So cool. I built their stereo amp (25 watts) and preamp. Looking back, it's amazing how cheap it was just to buy the prebuilt versions. For a few bucks I could have avoided weeks of work and anguish and errors. Building them was fun, though.

OK, I just lugged home my brother's old Marantz Model 2250 B receiver, but I haven't hooked it up yet. You guys think that will complement the Valencias well? And if I wanted to find a tube amp for around $300, what would you suggest? I've never gotten tubular before.

LATER: That crap came off the horn, with a soapy sponge! Yesss.

And I spent a couple of hours dialing in the 846Bs this afternoon and I am very happy with them. Ran some K&D, Goldfrapp, Portishead, Brubeck and others through them, gradually turning down the horns. When I got the horns down to about 3/10 full output, they were super smooth and powerful without overpowering the woofers. With the bass control set flat, I cranked Portishead's It Could be Sweet to about 7/10s and just about blew myself* out of my sofa. The bass was so strong the walls were audibly shaking, while the vocals were crystal clear with no harshness; great image, too; effortless power. My daughter said she gave up trying to watch videos in her room down the hall. I thought, “I should try it without the sub,” then checked, and the sub was turned off. Messed around with the sub a bit, set it at 40 Hz, and found it just barely fills in the lowest of the low octave. Nice but barely noticeable. I think I’ll keep it just for that last bottom oomph, but the 15s were rocking my world in a huge way.

Clarity, detail, imaging, impact; with the horns turned down it was still all totally good, with added headroom to boot. No going back now; this is the stuff.

Happy New Year!