All suggestions and comments are most welcome. In addition to the general comments below, I've added specific comments on set-up and tweaks for most of the components which you can read by clicking them individually in the list above.

The overall strategy is to take a great speaker and put the best possible components and set-up behind it, all subject to real world space and cost constraints.

1. The seating position is in my Manhattan apartment living room which has some unusual characteristics. The speakers, main amps and video system are at one end of the long wall of the living room, which is irregular in shape such that, with minor exceptions, no two walls are parallel to each other and there are no right angled corners except on the wall behind the speakers. The set-up is severely space constrained with the rest of the audio components in a closet in the foyer with a 7 meter interconnect that runs in the next room and comes through the wall behind the amps. The negative of this of course is the long interconnect; the positive is that the preamp and audio source components are isolated from the amps and speakers.

2. The sound is sensitive, revealing and very solid with no sense of strain or congestion. A very transparent midrange with good highs and fantastic detail that is absolutely non-fatiguing (no tolerance for that). Also serious bass and imaging. After years of trying, I think I've finally got the setup right on the Quatros. Upgrades to the SE versions of the ARC Ref 5, Ref Phono Two and 3D printed arm tube on the VPI have been a revelation. In addition to a vastly increased soundstage and greater resolution, analog bass and dynamics now equal those of digital, including my ARC Ref CD-8 and everything else I've heard, which is a first in my experience. I can honestly say I've not heard better vinyl reproduction anywhere else (better in some respects and just as good perhaps, but not better overall).

3. FM sound is easily the best I have ever heard; on WQXR (classical) imaging and performance nuances come through clearly and Q104.3 rocks for real. Believe it or not, at the end of a GEICO radio ad (the one that ended with the line "do only dogs hear dog whistles?") the soundstage expanded way beyond the speakers - as good or better than the Weavers at Carnegie Hall. CD sound is excellent but digital still is not my thing (analog keeps getting better too - see #2 above).

4. Sources are 60% vinyl, 30% tuner, 9% video and 1% CD. 5,000 LP's, including orginal pressings of most of the mono Blue Note catalog and more than half of the Impulse, Shaded Dog and Living Presence catalogs; 100 DVDs and Blu-ray (mostly music video), a few CDs, and cable TV.

5. Video is still just an add-on to the two channel audio system. Video sources are wired straight into the screen but the front channel sound from the processor runs back to the preamp through another 7 meter interconnect and then returns from there through the two channel system to the main amps. The five satellite speakers are connected directly to the ARC M150.5 amp with in-wall speaker wire. I have to turn off both the M150.5 and the processor whenever I play vinyl because leaving on either one even in standby mode noticeably degrades the sound.

2/25/14