LOL common sense and audiophile world haven't been aligned for a while. Room/placement will make a lot more difference than electronics/wire generally, let alone the speakers themselves. Your ears may show the way to a preference, but not particularly to reference. The other forum ASR? Meh on Bryston myself, but haven't needed a new amp in quite a while nor am I Canadian, but Buckeye with Hypex modules would probably be up next if I were shopping. My last several subs have been diy, tho.
I've shuffled the speakers around a bit more, and I agree. Room placement is major a factor. I'm close if not there to being fully dialed in.
Bryston measures well from what I gather, and yes ASR is the only other place I look at these days. I'm not Canadian either. I actually like BenchMark a lot too but don't have their equipment.
Bryston is now unfortunately priced a lot higher than it was when I first bought my gear but they are still a great company and they seem to rely on low distortion and good measurements. My trade in and up incentive is really hard to beat. My preamp trade in was probably better than what I could have sold it for on any Ebay site or the like. I don't want the headache of listing and selling anything. This is mostly a comfort upgrade based on aging equipment and the familiar enjoyment of my current system. I do like Buckeye and some of the other companies with similar offerings.
As for other audio forums, I can't really look at the other audio sites.
The chatter that goes on about certain things like cables and cable lifters, to me borders on insanity. Like I said I'm no expert nor am I in a position to put up objective, measurable facts to offset they're arguments, but I just can't relate to the ideas that some think make a huge difference in a system.
When I ordered my Blue Jeans cables, I called the company and whoever I spoke to stated flat out that cables make the least amount of difference in a system compared the other parts of the puzzle.
I can't tell any difference between my previous Transparent MusicWave Plus cables and the new Blue Jean cables I just bought. The thinner but heavier gauge B-J cables sound the same as the old ones but they are easier to conceal and there are no "network boxes" on the B-J cables.
Things are pretty good here and I think the new Perlisten S7Ts are a game change.
That said, the old NHTs were and are great but I guess after nearly 30 years updating the system to complete endgame is OK.
