Confused and need help


After finding out that my 1.7 maggies were going faulty and losing their sparkle i went on the hunt for new gear.
I took my gear (2x parasound A21 and my ARC LS17se preamp ) and went shopping. 
I had heard great comments about the 30.2 harbeths so i hooked up my gear and listened for a few hours, i was not impressed, something was missing, it was flat, and boring. 
I connected up the new Ayre integrated amp and wow, the 30.2 sounded so full, warm, accurate.
Surely my electronics are not that poor quality?  
motorsportmatt1
No surprise that the post preceding mine was deleted by our resident Deleter In Chief. Here is her post, for continuity and context purposes:

elizabeth 8,001 posts11-07-2019 11:30am

I would blame the Parasound gear as a wild guess. Agree try the Maggies with something, anything else.


I paired Maggie 1.7 with a Parasound hint Halo and the sound was phenomenal do I'm surprised that they may be your problem. Maybe an audio friend can bring an amp or pre so you can experiment.
I completely agree with david_ten. Years go by, unless you have oodles of money, we make changes slowly. Our brains change slowly. Our ears change slowly. Our perception changes slowly. What we never imagined may all of a sudden be reality. All of a sudden a mismatch may become a match and the opposite. For instance, I have had some Roxy Music vinyl in my collection for a long time. Never cared for it. Tonight, I said let's give it a chance and loved it. Why? No clue. But sounded fabulous. Same system as last 5 years. Nobody ever takes into account aging as a major factor in this hobby. Why not? Every other aspect of society does. I can't imagine that I hear the music anything close to that which I did 20 years ago. Still love it the same. Actually, love it more. My brain now loves the sound, the variation, the skill, the talent, the time and artistry it took to create the recording. In the end however, it is still my ears sending the data through a neuro network of past memories to my brain and down to the pleasure receptors in my body which make the experience. Any hiccup in that chain results in alteration of perception and thus one's interpretation of the beauty.
What leads you to believe that the Maggies are "going faulty"?  Is it just because they've lost some sparkle?  If so, I'm with @mijostyn.  When was the last time you replaced the tubes in the LS17?  Good NOS tubes in a preamp can definitely bring back that sparkle.  Sometimes it happens so gradually you don't even realize it was gone until you replace the tubes.