Mothra,
I think you raise an interesting point, which leads back to our differing listening priorities and critical questions of fidelity. With my phonolinepreamp you do not hear it as such. Similarly with my integrated satelites and subs. What you hear is the musicians in all their varying degrees of glory. An obvious comparison would be the infamous Proac Response 2.5, Audio Research VT100; Audio Research SP25MKII combination. A beautiful sound but heavily coloured. I lived with and loved this system once but have progressed in many ways towards losing the obvious presence of my hardware. The Essential 3160 marks the pinnacle of that progression but is comparible to the improvements I achieved moving from valves to the EAR 324 phonostage some time back. It takes all sorts!
I think you raise an interesting point, which leads back to our differing listening priorities and critical questions of fidelity. With my phonolinepreamp you do not hear it as such. Similarly with my integrated satelites and subs. What you hear is the musicians in all their varying degrees of glory. An obvious comparison would be the infamous Proac Response 2.5, Audio Research VT100; Audio Research SP25MKII combination. A beautiful sound but heavily coloured. I lived with and loved this system once but have progressed in many ways towards losing the obvious presence of my hardware. The Essential 3160 marks the pinnacle of that progression but is comparible to the improvements I achieved moving from valves to the EAR 324 phonostage some time back. It takes all sorts!