Hi Morgan,
In 2003, after owning the F.S. for a few months, Emmanuel emailed me, due to things that I had written here on Audiogon about the F.S. Although, I never trashed the F.S., it was evident that I wasn't completely happy. One of the first things that came up was impedance mismatch. I asked him what could be done, short of getting rid of the Pass Amp or the F.S. He basically said that nothing could be done. Also, I corresponded with Drubin, who is also involved with this thread and who had a Pass X series amp at the time and who was hearing a lot of what I was hearing at the time. I believe Drubin and I got into the subject when he started a thread with the title of something like
"what is the Sound of an Impedance Mismatch". I believe the sound is rolled-off deep bass, reduced dynamics and perhaps somewhat rolled-off highs, but I am not sure about the last thing. I definitely have rolled-off bass, and the dynamics were ordinary until I discovered Siemens tubes, which turn the dynamics to anything from outrageous to just superb, the Siemens 6922 with the outrageous dynamics and the Siemens 7308 with just superb dynamics. With Telefunken 7308's, the overall sonic presentation of the F.S. is quite ordinary. I haven't heard that brightness is a consequence of impedance mismatch, though. Emmanuel suggested several things:
1. Cabling, including power cabling.
2. Whether the F.S. is plugged in directly to the wall or is powered via a power conditioner/power strip
3. Checking polarity. Making sure that speaker cables invert polarity in order to "correct" inverted polarity of the F.S.
It is through these contacts with Emmanuel, that I bought the Shunyata Sidewinder Gold power cords and eventually got the unit upgraded at the end of this year.
I think that is more likely that I am hearing the character of the F.S., at least through my own listening prism, which is probably less tolerant of bright sound than most people. Certainly the F.S. would never be described as unlistenably bright by anyone whom I would respect for their sonic opinions, but I wanted to corroborate Mphnkns, who seemed a little frustrated with the unit, that others hear what he hears, even if we don't see it as a fatal flaw. Artg also seems to agree. I wouldn't want mine changed either, for fear of losing what it does so well. Instead, I'll just use the other preamp sometimes, until I can afford to put together a second system around the CAT.
Thanks, Drubin!
In 2003, after owning the F.S. for a few months, Emmanuel emailed me, due to things that I had written here on Audiogon about the F.S. Although, I never trashed the F.S., it was evident that I wasn't completely happy. One of the first things that came up was impedance mismatch. I asked him what could be done, short of getting rid of the Pass Amp or the F.S. He basically said that nothing could be done. Also, I corresponded with Drubin, who is also involved with this thread and who had a Pass X series amp at the time and who was hearing a lot of what I was hearing at the time. I believe Drubin and I got into the subject when he started a thread with the title of something like
"what is the Sound of an Impedance Mismatch". I believe the sound is rolled-off deep bass, reduced dynamics and perhaps somewhat rolled-off highs, but I am not sure about the last thing. I definitely have rolled-off bass, and the dynamics were ordinary until I discovered Siemens tubes, which turn the dynamics to anything from outrageous to just superb, the Siemens 6922 with the outrageous dynamics and the Siemens 7308 with just superb dynamics. With Telefunken 7308's, the overall sonic presentation of the F.S. is quite ordinary. I haven't heard that brightness is a consequence of impedance mismatch, though. Emmanuel suggested several things:
1. Cabling, including power cabling.
2. Whether the F.S. is plugged in directly to the wall or is powered via a power conditioner/power strip
3. Checking polarity. Making sure that speaker cables invert polarity in order to "correct" inverted polarity of the F.S.
It is through these contacts with Emmanuel, that I bought the Shunyata Sidewinder Gold power cords and eventually got the unit upgraded at the end of this year.
I think that is more likely that I am hearing the character of the F.S., at least through my own listening prism, which is probably less tolerant of bright sound than most people. Certainly the F.S. would never be described as unlistenably bright by anyone whom I would respect for their sonic opinions, but I wanted to corroborate Mphnkns, who seemed a little frustrated with the unit, that others hear what he hears, even if we don't see it as a fatal flaw. Artg also seems to agree. I wouldn't want mine changed either, for fear of losing what it does so well. Instead, I'll just use the other preamp sometimes, until I can afford to put together a second system around the CAT.
Thanks, Drubin!