Everything in this system has either been purchased used or built from a kit. As much of it as possible is tube-based, not out of blind devotion, but after component-by-component side-by-side comparison. Organic, effortless sound is the goal here. Detail, bass and treble extension and imaging have value, but not at the expense of timbre and PRAT (pace, rhythm & timing). The Soliloquy 2A3's and 2A3-based amps are a match made in heaven, as they should be, since the speaker was designed to work best with Cary 2A3 monoblocs. (I have them as well, but the SE-1 does so well, I'd rather put the Cary $$$ elsewhere.) The Sols replaced an excellent pair of Meadowlark Kestrels once I saw that I was going to stay in the 2A3 orbit for the forseeable future. (The Kestrels really need at least 300B's.) The Cary 2A3's replaced a Cary 300 SEI, which was gorgeous, and sounded incredible with Meadlowlark Kestrels. I had planned to sell it because I'm actually en route to a pair of Bottlehead Paramours, but ended up swapping for the Cary 2A3s. I had used the Linn (IMS at least 17 years!) and EAR phono stage (w/vol ctrl) straight to the amp for quite a while, and was quite pleased with the sound, especially the purity. I recently added the M-1 preamp mostly out of a need for switchable inputs, partly because I've read great things about their gear. I was shocked at the increased dynamics - I'm working with 3.5 w/ch here! Brings Joni Mitchell's line from "Free Man in Paris" to mind: "...felt unfettered and alive!" The EAR 834P replaced the Creek mm phono stage. While the Creek sounds quite respectable, the EAR blows it away, (as it should at 3-4x the $!) There's no going back after hearing the EAR's rich, 3-D rendition of instruments and voices. The Pioneer was chosen as transport for its stable platter. Sounds very good on its own. Today we'll see how it sounds with the AN DAC Kit 1.1. This combo replaces a Cary CD-303, which has staggering build quality and excellent sound, but fails my personal "value" test. It had replaced the AH! Njoe Tjoeb 4000, which sounded great, passed the value test, but is built like a tin can. It, in turn, had replaced a CAL Delta/Sigma II combo. Exc. build, great sound, fine value. Not sure why I sold it, actually . . . If you don't think wire and power make a difference, (ie - you've never heard them swapped in a good system, or you're deaf), stop here. Ah, still with me? Start in the wall. Replacing the std outlet with a WattaGate outlet cleaned up the overall sound nicely, laying a solid foundation for what follows. Replacing the stock power cords makes a difference on EVERYthing! The improvements made by the BC-61's in my source components are clearly audible. The BC-62's really brought the Cary 300 SEI, 2A3's and SE-1 into blossom. But the Richard Gray Power Co 400 (w/BC 62) knocked me out. The increase in subjective power and dynamics in the SE-1 is incredible, as is the reduction of "grain and strain", throughout the system, which I had thought extremely low to begin with. Am I happy with the system? Very much so. Am I going to stop here? 'Fraid not. I hope to stop changing components for a good while, once the Paramours get here, but tweaking and upgrading the componenents within themselves has hardly started.