As I ponder the relative physics of space-time and try to grasp the ultimate meaning of "approaching 50 orbits around the sun", I can say with all certainty that there is at least one phenomenon I find entirely inescapable. You guessed it. The search for quality 2-channel audio playback is my own personal event horizon - with "perfect fidelity" playing the part of the nefarious singularity that threatens to destroy me (or at least disturb my finances, marriage, friendships, etc). OK, lame comparisons aside, let me tell it like it is (and has been up till now). I have been drawn to hi-fi since pre-teen years. My brother once built a pair of speakers and, at the time, I thought they were amazing... bragging to all my friends about them, etc. They weren't bad really, 2-way vented boxes as I recall - but what impressed me most was their ability to play loud without sounding horrific (not a trivial accomplishment for stab-in-the-dark home-built speakers back in the early 70s). Anyway, that set me firmly on the path such that when I could afford components myself (and always seemed to focus more on transducers than front-end gear or amplification), I started buying (and selling) like a godless heathen. Well, pretty much everything I did then and do now fits that same heathenesque description. But I digress... after farting around in my teens with Boston Acoustics, Infinity, my brothers hand-me-down speakers (yes, the ones he built), and even, don't hate me, Bose, I finally bought my first pair of "exotic" speakers circa 1982: Ohm Walsh 2. Man I loved those little truncated pyramids. Played them way too loud, way to hard, and with wildly inferior electronics (and, I'm pretty sure, too much free-falling beer way too close). I should have been executed on site. But they served their purpose well, sounded way better than almost anything my pals had (or so I kept saying to all my pals), and really helped to open my eyes to the vast majority and huge variety of quality components. They were the pair that broke the dam without question. After the Ohms, I bought a pair of used Maggie Tympani 1Ds. Good God man! I wish I only had enough floor space back then to do them justice (even though they were mind blowing in the small rooms I inhabited at the time). I paired them up with a set of matched MOSFET monoblocks that I designed and built and figured that was it. I'd done it. I'd both created and entered my little hifi nirvana-singularity. Done. But wait... then I heard the Apogee Duettas and, after that little virtual myocardial-infarction, realized that perhaps my Maggie enabled nirvana wasn't the end-all after-all. I stealthily obtained a pair of Duetta Signatures, enjoying wave after crashing wave of temporal and spatial coherency. There I stood, firm (OK, double entendre is suitable here) for many months in my belief that (for my budget anyway) there was no topping my setup. I had advanced to the end of the asymptote (at least wrt transducers). Then I heard a pair of Martin Logan Aerius in San Diego (and sure, they were driven by some serious gear, with select recordings, in a treated room... I knew it was the whole system, not just the speakers), but regardless, I was hooked on stats. Not even the Maggies (IMHO) could match the transparency and tangibility I heard through the Aerius. I then made the mistake of visiting a similarly "disturbed" friend who happened to have a pair of classic CLS speakers driven by a thorens table and some s.e. triodes. Good God man! Wha? How'd? You can't! I never! and so on. Beyond magic (at least in what they did right). So began my love affair with Martin Logan. People will argue, as they inevitably did and do, that ML sound "plasitcy" or the just don't blend well with low end augmentation (which until recently, I would have to agree with) - but I will say this: Never has a friend ever visited me here in the dedicated 2-channel chamber/shrine/alter and been anything less than blown-away by the relative excellence of any of my past ML transducers. Suffice it to say that after having listened to Sequels and SL3s for a while, I always felt like I was most "at home". I even took a side trip to Maggie 3.6r land... loved them, but they just never completely stole my heart (although that 48" ribbon tweeter still has to be one of the most amazing bits of hifi techno-wizardry on planet earth). Not to appear anything less than level-headed, I even revisited boxville... trying on a pair of mighty Sonus Faber Amati Homage.... eh... not worth the money. And following that, a pair of Gallo 3.1 Refs, different, pretty good even, but still "ain't planar". So why did I drag you kicking and screaming through such a neurotic "this is your hi-fi life"? Because I think history is important in order to truly understand anyone's position (on just about anything) they are involved with. Thus we come to the present. My system as described here is anything but virtual. The Summit X speakers are jaw-dropping (with truly outstanding low-end integration). The Bel-Canto MkII amps are uncanny. The MCD301 is wildly analogue sounding for a CD player. The cables, power conditioning, racks etc are all based more on logical technology/physics decisions than any voodoo (there are no stones or hallograph tridents to be seen). You want to hear how glorious this setup sounds? Well, you can't really, unless you happen to know me - and I invite you - assuming you bring an excellent Pinot Noir... but that's beside the point. If you have really good computer speakers, I invite you to listen to this youtube clip where someone posted a video of a pair of ML CLX speakers "reliving" the aural experience of a track "French Carol" from the awesome SACD "Cantate Domino" (Proprius - PRSACD 7762). Wow! (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-iKjqIadSI)... now, we can all agree it's impossible to get a sense of a given system's performance by listening to the audio portion of a youtube clip... but something about this clip does remind me of the transcendent effortlessness of my system as it sound currently. Having said all this, I'm now obviously enchanted by the full-range CLX offering... but until I can figure out how to upgrade to that level of heaven, the current system will just have to do. Cheers to all!

UPDATE: CLX's have arrived, also changed many of the components. There is absolutely no question that the sound this system creates is the highest fidelity I've ever had the good fortune to hear. Thanks for looking :)