Blaster,
Audio Advisor is a ripoff. Everything is MSRP and nothing can be negotiated. I first met Wayne down at the Stereophile World High End show at the Waldorf in NY in '95 when Ensemble Music Systems asked me to attend as their technical advisor. I found him to be generally unknowlegeable and opportunistic. Interestingly enough, my current Cardas Golden Cross speaker cables were given to me by George Cardas himself at that show. The 8' pair of these went for $1550 at the time. Even George admitted that there were few, if any, known electrical reasons why cables sound different. I have a hard time hearing any difference at all, but for free, I'll take 'em.
I worked a few deals to get my interconnects at a "reasonable" cost as well. I run all balanced and they are Cardas as well. How about the 3 foot pair that run between my Wadia CD player and Krell preamp. It amazes me that people would pay $600 retail for these things, yet they do.
Macman,
Mostly progressive and modern jazz, but I pretty much like all music except cRap. I'm thinking that I might be able to get 2 Live Crew to work some Robert Service poems into some of their tunes.
Currently, I've been trying to convince John to trade me his Samurai speakers for the Egglestons, even up. Not much success with him yet as he doesn't want to rock out his race chains.