A few days ago @DDT asked me what my BMR Philharmonic bookshelf speakers sounded like w/ my Exogal stack. 
“Fuck if I know, haven’t tried that combo.”, said I. Thus a mini tear down and new system build up ensued so I could take a listen and form an opinion.
Well, it’s been 4.5 days and about 30 hrs of much critical listening later and damned if I’m not seriously impressed and honest to gosh questioning some ideas I had firmly entrenched as facts in my mind.
Here is a quick picture of the “flavor of the week” (yes those are yoga blocks…)
I figure this is as good a place as any to add some generic thoughts and opinions…
1- the Exogal stack surprisingly requires about a 1/2 hour of proper warm up. I never noticed this before. It shouldn’t require warm up, common sense tells me it doesn’t need it. My ears say otherwise.
2- A short, well set up internet connection, good clean power, a decent streamer and decent DDC to clean up a USB interface all combined go a long way in enhancing your digital stream.
It’s true, fight amongst yourselves in denial if you choose to do so, I can clearly tell just how much this stack is scaling in performance from my other 3 system set-ups. Having 4 separate incrementally upgraded source chains allows for an educated, documented and easy to duplicate sound comparison experience.
3- I understand why Analogue front ends come in so many expensive varieties and why people spend so much money on such crazy and wild vinyl builds, crazy tape machines, SACD etc.
The source truly is the “heart” of your system. Streaming did not “fix” anything, it simply hid the potential of many pieces of equipment and allowed for a less expensive more generic sound playback ability to be enjoyed by the masses. You can’t get high quality digital audio playback from a generic source, the devil is in the details and the minutia…
4- A great soundstage will be a combination of your room, speakers and equipment all interacting together. This is where headphones rule, they take the room out of the equation BUT unfortunately require a synergistic combination of equipment for you to find your pleasure. 2 channel can do more w/ lesser pieces if you can get the room to add its part…(chew on that one for a while bitches 
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That’s it for now, I’m enjoying my equipment, I’m enjoying the music and I’m so very happy to have you all to share my rambling thoughts out loud 