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Hey Barnaby, I usually don't reply in HiFi thread's cuz of the "no difference" negativity lobby! Haven't heard the Mystique's either but several other Neat's and liked them quite well (but they unfortunately give to little bass for an organ aficionado like me) and my experience is that, they don't really need that much power but like an amplifier that can deliver a lot of juice (ampere's). I'm sure they would work fine with a Hegel amp, it is quite neutral (quite little character of its own in contrast to any NAIM), in any case, I would arrange for a home audition before deciding any way (Any good HiFI seller, even on-line, will allow for this!)

If You want to audition something with a little more "character" (ie. not greyishly neutral) I suggest that You take a look at the French maker YBA, they will probably be the next replacement in my system (replacing 30 year old Bryston amps that have been showing some electrical problems of late)..

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The YBA's are voiced to sound "slightly" like tube amps (warmer) but without their limited effect (low power), my ears feel that they are very honest, I don't experience that the slight warmth is a colouration but something that helps elevate the music! FWIW, for me the other contender when I've auditioned new amps are Ayre that was mentioned above and they are very good as well, quite close in sound character to the YBA Genesis I auditioned, but as I need 4 channels of amplification this alternative would be almost twice the money and I do not feel that they have twice as good sound...

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Any speaker capable of producing sub bass frequencies will need a lot of power to do it. The lower the frequency, the more power needed to produce it. My subwoofer has a 2700 watt amp in it. It's capable of putting out healthy volume down to 15Hz. That is very very low and takes a lot of oomph to produce.

Yea sure, You're still based in the 1970's inefficient speakers rhetoric!, my Toruses are specd 10 - 15oHz / 100dB/1 meter and their "integrated" amp has "mere" 200W; I have two and they are more then able to fill my 60 square meter listening room/library/man cave with low frequencies!

Nuff said!

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Just because someone is a member of a peer reviewed organisation doesn't say that they have the competence to design anything! I have heard several speakers and electronics built by members of f.x AES that sounded like *****, but got rave reviews in Audiophile magazines (mostly based on how these measured), and unfortunately, the recordings of the same gentlemen (no women involved) did impress as little.
I'm sure that the bulk of AES members are distinguished, but saying that having a membership of anything makes Your product "better" is plain stupid! Sorry to be a negative twatt!

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