missing information.

Cary: SLP 74 preamp (strong tube hiss from the headphone input) and 572 monoblocks. The amps were poping tubes like crazy. 572 was discontinued and remaining stock was expensive. Cary wanted hundreds to modify my amps to accept a more common tube. They should have done it for free instead of selling amps with no tube future....Cary is on my ''never again'' list'' Sounded great when it worked, though.

McCormack DNA 125: Excellent value. Lively amp, nice midrange, nice soundstage (for a SS amp)

Magnun Dynalab MD 208 : One of my big mistakes, in my book. ''Class A'' Stereophile. They must be kidding. ''A'' for the sound, or for the tuner? A magnum tuner, with the ''economy-line'' Celeste (at the time) lower-level electronics from Sim Audio (not even up to ''Moon'' standards. Not that it would have made much difference, mind you.

Naim Nait 1 (first generation, the original): Kept this little sucker 10 years. If you see one floating around buy it. It's that simple.

Naim 42-110 amp preamp combo: Very old, but would probably still sound great today.

Cayin A 88 T: My current amp. And my SECOND A 88 T (I had purchased an early first unit 3 years ago) THE bargain of the millenium. Incredible build quality - triode/ultalinear on the fly - point-to-point wiring, looks amazing, but more importantly, sounds absolutely incredible. All for the equivalent of audiophile pennies as far as high-end prices go. Beats my previous Sonic Frontier expensive combo on sound quality - no kidding.

Cayin T-30: Almost forgot about this one, best entry-level amp you can by, it you want to try tubes. (could be your exit-level too). Get the one with the extended bias. The only amp I know where you can go from 6550/KT88 tube family to EL34 on the same amp in this price range. Can also be used in triode-like 4 watts for extra transparency.

Come to think of it, it is an even better bargain than the A 88-T. They sold many TA-30's yet are scare on the used market. People keep 'em, just like the original Nait.

I know Prima Luna has taken over (with Kevin Deal's puchasing clout) - still, given the choice, I would go with the extended-bias TAD (Tube Audio Design) Cayin TA 30, for the extended bias and the variable feedback control. So much fun.

Maybe I'll get into the cd players some other time....

take care all !

Don't forget ATC and Harbeth(especially Compact 7 and Monitor 40 speakers) if you REALLY want music and not hifi.
A great combination is ATC pre/power SCA2/SPA2-150 and Harbeth Compact 7s. I've had this set-up since April 2005, and feel sublimely happy with classical CD listening.