TubeLover

And you could likely build a complete high performance (non HQPlayer based) pc for just the price of the RTX 3080. These prices are getting completely out of hand. JC

No question that is absolutely the strangest cover I've ever seen for an album of baroque music! JC

This is a favorite of mine too, Tom. And I suspect little known. Thanks for bringing some attention to it.I can see it providing a very effective soundtrack accompaniment to a police thriller. JC

Good to know. I acquired that version a while back, and am very eager to hear it. However, my SACD player died on me, and I haven't dropped the significant money necessary to replace it yet. JC

Thanks, having four or five different versions, including two different SACD's, I'm aware. I'm actually hoping, and have recommended, that JoshM make this album the subject of the next episode of his superb "Best Version Of" series. JC

Thanks very much Allan. JC

And here is a natural follow up to Jud's Jason Isbell and Amanda Shire tribuute to John Prine, above:

Brilliant album!!! JC

Having both, I would say that there is a clear upgrade in sound quality when moving to the UltraRendu. JC

Didn't mean to be. I just hate throwing things out there that may negatively impact a manufacturer if, in fact, the price was higher than is fair. Which I didn't know. The cables are from Synergistic Research. And further research into them maks it seem like a bad idea to try to reterminate them. These are a very complex cable with many, many soldering points. JC

Looks like a very good connector, and with the Cardas name behind it, there shouldnt be any question about its performance. Thanks. JC

I don't see a need to publicly name the company, I've talked to other people and all of the higher end cable manufacturers seem to want a great deal of money for this service. They were going to charge me $950.00, stating the the banana connectors alone, that they use, are over $300.00 per set of four. The only local electronics store that I am aware of is noted for less than ideal quality of service, so not a good option. I've also reached out to others for potential help with this. JC

As the titles says, I have a very high quality pair of speaker cables that must be re-terminated from the existing spades to bananas before I can use them as needed. I've spoken to the manufacturer, which would have been my first choice, but the price quoted was borderline outrageous. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks. JC

Sandy, I suspect you are very likely to be right about those Pass amps. As I noted to Chris in an earlier comment, the Pass XA100.5 mono's would be great to try with the RAAL's. Very, very few solid state amplifieres ahve the As far as class D amps, I tried a pair of very good Class D monoblocks and they sounded fine, but just did not compare with using the RAAL's with a quality tube amp. JC

And a company whose DAC's I have always thought were unlistenable. Strident, overly dynamic, overly analytical, too lean, and shrill. And then there are the real issues! How these things get good reviews are an absolute mystery to not only myself, but I've had this same discussion with an entire group of well versed audio enthusiasts, as well as several audiophile oriented friends, and more than one top notch audio reviewer that I know. JC