Grannyring, Thanks for mentioning your Joseph Chow IC experience. His pricepoint is still quite reasonable. Do you find that when you hear something surpassingly good that its superiority extends to more than one system, or to more than one position in the signal chain?
I have found that if there is a "wow" experience it is not by inserting a new flavor of reproduction, but rather by seeming to hear more of everything in the recording and within the hardware's capabilities. It becomes hard to imagine something is still escaping detection in the recording.
Also, in a good system, even when better IC's expose poor recordings for what they are, there is an absence of the jarring or irritating quality which poor recordings used to convey. So, the net effect is that more recordings can be enjoyed.
I have found that if there is a "wow" experience it is not by inserting a new flavor of reproduction, but rather by seeming to hear more of everything in the recording and within the hardware's capabilities. It becomes hard to imagine something is still escaping detection in the recording.
Also, in a good system, even when better IC's expose poor recordings for what they are, there is an absence of the jarring or irritating quality which poor recordings used to convey. So, the net effect is that more recordings can be enjoyed.