That sounds like a tempting price, but it’s red or bust!
Hmmm with that new amp you have in, the special 40 would be pretty great 
Whoa whoa whoa, what are you trying to do to my pocket book? lolol
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Although to be honest, I have been eyeing Special 40s for my future pair though (and unfortunately, no local dealers carry them so I cannot audition them).
Oh, out of curiosity, anyone have any thoughts on the Marantz NR1200? It’s a pretty new AVR and my dad got it for his KEF Q750’s and they sounded pretty great.
I have not heard it, although… Perhaps politely ask if you could borrow it from for a few days if he is near you to see what it does for your speakers lololol (of course if he is willing, as I know my mother would have no problem with that, but my father wouldn’t consider lol)
It is too late, he has gone the way of dynaudio lol. We did discuss various ls3/5a monitors as those are awesome, but he wanted something with bass which those do not have lol. But an amazing mid-range is something they do have for sure
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I believe he didn’t want to have to get a sub if I recall correctly, so that limited options
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Lol might be an idea. Though he’d probably want me to bring the speakers to his place instead 
which isn’t out of the question to be honest. However transporting these speakers with these extremely sensitive tweeters is interesting. The dealer was telling me how the protective cover that comes with it is basically crap because it itself can destroy the tweeter if you’re not careful (oh the irony).
Indeed. Not really my choice. Just the reality of my listening environment. Sub won’t work out. I’ve tried it with 2 different subs so far.
On another note, today the speakers were sounding better than yesterday. Didn’t change a thing. That psychological burn-in taking effect? Lol
It’s most likely mainly mental burn in and some more break in, my special 40s were somewhat stiff when I got them, so the more you use them the better imo
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I think I may have made a dire mistake. I just tried the Evokes in my living room with a mediocre little power amp (SMSL SA-98) hooked up to an SMSL SU-8 fed by a Chromecast audio via optical streamed with Roon (Tidal HiFi). Yes, my desktop setup is better than the living room lol.
The mistake is the attempt. Because it sounds MUCH better. I’m afraid I may have bought awesome speakers that I’ve now accidentally discovered how to utilize better in my home, but they’re not serving the purpose I had intended them for 
oh god, what have I done?
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Well most speakers do tend to sound different on a desk and in a room, it depends on what you prefer lol. You can optimize your desk to get some of that performance though
Oh? What would you recommend then?
You can give more space behind your desk, or get some nice speaker stands and put the speakers behind you desk so you get more of the room if you wanted to
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Hmm, I don’t really have much room to work with in terms of pulling the desk away from the wall…however…An idea has come to mind that I’ll have to give some serious thought. Flipping my desk around so the space I have doesn’t really change, but the speakers themselves then end up having 3.5m of open space behind them. Must do some thinking on that. There are more considerations there for such a decision.
There are also speakers that do perform excellent and sound very similar, helping to eliminate room effects as best they can in any situation.
Mentioned in the topic earlyer.
Since now stepped in a room or environment mine. Out of ur own free will.
Speakers did sound better in other room and environment that was not planned first.
If you can’t get them to work or sound similar in the desk situation like in the other room.
“Circle of change” and “endless pursuit of better” might happen and can lead into horrible power cable, speaker cable, amp, dac, speaker change nightmare’s that will never end. Not even mentioning the furniture, acoustic or origami shaped sounds enhancing thingy’s.
Also costing more in the long run that originally planned.
Does not sound like a Endgame plan. 
Yeah, you make a good point. However the goal here was to acquire a potentially Endgame desktop speaker. In the regard that we’re pinpointing that singular component, I believe the ones that have been mentioned here, and consequently the one I bought, could be classified within that designation for a fair number of enthusiasts. Could it be better? Sure. There’s always better…and more expensive.
The idea here was the find a speaker that could produce a sound that I’m happy with and can be happy with for quite some time, making it so that the speakers are no longer the bottleneck in the system. I’ve heard what these speakers are capable of and it was thrilling. The more I listen to them, the more I realize that they have very special qualities that I enjoy, and they have all of the detail that I thought I’d lose with a smoother presentation. I like them better every day.
Now it’s my job to make them come alive. I studied electrical engineering and understand how to find the limitations of certain components from a data-driven perspective, but what I still need to gain experience on is how certain measurements relate to what we hear. For that, I need to try stuff out. But having a baseline of a very good speaker that can actually show you the differences of components and still make music the center focus, is critical in my opinion.
So don’t worry, I won’t be getting ridiculous cables 
this is where I’ll let my knowledge of measurements help me, and I’ll only accept the purchase of a “higher quality cable” with a blind test run on me. DAC is just about the same concept. I already have an RME ADI-2 and SMSL SU-8v2. I’m not going to get better results than this from an audible perspective so I’m set there.
For me, the only 3 things that will change (all of which I know influences sound quite a lot and for quite simple and measurable reasons) are: 1. Amplification 2. Speaker Placement 3. Room acoustics / treatment
This is simply physics. The best approach for me, is to use my knowledge and soon measurements of how to best improve the sound up to a measurably acceptable level and from there rely on subjective perception of quality in changing things (I.e. more or less acoustic treatment for example). This way, I’m not getting something that is measurably bad and considering that “good”.
Elac Vela got very good reviews