I have to agree with Sam Tellig on the "Made in China" thing. If it wasn't for the horrendous experience I had with Harmon Kardon's Chinese made receivers or Infinity's speakers I would never have upgraded to products like Vandersteen speakers or B&K amps which, obviously, are made in the U.S.A. So maybe the corner cutting communist audio is good for the high end. I will most likely never (willfully) buy anything audio that says "Made in China" again, which is pretty much the entirety of the mass market. Jeeze even "Made in Japan" isn't so bad anymore.

Ok,

First off, this is my first post. Second, "Hi".

I bought a pair of Magnepan MMG's about two years ago. I used to work at Stereo Exchange in NYC, so I had some gear that I hooked up. Here's what happened:

Marantz MA-22 monoblocs - Great little amps - very transparent but way underpowered

McCormack Micro Line and Power Drive (the older oblong shape) - beautiful but still underpowered

Hmmm, don't ya think things have improved since the 50's? Does some think this "sounds" better? Huh? http://i14.ebayimg.com/05/i/000/a4/8e/0a9e_12.JPG

The author makes a good point regarding the difference between designed deterioration & planned obsolescence...

http://www.subtraction.com/archives/2007/0716_designed_det.php

I found this the other day when I was looking for some test tones. You can either download the wav/mp3 files or the program at the bottom of the page (Burninwave Generator): http://www.burninwave.com/
You can use these files with the jDFT-2 free RTA software: http://www.e.kth.se/~johk/jdft/index.html
Hope this is useful to someone