Joseph of perennial favorite Joseph Audio is one guy who knows what's up.  When talking about the SonicFlare hi-fi 2.0 mission, he was instantly hip to the idea of complete system packages.  Since he's always showing with Manley Labs equipment, he said these Joseph + Manley rigs were no-brainer choices for anyone looking for instant system synergy.

Joseph's sensation were the Joseph $2300 RM7XL monitors with the Manley's $2250 Stingray.  The RM7s are now in "XL" status which adds more of the good Joseph sound.  At $4550, this is one wicked system for anyone new to super-fi -- synergy, warmth, power, bass, everything you could ask for.  Quintessential Vivd-type sonics.

On display in the big room were the new RM25XL speakers running Manley monoblocks and a Bel Canto preamp.  Roughly $11k for the system, this had all the same sonic flavor as the little rig but just more -- more bass, more warmth, more intensity.  After running through my entire demo CD, we listened to vinyl on the world's only production strain gauge cartridge.  Wild tech and amazing sound.  $6k gets you the cartridge and custom phono preamp.