Naum Dorkhman was chuffed about Audes' new Excellence series of loudspeakers. "I told he engineers to take a blank sheet of paper and make loudspeakers that would satisfy audiophiles, not the bean counters," he said.

The flagship Excellence 5 ($5995/pair) has an extremely rigid front baffle, SEAS drivers (1" silk dome, two 5" midrange, and two 8" woofers) are from SEAS, the capacitors are from Munden, and the speaker terminals are from Cardas.

The proof ain't in the ingredients, however, it's in the listening. On that level, the Excellence 5s are at least 90 proof. Jon Iverson and I were impressed.