so true- for example, a well done DIY design with parts cost of ~$1,000 will often compare well to commercial designs in the range of 5X to 10X, sometimes more. I recently had an opportunity to audition Kharma Mini Exquisites at length, and though they were better than the majority of speakers I heard at RMAF, the NeoD CC's give them a fairly stiff run for the money. The Kharma's are $45,000, with Accuton drivers. The Ardents should give them an even stiffer run, once they're complete.
My general feeling is that the Kharma's could have sounded better, but were probably hindered by the Carey 303/300 CD player in the system, which while considered a high performer by many reviewers at $4,000, is not the nearly the equal of a Berkeley Alpha DAC with a Cambridge Audio 640C as transport, at least not on a variety of recordings with which I'm fairly familiar. The owner of the Kharma's will be auditioning the Alpha DAC at home within a week.
My general feeling is that the Kharma's could have sounded better, but were probably hindered by the Carey 303/300 CD player in the system, which while considered a high performer by many reviewers at $4,000, is not the nearly the equal of a Berkeley Alpha DAC with a Cambridge Audio 640C as transport, at least not on a variety of recordings with which I'm fairly familiar. The owner of the Kharma's will be auditioning the Alpha DAC at home within a week.
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