What steps forward were actually steps backward?

I think that much (not all, but much) high-end equipment gives out an increase in detail and so forth but sacrifices the music. Since all this detail is impressive, many do not even realize that their upgrade has, musically speaking, been a disaster. Not understanding the difference between being impressed and having the music wash over you and carry you away, most defend their purchases and present them to the world as significant upgrades, and the more money they pay, the louder they sing their praises. Many who have invested enormous amounts of cash (because they were, at bottom, not satisfied but couldn't find the spot to scratch) are in this boat now, but not having heard systems (except cheap ones, which preserve the timing more often than not) which can present the subtleties of timing which is the core of musical expression, they simply are not aware, and keep dreaming of that next, significant "upgrade."

When I decided to add an extremely powerful powered subwoofer, the Intermezzo 1.2 with a 850 watt amplifier, to make my horns fullrange, I realized that in connecting it, it add a low range electric hum....regardless of whether I use speaker output connections (shared with another pair of cables) or RCA inputs, the cables in my system or on the way to the subwoofer pick something that makes it hum. Thus, I had decided to detach it from my present system. Amazingly, I do not miss it.
To see whether the sub was defective, I decided to connect it to my portable CDP, with some XBSComplexity and ambition to a fine set up is DEFINETLY a downgrade in steps.

Good post, johnnantais. I find myself torn between wanting the impressive sound (and falling for it) and despairing that I am missing the musical forest for the trees. Audiophile and music lover, like Jeckyl and Hyde.

B&W upgrading their Matrix 800 to the Nautilus 800. This is a step down. To step up, one needs to actively bi-amp the matrix B&W800.

Richard

I agree with Drubin, Johnnantais's post is excellent, as is Mattybumpkin's. I've never been bothered by an upgrade to my system where I've had the piece in my system for an extended audition, which is almost all pieces these days (even my upgrade of my Audio Logic came with a promise from Jerry Ozment to undo the upgrade if I didn't like it). I don't really listen critically after the first hour of trying to hear what the objective differences are--after that, I just sit back and see how the music moves me for the next few days, listening to pieces of music that I like. I then reinsert the piece I'm thinking of replacing and see if I still like the upgrade better. Not an exact science, but it seems to work well--my Jadis JP80 withstood many assaults from objectively "better" preamps for years via this method. There is a fine line between revealing more information and losing the musical enjoyment; you can have them both, but there are not that many products out there that can perform this balancing act well.