my comments in short...

Ref 3A Royal Virtuosos: good sounding laid back sound, surprising bass for bookshelf speaker (though this *is* a small room).

HDT w/DFR8 drivers: Note the DFR8's are still not fully broken in.  On all amps including the Carissa we both thought the HDT's sounded better than the 3A's. Way more midrange detail, better bass, more "you are there" presense. I already kinda knew what to expect.  Though I wish I could get the bass we heard in my MUCH bigger room.  In this small room, the bass was not lacking at all.  Def no need for a sub.  Notable comments I heard from Steve, were... "they remind me of Quads in a way"... "wow, that's freaking awesome!"(that was with the CSP,  HDT+Carissa)...and..."that's the best sound I've ever heard in this room".  The treble did not seem to be lacking at all.  A helper tweeter does not seem to be needed with the DFR8's the way that I felt necessary with the FE206EM (with felted phase plug).

Carissa:  In this room, with this equipment, I preferred slightly the sound of the Carissa + CSP.  I just wish it didn't cost $7000, ~ 10 times what the TABOO costs!

TABOO:  (cryo treated SV83's and cryo Sovtek 12ax7-LPS) The sound was very good, approaching the Carissa in most ways. We both thought the bass with the TABOO was better than the Carissa - which really surprised me (it's an 845 SET).  I liked the mids from the Carissa a little more.  There was a problem with one channel distorting when we turned the volume up.  I swapped the power tubes and the noise followed, so it looks like one of the SV83's was bad and I didn't have a spare.  With the volume down it still sounded very good.  Steve said he could difinitely live with this sound.

CSP:  Not much to say. It made everthing sound better except the Charlize.  Not much difference there.  Could be I'm using all cryo treated Sovtek 6N1P's.  Maybe tube rolling (6922's?) would help?

Charlize: For the price the sound is quite good, but some brightness and listener fatigue there.  CSP smoothed out slight graininess but didn't fix the upper mids brightness.  IMO a great second system amp but won't have me selling my tube gear.  I've heard this amp sound better - with my DIY K-slot horns.

I hope someone finds this info interesting.

GL out.

[quote author=gnat leader  link=1146262918/45#50 date=1150097296]I hope someone finds this info interesting. [/quote]
I certainly did.  I would like to try the DFR8 in RCAfan's K-horn.  

Will do.

BTW, I have been wanting to ask you for some time, what does Gnat Leader mean?
Just being snoopy, Brian

That much I knew.  
They are tiny, the ones around here are black,  They get in my ears when I am trying to fish in summer, and you can sometimes imitate them on a number 22 to 26 hook for trout.  
That is as much as I know about it.

Think self deprecating humor.  At one time I was the posting leader on this forum. Don't know if I still am.  

Gnat-one to Gnat-Leader... cover me, I'm going in.

actually, I think Randy has had me consistently beat.

[quote author=gnat leader  link=1146262918/45#58 date=1150247083]...self deprecating humor.  
Gnat-one to Gnat-Leader... cover me, I'm going in. [/quote]
I see.  That's pretty good.

yowza!  You guys must have been on page 2 - I didn't see. Anway, the name really came from a guy and I at work that call each other on our badges (we make hands free wi-fi communication badges; voice-over-IP; think Star Trek communicator) and we would call each other jokingly like ... "kssshht.... Gnat one to Gnat Leader... over"

I did the double suspension trick today to my fe206e.

I was to lazy to remove the drivers. It's not an easy job but I had experience with the passive installation in the hdt.

My hdt are the alternate tuning ones using whizerless driver and amt-1 tweeters.





It's pretty fresh and probably too soon for evaluation but so far it's a slightly different driver than before.

The mids is less forward and may have less energy but it seem more balanced with the rest.

The bass seem cleaner and slightly more present.

I can't speak for the highs because I'm cutting them at 8khz.

I'll wait some weeks to see what happen. The membrane seem pretty stiff for the moment added to this that the drivers are still pretty new.

I also have a pair of decware fe206em.

Those with the new phase plug but without the double suspension (bought in january)

My original pair of fostex with some dynamat on the basket and the diy phase plug are almost impossible to discern from the decware driver.

I'm not sure that the form of the new phase plug have a lot to do with the sound of the new dfr-8