nonoise ... my post comes from direct experience of having a very well treated room with a good response curve but the same annoying shouty-ness and congestion that Sunnyjim is complaining of
I swore it was the far wall barking at me and then I read a blurb about op amps fading and getting shouty ... I added a current dividing SS outboard buffer and the shouty-ness and congestion went away
So I switched the player and the buffer for a player that has a SS class A no negative feedback J/Fet analog out and now have plenty of current and no feedback system to muck things up
Un and Stan Duke and Zman ... Let me try and tidy up a bit
I will be the first to agree that until you neutralize the negative effects of the room ... you're shoveling ---- against the tide
Until that room's negatives are corrected you can't really know the full potential or real signature of your equipment
FIX ROOM FIRST #1
On Op amps ... I should have made it clear that the ones I were referring to are the ... all circuits on one, everything on the head of a pin with power supply type intergrated chip that have trouble remaining linear ...
There are also discrete Op amps made up of anywhere from 20 to 40 individual components on a board to build a single op amp circuit to perform tasks ... much more robust ... but you don't find them in a most CD players, especially Sunnyjim's Rega
Yes the industry loves the convenience, ease of implementation, size, low cost, and all in one architecture of these darling pin head all in one CHIP OP AMPS
Agree with Stanwall that many talented designer can find alternative ways to skin a cat .... but I strongly suspect Sunnyjims cat is mea owing because of that all in one chip in the analog output