Archguy

It was eye-opening how bad some of these sounded right out of the box. The first couple of times I thought I had a bad unit. Took only a few minutes for them to get right though IME. Maybe still better after a day or two but those improvements were more subtle. People swear by those! Definitely on my list.

Spectacular set, and kudos to you for facilitating the personal delivery.

Thanks to your location info, I looked up Beaucaire and ended up learning a lot about the religious wars in the South of France during the Medieval period! BTW, on some forums I use a picture of the Pont du Gard as my avatar. Also, people, please don't mangle your F3s! They're nearly perfect as is.

Do you know which chip they use? I've a mind to buy one and put it up against my TPA3250 which is a current favorite. NVM, just found their (impressive and comprehensive) spec sheet. " At the heart of the Bantam Gold is the ADAU1592 audio amplification chip from Analog Devices. This IC generates a differential PDM pulse train from the analog input. " http://templeaudio.net/downloads/Bantam_Gold_Spec_2014.pdf

Someone else grabbed them, looks like.

PS to the OP: I vote for Forte IIIs with natural-colored grilles to complement your attractive room. Or Zu Audio speakers with the hemlock wood to complement your attractive panelling.

Hey! You forgot to include speakers!

Beautiful setup and you appear to have concealed the cables to your television, for which I tip my hat sir!

On another site there's a thread entitled "How much do I need to spend to get a preamp that sounds better than no preamp?" You may find it instructive, and/or amusing. Site won't let me add the link, sorry, but you can search the text string.

Note that the veneer orientation is consistent on front and sides. That's the right way to do it.

Agreed, and it would also be enjoyable to read the occasional comparison test among peer equipment. Not so much with an eye toward choosing winners and losers but perhaps describing differences; pros & cons of each. You wouldn't know it from reading most reviews, but most pieces really do have pluses and minuses.

That would be one good idea, and another might be to prohibit FS ads from people who just joined the forum.

It does have a sub level control, so you could turn that up for bass, and then the 'tone' control to the right for treble....seems legit...

A single tone control? I haven't seen that since I was a little kid, and it was on an old AM car radio.

Pretty stunning. Saving my pennies now.

Is the price negotiable?

Those beautiful retro grilles alone are worth the price of admission.

great deal...congrats.... why is the tv mounted up at the ceiling though?

He said "psychedelic" -- he wasn't kidding.

If you live within a hundred miles of me, you need to sell your Forte IIIs, possibly at a substantial loss. Sorry to be the one to break the bad news...your wife is right... PM me for further details....