My musical taste run the mill from rock to classical, salsa, jazz and world.What can I say. I started out my system with Totem Rainmakers and a Nad c320bee just using a M-audio audiophile into the amp. Sounded great...or so I thought. I was experiencing alot of listening fatigue and just wasn't too happy overall.
Slowly with the help some helpful audiogoners help started changing my system. I settled on the GMA Europas based on so many positive reviews. It was actually harder to find negatives about these speakers. The one thing that was a general "mark" on the speaker was the bass. To this day it was the single best change I've done. One I first hooked up these speaker it sounded like the music could finally breath...don't get me wrong the totem are great speakers but there a certain magic with the Europas that I was not getting with the Rainmakers. From what everyone told me I would miss the rainmakers bass but to be honest, I did not miss it one bit. The bass the Europas offer are just so honest and tuneful that you can live with the so called "lean" bass.
The next step for me was the change my source. I decided a before I started my system that I wanted to have computer based system. Backup is so easy and having your entire library at a touch can not be beat. The audiophile usb from maudio was a gift from a friend and was a definite step up from the dvd player I was using. It's especially good using foobar and asio plugin. At the end of the day I wanted something off the computer and decided to try the Squeezebox from all the raves.
The squeezebox is a great little unit that sounds amazing good in stock form. To me it sounded better than most entry level cd players. Then I started reading all about the mods being done to these unit from both Bolder cables and Red wine audio. Even though I like the stock form something was missing again. So I decided to go with bolder cable fully modded SB2 with upgraded rev1 power supply. This was a HUGE difference when I got it back. I started hearing things that I couldn't even hear before. Headroom, soundstage, imaging...everything was taken to an entirely new level with this new unit.
Finally recently I was on a hunt for a new integrated to retire the Nad c320bee. Now for anyone just getting into audio or needs a second amp this puppies it without a doubt. Still I realized that I needed something different in my system. Good solidstate suggested by that would work great with the Europas (blue circle, edge) were just way out of my budget. So a little research here on audigon and a few friendly suggestions later I settled on the idea of getting a tube integrated. I finally settle on the onix and just this week hooked them up...again what a HUGE difference.
The Europas have alot more Bass thought and the little SP3 38 watt could muster ever little last ounce. Everyone whois interested in tube you cannont go wrong with the Onix sp3 for 600. It's still burning in so I can't say much but it really kicks the nads butt in every category IMHO.
Now am in the market for some new speaker cables and interconnects. Don't know where to go but would like to match and I certaintly need some .5 interconects that have low capacitance to get ever ounce of my modded SB2. As for speaker wire thinking audio magic entry xstreams.
