Hi Lensman, thanks for the comments. The C2300 is a really warm preamp, but I feel you're paying for a lot of the features it provides which I don't really find myself using. The phono section is what really stands out in this amp. It's as good as any phono stage I have ever heard.
The Michell was my dream turntable along with the Avid Acutus. I just adore the way it looks and you could just watch the platter spin for hours. I compared the table to Rega, Pro-ject, Clearaudio, Thorens and VPI tables in my price range as well as the Mcintosh table and preferred the Michell to all of them.

ssayeed March 03, 2010 20:07

Lovely system. How are you liking the Elac's? I have the FS-247s in my system and think they are spectacular speakers.

ssayeed February 19, 2010 08:08

System edited: Removed the AZ speaker wire and finalized the cabling with Virtual Dynamics Master 3.0 bi wire.

lensman September 28, 2009 15:12

You're right Plato. Diminishing returns once you've hit the 10-15k line. The Red Wine amps were one of the most incredible upgrades coming from the 2k range power amp range and testing amps in the 5k range I could never be happy. Most great amps seem to really shine once they've hit 6 or 7k and up. Too much for my blood. I started with the 30.2 amp that was excellent. Great dynamics, smooth, natural, not forced. Tube like but linear top to bottom. However it wasn't powerful enough for higher listening levels to fill a room or a party. The mono blocks were the only way to achieve this into a 4ohm speaker (my Elac's). Just beautiful, graceful, and rich in every way.

lensman September 28, 2009 15:07

Everybody always says that they'd have to spend incredible amounts of money to better what they have and this is very seldom the case. In fact, often times one can achieve better results for even less money.

Be that as it may, you seem to have a very nice system and the best thing is that it pleases you.

I am especially interested in the Red Wine battery-powered amplifiers, but don't think they have enough power for my present speakers. I've written to the company to see if they might come out with a more powerful amplifier in the future.

plato June 26, 2009 18:16