Well, here goes. I trashed both Parasound amps, the parasound pre, and the EAD Encore. Picked up a BAT VK200 SS amp, BAT VK30 tube pre, and a Nordost red dawn balanced interconnect, here on Audiogon.
The difference is amazing. My Martin logan SL3's are not the same speakers. The brightness and harshness is completely gone! All of my music is now warm and clean sounding with excellent separation. Further, and some, I'm sure wont believe it, but true, is my SL3's are no longer position sensitive at all! you can be anywhere at the front, side, or away from them, at any elevation, including toeing them to a point, and there is no change at all in the sound. Before, if you knealed on the floor or stood up, the difference was incredible. This no longer exists!! Second, If you stood with your back to them, and closed your eyes, you could swear you had rear channels as well. This was annoying, because the timing of it, was off. Now, that has almost completely disappeared, and you have to really listen to find it. Third, If your listening posistion was in front of one speaker, you could not hear the other speaker unless, the speaker farthest away had some predominant detail on that channel. Now, its unbelievable, you can sit right in front of one speaker and hear practically all of the detail form the other speaker. Dont figure!!
I know with everything, comes compromise, but I could use a little insight on how to possibly improve the little things that I like, and lost. The lower frequency midrange sounds diminished or pushed back a little too much, if you can understand what I mean. Its sort of smaller and sounds farther away and less direct from the rest of the frequencies. The BAT tube pre came with tubes that were furnished by Upscale, and are not the original factory tubes (empty tube boxes say 6922-Russian Mil Grey Plate). What do you think about installing back factory tubes (Sovtec 6922)? I am new to tubes so don't know much about them, and if certain tubes do one thing better than another.
I would appreciate any help....Steve
The difference is amazing. My Martin logan SL3's are not the same speakers. The brightness and harshness is completely gone! All of my music is now warm and clean sounding with excellent separation. Further, and some, I'm sure wont believe it, but true, is my SL3's are no longer position sensitive at all! you can be anywhere at the front, side, or away from them, at any elevation, including toeing them to a point, and there is no change at all in the sound. Before, if you knealed on the floor or stood up, the difference was incredible. This no longer exists!! Second, If you stood with your back to them, and closed your eyes, you could swear you had rear channels as well. This was annoying, because the timing of it, was off. Now, that has almost completely disappeared, and you have to really listen to find it. Third, If your listening posistion was in front of one speaker, you could not hear the other speaker unless, the speaker farthest away had some predominant detail on that channel. Now, its unbelievable, you can sit right in front of one speaker and hear practically all of the detail form the other speaker. Dont figure!!
I know with everything, comes compromise, but I could use a little insight on how to possibly improve the little things that I like, and lost. The lower frequency midrange sounds diminished or pushed back a little too much, if you can understand what I mean. Its sort of smaller and sounds farther away and less direct from the rest of the frequencies. The BAT tube pre came with tubes that were furnished by Upscale, and are not the original factory tubes (empty tube boxes say 6922-Russian Mil Grey Plate). What do you think about installing back factory tubes (Sovtec 6922)? I am new to tubes so don't know much about them, and if certain tubes do one thing better than another.
I would appreciate any help....Steve