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What did I hear?

I'm new to this hobby and I'm in the process of trying to dial in a good audio system while remaining solvent, and also without driving my wife absolutely nuts.

Right now I stream digital music through microRendu -> Metrum Musette -> Quicksilver line stage -> Rotel 980BX -> Ohm Walsh Tall 1000's.  It's a pretty good system. 

I had the opportunity to borrow a friend's Mcintosh MA-5100, and swapped that in for the Quicksilver and the Rotel.  It was a dramatically different sound.  It was, for lack of a better word, tremendously more robust.  Not loud, but large.  Deeper bass.  Rounder tone, everything had more weight and presence.  Not in a distorted or in-your-face way, just, somehow... livelier.  Bigger.

Is that the fabled "McIntosh sound" that folks talk about?

I was actually surprised because the MA-5100 is a 45 watt amp, but it seemed to wake the Ohm Walsh Talls up more than the Rotel, which is (I think) 120 watts.  Plus, the Walsh's are not particularly sensitive, and by reputation prefer a high-current amp, which I would think was more like the Rotel, and less like the MA-5100.

So - how is it that what I *expected* to hear is so different than what I *did* hear?  Just trying to make sense of it all. 

I know the standard approach to stuff like this is to listen to everything and go with what your ears say, but I don't really have the budget, and my wife doesn't really have the patience, to swap gear in and out on a regular basis.  So I'm looking for feedback to help me understand the reasons for the difference I heard, so that I can make more informed choices about the things I *do* try.

Many thanks in advance for any replies, and also for the forum in general.  It's a great resource for people trying to educate themselves about audio.
v7b9b13
audioman58's avatar
audioman58
4,200 posts
 
I sold McIntosh it is well built and meters are real nice looking build quality for the moneytoo many avaerage parts all $4 wima caps where much higher grade capacitors could be used 
Pass labs for similar money beats them Soundly  .quicksilver decent for a lower priced preamplifier . In today’s market 
unless doing lots of mods which I do to get 3 x the performance 
per dollar then $20k on electronics is about average in today’s market..as a former dealers cables are by far the biggest markup 
up to 6-1, speakers,and electronics not even 25% goes into the cost ,the rest overhead and dealer markup. That is why I personally seek out a used product and with speakers rebuild the Xover with all quality name brand parts not chinese,
electronics same thing  night and day difference in sound.
and your rca, Connectors,and speaker terminals 85% are cheap gold over brass.i changed all To High Quality Gold Over high quality Copper ,sonicly noticably better 4x better conductor 
same with fuses stock steel fuses a Huge botttle neck just look 
up metals resistance index a 6-1 ratio Silver -Copper fuse vs steel
buzz fusev.everythung goes through the fusethat much resistance 
hue bottle neck and loss of low level detail. One thing I Highly
recommened for the moment is Furutechs Nano liquid Silver and Gold particles suspended in a specific oil, coatevery metal surface 
I even do tube pins a very noticable difference takes several weeeks to fully embed in the pours of the metal a very cost effective improvement.it will sound a bit bright for the 1st 24 hours 
but just gets better silver paste not even close. I am testing a 
new product that is much more expensive but even better.
once offficially out I will let others know .thats my opinion through 
40 years of experiences.
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danvignau's avatar
danvignau
935 posts
 
I recently auditioned $5000 in new Rotel equipment, including a 200 wpc amp with matching preamp and CD player on current B&W 804 speaker, because I reasoned that  the sound would closely resemble my older 803's.  It was truly horrible, both brittle and obnoxious.  Even the salesman mentioned that it would not be good for longer listening sessions.  I thought for a total of over $10,000 it would be at least tolerable. I took my own CD's, because I knew them.  They sounded fie with the Mac gear he had, but for the money, i kept my old stuff. (Audire and Bryston)
b_limo's avatar
b_limo
2,277 posts
 
Oh no, did I fart?
f917025
81 posts
 
1.what tubes are in your line stage preamp?
i know the current version uses 2 12at7 tubes.swapping preamp tubes is a fantastic way to voice the amp the way you like.more weight? try 70's made nos blackburn mullard 12at7's (100-150$)they have huge bass ,slightly lowered highs and sound very smooth full and weighty without losing clarity or definition. 
2. schiit loki (180$)eq will help you finetune the tone to your taste
3.ifi itube2 tube buffer has extra bass (but in an audiophile way not like on bose stuff) 
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