children, children, children... "hearing" is a perception, and an "individual perception" at that.
Nobody can tell anybody else what sounds best to them -
nobody. And there is no "one" component that sounds best in all systems, all rooms, with all speakers, for all people - it does not exist. All this is merely personal preference. There are NO absolutes. Everybody's hearing sensitivity is different, especially as we age. I guarantee you that if you put a group of people age 50+ in a room, listening to a given system, everyone of them will have vastly different opinions about the overall sonic personality of the sound - too much highs, not enough, etc., etc. etc.
I happen to share Lon's opinion about the treble shunt control on the Torii - given the following dependencies. Steve once told me, face to face, that the Torii was designed for high-efficiency, full-range, crossoverless types of speakers. Nearly all the speaker drivers in this category have a rising frequency response starting in the 1-2khz region. The Torii was designed to alleviate this and to allow the frequency balance to be adjusted to a flatter response. I have heard the ZMA Stone, and at length, and I prefer the Torii on full-rangers over the ZMA. If I thought the ZMA sounded better on full-rangers, I'd have one.
In over 35+ years of chasing the holy grail of audio, I have never heard a speaker that produces more life-like, realistic sound than a crossoverless, full-range, high-efficiency speaker - at any price. This is my Opinion and my Preference - only - not anybody else. So given my choice of speaker(for the last few years), the Torii provides the best synergy I have heard so far - to me. If I find something that "I think" sounds better, I'll own it - $$ is not an object.
I have never seen a musical instrument that has a crossover. Just like the "best wire insulation" debate, no insulation is the best insulation (i.e. air), and the best crossover is no crossover. Putting all those passive parts in series between a power amp and the actual sound transducer cannot be a good thing from any electrical engineering perspective and can only be subtractive and serve to alter the signal.
Now if you want to talk about other types of speakers, with multiple drivers and/or crossovers, less sensitive, etc. I have found other amps to have better synergy w/them than the Torii -
to my ears and preferences.
Lon it seems you've reached a level of satisfaction and contentment with your system that very few people ever do. I congratulate you! I'm almost there with you. For those who are more into the constant churn of component of the month rotating thru their system, and never finding contentment and satisfaction, I do not envy you. I, for one, would never try to tell anybody what they like, or should like, or try to convince them that my opinion about any audio component is the only opinion, or the right opinion. That would just be insane.... This forum should only be about "sharing" impressions, opinions and preferences.... not dissing somebody for expressing their preference or opinion. Get over yourself Stone... you're not the omnipotent being. You don't have to share anybody's opinion or agree with them, and neither do you have the right to bash anybody for their opinion either.
I'm sure Steve's new DSD player sounds excellent! Has anyone every heard a Decware product sound bad?
I plan on checking it out, at length at Zen later this year. There is one "functional" requirement for me, that I don't think it has. That being able to control it remotely from my listening chair via my iDevice. I don't think it has this capability, but I could be wrong. If it does, I'll probably have to have one, cause I'm sure it sounds excellent.
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