7.5 foot nearfield triangle in 14x24x8' asymmetrical, heavily damped room. Monos hanging from floor joists under speakers in basement, direct-wired with 10AWG, switched in listening room on cute DIY ACME-based junction box. EMC-1 MkII mounted on Neuance Beta; currently with HT Pro AC11, running balanced throughout. Discovery Essence clearly preferred over Pro-Silways or Red Dawn on this fabulous CDP! Aleph P runs asymmetrical Red Dawn down through baseboard to basement joists where Aleph 2s are hung under the speakers. Red Dawn revII cables then run up through each sidewall and out baseboard holes to Parsifal Encores. System has extremely high WAF, BTW; EMC-1 sits atop very heavy leaded glass-doored Arts & Crafts rack (Drexel...really gorgeous: about $1100), and Aleph P, tuner, and lots of sliding "drawers" for CDs sit inside with vestigial AR table (ho-hum). Remote works great through the leaded glass, and the EMC-1 looks stately up on top between the vases. The Steinway B sits between but BEHIND the Encores, which therefore are about 8.5 feet from the front wall. When the music stand is flipped forward, and with use of a slight, hollow piano bench, the stage, although a bit asymmetrical, is frighteningly real! Cedar Walton and Jessica Williams SIT AT MY "B"!, and Christian McBride, et al, stand in the belly's curve. Stuffed furniture flanks the sidewalls in front of the Encores; quick placement of a big pillow atop said sofa or chair easily knocks first reflections down. Sometimes I like the lusher wider stage with the reflections, but mostly I don't. Imaging depth easily goes back the full 8' behind the speaker plane (with GREAT centerfill...these Encores LOVE big nearfield triangles...but only with forward-firing woofers--don't try this with Fidelios!), and sometimes out into the bushes! Amazing! Am currently configuring dedicated 10-2AWG lines for CDP, Pre and the monos-pair, and will then work out PCs. Why I chose these components, A'gon asks? The Encores started it all: I gave up trying to design my own 3-way after not being able to buy drivers matched well enough (!), and quickly demoed up from Paradign powered Monitors through Hales Rev 3, Aeriel 7b and 8, Thiel 2.3, Nautilus 803, and then discovered the eminently likable Revel Performa F30. Except my wife HATED it! My dealer kept comparing everything to the VA Fidelio demos,which he convinced me to take home for $4k. Great mids on up, but truly anemic bass in the nearfiels, well away from the front wall. I called VA and they suggested that my setup was one of the 20% that might require front-firing woofers, only available with the $$$ Parsifals. So I got sucked up to demoing the Parsifals, and after rotating the woofer bases around at home I became mesmerized by their totally natural music-making! I continued to move them forward, and apart, and then VA said I should move my chair closer, too! So the 7.5' triangle evolved carefully, and results in the soundstage described above.... Demos were all with the Audio Refinement Complete Integrated, along with my original heavy transport Rotel RCD855. I felt the amp was running out of steam (compared to my previous NAD 2400 section of the 7400 receiver), so I listened to my dealer who suggested I chase an Aleph (after a DISASTROUS demo of a VAC Avatar...what junk!), preferably larger than a 3. I wondered if the 5 would be big enough, as well, as the Encore uses an extremely dynamic 4 ohm woofer, now, so lots 'o current's a good idea! Found the Aleph 2 monos a terrific match, as they seem to double-down to 200w/ch into 4 quite nicely, yet maintain supremely natural, liquidity. The Aleph P was then purchased, as the preamp section of the NAD was dirty, noisy, dry, edgy, etc., by comparison. I found a used P for only 40% more than a new ADCOM 750, and after chatting with Nelson decided his 35 lb implementation of this one-gain-stage pre was probably a whole lot better than ADCOM's... despite my wife's cousin Wes Philips's review. Plus it's quirky optical comparator relay-switching silver resistor gain control is funky-fun! The preamp is UTTERLY neutral, DEAD quiet (even running unshielded longish ICs!), and a gratifyingly chunky remote. As you all know the Alephs are great spaceheaters, and Ellen could NOT accept their tarantula-like appearance (sorry, Nelson!). The Depot provided really strong reinforced hanging brackets, so I made hanging "shelves" a foot wide from two each of these, and hung the monos (each fitting nicely in a plastic 1 foot cube ID milk crate) under the floor joists beneath the speakers in the basement. Asymmetrical balanced Red Dawn ICs thread from the rack through the baseboard down into the basement to these brutes, while 8' Red Dawn rev II cables thread up through both sidewalls to their respective Encores. (My wife and kids keep interrupting...so apologies if I'm repetitive--it's Saturday morning.) I lived with this system for about a year, badgering all the fine folk at A'gon, etc., for front end advice. Dealers pushed ARCs and ARCAMS at me, and I tried cuz Wes' BelCanto cum DVD duo, all to much disappointment! The old little Rotel STILL boogied better than them all! Dirty and rough, but MUSICAL, dammit! Bumped into Ken Lyon's Neuance shelves, and couldn't believe how an Alpha tightened up the edgy treble toward near-acceptibility. I kept blaming 16bit rez for the digital grit. I continued to dream about used Ikemis, EMC-1, Meridian, RA CD55, even a new Planet or Rotel 991, and then found a guy in Denmark selling a new EMC-1 MkII with the not-yet- announced 24/192 DAC for wholesale! So I took the chance, finally got it flown into Boston, and was immensely pleased with its TOTAL lack of grain, and MIGHTY bass grip. Yet the uppermids and treble seemed a bit thin and wiry. I feared all that $$ Red Dawn XLR IC was the culprit, but learned from you guys to fart around with CDP IC-swapping first. Indeed, a shot at a used Discovery Essence fit the bill! I leave the Pro-Silways installed to enable instant-switching, and it's truly surprising to me that the all-copper Essence has the fuller mids yet satisfyingly-detailed top, and the silver/copper hybrid Pro-Silways sound do anemic! Indeed the 6dB single vs balanced gain diff has to be recalibrated with each comparo (I also like that it provides a quick -6dB "mute" for phone machine screening, exclaiming to Ellen that it's not SO loud at 2 AM, etc.) but I'm pretty sure that I'm consistently preferring the Essence, and have been told that the spectral difference is apt to be indeed due to the cable and not the difference in output configuration. "nuff said. Having been so taken by the Neuance iso/absorb shelf's performance with the old Rotel, I felt I had to try 'em on the 44 lb EMC-1 and the 35 lb pre, also. Can't really tell if there's a difference, and frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. I'm pretty sure it's not worse, so at the price I just accept it....time is more valuable. I've come to be embarrassed by the string of ganged cheap 14AWG power strips that connet the monos to a switched strip in the listening room, which is also on a strip with the CDP and pre. So I just tried a HT ProAC11 on the CDP direct into the wall with the pre. Following a chat with Bob Crump et al I'll be setting up 3 dedicated 10-2AWG lines, one for CDP, one for pre (unswitched), and the last for a switched outlet feeding the PCs to the monos. I may even make the monos PCs from the 10-2 also, since it's cheap, they'll be hidden, and the Shurter and P&S are around someplace, eh? Still leaves choices for PC for the Aleph...and maybe the CDP, if someday I find the HT AC11 to be insufficient. The system floats a HUGE stage: wider than the room (esp if sidewall pillows are down), and clearly deeper than the room, as mentioned. Bass grip and musical coherence are startlingly great! All information is grain-free, ultraquiet, and with scary dynamism. Cymbals are often realistic, yet soft brushes still can be sandpapery, but I wonder if that's the recording or the limitations of 16bit CD.... I'm buying bunches of new and used CDs, and reselling about 1/3 due to sonic dissatisfaction...not bad, I suppose, as a nirvanic hobby for a guy staring at the 1/2 century next spring. Happy to entertain your comments, queries, and grateful for everyone's help. Cheers! Ernie (TheSubaruGuru)