I don't get the concept that inprovements have to cost a dime. Back in the 80's I did sold audio and did "tunings" - my name for it - for rich guys who owned equipment I couldn't even dream of, like Infinity IRS's, Apogees, CJ Premier 4's Quicksiler 190's., etc. I had a 40 year career in the nightclub business. When I ran the Copa in NY all my amps were Macs and now I keep my 1700 around for it's sentimental value. Its tuner and phono are OK through my Spendor s3/5s but only I know what buttons to fiddle with to get it to sound right. In this setup my Marantz MT6225a and Shure M3D sound life like and sooo much fun. I have a lot of stuff and change it around just for fun. Next up is a Fleawatt amp I just picked coupled with different preamps to see what happens. My 300B was made by 3Dimension Audio, the guy whose amps were used to voice the original Magicos, and it's in California for a checkup before I sell it, and maybe just keep my Art Audio Symphony ll. At my age I'm lucky I can still lift them. LOL
I know something of this subject.
Anyway...
What one can achieve through properly tuning a system is far more than can be done by throwing money at it. Most equipment sounds more alike than different, if it's any good. After all the goal is transparency, n'est pas?Speaker placement and AC filtering come first. It takes time and a lot of listening, but you can focus the imaging and sonics through placement, or by ameliorating the placement required by circumstance. Room interactions are much reduced at low volume levels, so you might try lowering your usual volume so more detail comes through. Sometimes the softer instruments come through more easily because less power is being used and the power supplies can better keep up, even with Macs. Don't forget that power requirements are logarithmically related to volume, which is why listening loudly compresses dynamics. Every tech who is a true pro knows that if it sounds compressed you lower the volume.After all this time, I still enjoy this.
Peace and Love,
Ray
I know something of this subject.
Anyway...
What one can achieve through properly tuning a system is far more than can be done by throwing money at it. Most equipment sounds more alike than different, if it's any good. After all the goal is transparency, n'est pas?Speaker placement and AC filtering come first. It takes time and a lot of listening, but you can focus the imaging and sonics through placement, or by ameliorating the placement required by circumstance. Room interactions are much reduced at low volume levels, so you might try lowering your usual volume so more detail comes through. Sometimes the softer instruments come through more easily because less power is being used and the power supplies can better keep up, even with Macs. Don't forget that power requirements are logarithmically related to volume, which is why listening loudly compresses dynamics. Every tech who is a true pro knows that if it sounds compressed you lower the volume.After all this time, I still enjoy this.
Peace and Love,
Ray