I too am building up my war chest for new amps. I am torn
between the Legacy and Sumo. I would like someday to get up into
the Sonic Frontiers, Bryston or Conrad Johnson areas, but that is
still far too expensive. But from the two people I have spoken to 
who have owned Legacy main two channel amps, they wouldn't trade
them for any of the above.
        Several months ago I had the chance to listen to a system
being pushed by a Sumo Andramada(sp?). Wow!!! Power and Reserve
galore, yet a sweet sound that left a great impression. None of
the brassie over shaprness of many of the solid states. Just a 
very smoothe progression of power without effort. So far, everyone
who has spoken about the Legacy has said the same of it. And, I
have all the confidence in the world in Bill Duddleston. If he 
builds it, I'll more than likely buy it. I guess that is about
as high a compliment as I can muster. Come to think of it I 
first sought out a Sumo to listen to after reading an article
in one of Legacy's very first catalogs. Hmmmmm.
        As far as bi-wiring goes, you will hear a lot of people
who will argue that given sufficient wiring from the amp to the
speakers, bi-wiring will accomplish nothing. I have experimented
with it. With my standard original issue Monster speaker cable
I could hear no significant difference. But when I moved up to 
better wires, there was indeed a difference well worth the price
for me. I later went to bi-amping as I had an extra amp just 
sitting in the rack. That too made a difference but was difficult
for me to get balanced out as the matching amps (Carver TFM 35s)
had two channel gain controls on each amp. I decided I would be
better off with one better quality amp and bi-wiring.
        The best service I have had for mail order, cables 
included, is Audio Advisor. I have been ordering from them for a couple
years and have never had a bit of trouble. Kiefs out of California
beats AAs prices by an average of 20%, and they too have an excellent 
reputation. But I have only ordered from them once.
        I am very impressed with the Tara Labs Prime 1000 RSC cables.
The head of Tara is a bit excentric and comes across with a
bit of an ego, but his RSC cabling is really great! I read about
them then asked for comments from the High End Audio Newsgroup
on the internet. Within two days I had about twenty people send
E-Mail filled with really glowing reports about the RSC technology.
They are a bit more than Monster Cable or Zip cord, but I figured
if I could spend a bazillion dollars on the rest of the system
I should pop for a couple hundred for single cable bi-wire. They
sound great! And, I am not one for tweaks and miracle add-ons 
like green CD Edge Paint, or wooden disks to balance on the tops
of my speakers. I am still trying to figure out the fellow from
Purist Audio Designs (PAD) who fills some of his cables with water, 
and pumps light through others and charges several thousand dollars
to do so. I guess someone is buying them or he wouldn't still be
advertising all over the place. 
Cheers, John
www.grump@netzone.com
--- Maximus/2 3.01
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