Emotional rollercoaster

Is that the Magnat with the dome mid-range? I can't remember if they came that way or lots of people upgraded them.  Dome mid-ranges are often good at wider/smoother dispersion, a key element usually of a successful loudspeaker in a typical room.

@mid-fi-crisis, may I ask how much you have spent on acoustic room treatments?  All that tweak stuff is meaningless until you fix your acoustics and then once you do that, you may find you don't need to chase tweaks as much.

While all amplifiers do not sound the same, in a particular style\architecture of amp, the differences when not pushed (by volume or speaker), can be small between competent amps and really good amps.

In my opinion, those that say "everything matters", are plainly wrong or at least miscommunicating. Everything does not matter to the same degree, not even close.  #1 is the recording. #2 is the speakers and #2a is the room. Spend a fortune on great speakers, and little on your room, then your system will never be good. You will probably continuously chase cables, and tweaks, often exclaiming Eureka! ... till the next Eureka!, but alas, the eureka is temporary.  #3 is source  (assuming a competent amp). #4 is amp. We assume at this point you have competent, but not expensive cables.

This concept of sound-stage and imaging, it does not come from expensive cables, nor expensive amplifiers, nor even expensive sources (competent is enough). It comes from the recording, speakers, and room.  There are many who have convinced themselves otherwise, and they will repeatedly claim X greatly expanded the sound-stage, but lets be honest, how many times can you claim that for the same system? I hate to think how bad it was before. 


One well placed acoustic panel will make a larger impact on how your system sounds than changing from any competent cable to an expensive cable. It won't even be close. It will be a bigger change than changing from a competent to expensive amplifier (assuming both similar in architecture/sonic style) in many cases. We are not talking "tweaking" the sound here, we are talking readily apparent and significant change.

Spending big bucks is not a sham. Being told you can't have a great system unless you spend big bucks on "certain" items .. yes, that is a sham.

cd318

I think it is largely a sham. One largely perpetuated by reviewers, snake oil tweak merchants, unscrupulous dealers ...all too many other vested 3rd party interests who may want to offload their mistakes ... they know exactly what they’re doing, and where their bread is buttered. (It’s now a part of a greater malaise affecting the whole mainstream media - but that’s another story) ... Tales of disgruntled, disillusioned, exhausted audiophiles who eventually jump off the upgrade train and downsize with great relief and no loss of sonic satisfaction are legion.

I too have many bitter memories / experiences as a consumer. My whole LP12 saga leaves me fragile ... the truth about cables, amplifiers, CD players, MP3 rates, DACs etc has been well understood for decades.

Unfortunately, there are many, many selfish vested interests in suppressing these truths.

Wow, you sound really unhappy. You might consider pursuing another hobby altogether.

Your "truths" obviously aren’t "supressed" because here they are, and I’ve even copied some of those "truths" in this post.

    mid-fi-crisi,

    If discovering you don't need to spend big bucks to get decent sounding results in this hobby plops you down on an allegorical emotional roller coaster ride, perhaps you need a new hobby.
     Perhaps you'd find knitting more soothing to your psyche.

Tim

If you build a high-end setup that sounds like sterile high-tech "hifi", and sounds by far its best on stuff like Diana Krall (and other audiophile demo fodder), then you’ve opened yourself up to the possibility that decent midfi gear from yesteryear that plays "loud and proud" will actually present a better connection to most of the music you actually love, even if it starts rolling off at say 14 kHz and has some boominess in the bass.

We don’t know what we really want a lot of the time. You can’t hit the target until you know what it is.

Random upgrades may well get you nowhere fast.

Better to first hear the sound you want and know what it is then pursue achieving it.

You have to listen to a lot of things usually to know. Both live music and recorded.

Then read a lot and learn about how hifi components work and forge out a plan.

Then make changes or tweaks from there until you finally hit the bullseye.

Also be aware along the way that all recordings sound different. They range from really bad to really good. Don’t get caught trying to put lipstick on a pig. Learn what specific recordings sound like on a good system and use that as a reference.

Good things don’t come easy. Good luck!