OK
Here I go. My focus here is on speakers. The conversation on amplification can go on and on if we wanted it to, and source conversations can go even deeper than that.
I try to not jump to conclusions. I go out of my way to not use terms like 'always' and 'never'. However, when I do find a thing that shows itself as definitive I will stand steadfast on that until proven otherwise, if it is warranted... I am pretty sure my Decware soap box is indestructible. I have been actively/ critically listening to Decware setups for a year and a half. Immediately it is clear that you are experiencing something special. But, I have never heard a $100,000 system ( I have heard a $50k setup fairly recently) , let alone $1M+ system, so saying that we are solidly competing against them would have been more talk than anything.
This is no longer an issue. Fortunately I was able to walk around and experience many millions of dollars worth of some of the finest equipment in the world all in one place.
Even giving that none of these spaces are prime for audio, credit where it is due... There were only maybe 10 rooms that could even compete with a Decware system. Some of these were electrostatics or planar to which we do not even have a direct competitor to... I would still compete with what we have laying around and it would be a tight competition. Maybe we loose... I have no problem with that, credit where it is due... but, this is without trying. I am confident that if we TRIED to best a particular big dog... we would.
A lot of you old school Dec-heads already knew this. I knew this in my heart, now I know it for a fact...
First watt life. All in.
I could go on about specific issues, or how how our approach and practices best the most complicated mathematical theory and manufacturing advancements, but I would just be tooting a horn that we all here have already heard tooted many times before.
The one thing that I really enjoyed was meeting the folks from other boutique American Made manufacturers. The one that sticks out at the moment were the folks from Sota turntables. They have about a dozen employees, like us, and are from the Midwest, as are we. They have some very nice tables with good build quality, some have the vacuum feature, and also have wood outer casing that very closely matches our Contemporary amp bases, in case anyone was looking for a sexy match for your Dec-gear.
There will be more to add to this for sure, and I would be happy to jabber about my impressions of things more specifically if anyone has any questions. There is just so much that was taken in in such a short amount of time that I am still mentally sifting through it all. I just needed to get this initial posting in as it is fresh.
Thanks for taking the time to read my rants.
Cheers, happy Monday!