Oh man. Good question. Different systems at different times I just didn’t know what i was after other than what my ears thought was the right path and read and tried to make smart decisions but we all know how that can go.
I followed my ears and my brain followed which was too bad really to a certain degree because when looking back although no regrets much of it 2/3 I now know was not matched up or set up really well but just didn’t know then.
In all honesty i had a lot of gear where my speakers for a while there - that I liked them very much but now as I know better and learned much later that they were really under driven.
Loved tubes and used tubes and now know they were not powerful enough for the Speakers I had back then but thought they sounded great.
Sort of settled for a lot flabby bass and rolled off top and bottom because extension and my geniune understanding and appreciation for it came later in the game so I wasted a lot of great gear to be honest.
They would do what I loved them to do so well / 3D / Palpable / Realness that tubes do so well with goosebumps / and was happy with much of it then where if i plugged it in now I would cringe but just didn’t know and read about stuff but thought i was hearing what they described but i got better at this hobby and at matching up gear and learned along the way about impedance and frequency limitations and my systems got better even though some at times with lesser equipment due to better matching and there was some nice Audio intellectual growth there / and there were some epiphanies along the way with that then - there - Oh man - how did I not know that - oh I see now - type of thing.
Awe should have known that before type of thing. It wasn’t like i was looking for a specific sound because I didn’t know what I didn’t know and now that i know what i didn’t know its much easier to judge but of course heinsight is always 20/20.
If i told you oh yeah i was looking for this sound or that sound well that would be disengenious using to today’s knowledge to describe yesterday’s lack there of is the best way to state it.
Yes a lot of that great stuff was matched quite poorly when looking at it now I’m heinsight but didn’t really know that then.
Heck for quite some there for a while I used a PC via USB cable direct to DAC. We just didn’t know better. The future would teach us different but i liked better than my CD and only dabbled with vinyl later on. See i needed to sell what I had to fund something new type of thing.
Pannells and tubes.
That was what first drive the Audiophile stake into the ground for me.
Man that transparency and speed and sound stage driven by tubes did wonders for me and that sound forever forward to a certain degree would need to be part of any and every system I would have. If any add did not do this to a certain level sound wise then off with its head didle - didle.
So that was a sound I loved and chased. I know now that the bar was pretty low for what i wanted and liked but i did have the instincts to keep pushing forward to learn more.
Many of my Martin Logan were underdriven because I just didn’t like the chalky SS sound on those but then along came the Audio Physic Virgo II and everything changed and my Audio world and what i thought i knew was forever forward altered.
That was an epiphany - I would say now that those and the First Watt F2J or J2 were so enlightening and both sent me in a tail spin firing off in other directions like no other components.
Not they they were the best but what they taught me at their times fundamentally changed my ideas of what I thought was important and left and idelable mark on this green and nieve but learning Audiophile.
The Audio Physic Virgo II signaled the death of the panel Speakers in my life and opened me up to the big old world of dynamic drivers.
I just never had the earge to change away from pannels and tubes. I loved Martin Logan’s Spire - Summit so much - they were great speakers and did what i wanted but my idea of ideal sound was rather narrow as experience and time has taught me.
Their self driven bass drivers let me play with my tubes - (i thought) and life was good in the Audio spear.
There were turning points or growth points along the way. I was pretty serious with my tubes and Martin Logans and for quite a while there. I loved them and was on the path of the best tubes for Martin Logans or that was what i thought anyways.
Man if I knew then what I know now. I mean CJ Premier 12’s, Decware Tori MKII then III, Manley Snappers, Primaluna Prologue 6 them 7,s. CAT Sig MK II them MK III them Manley Shrimp and Cary SLP-98 then Decware CSP2+ then another CAT because i missed it then well you get the picture. Then tried the real good NOS EL34 Mullard tubes and so on.
I can really remember not knowing and changing cables and power cords when I know now I I had not the right marching amps but i digress.
i bought those Audio Physic Virgo II as speakers for my front room. Wife at the time thought i was spending too much time in my Audio room which was true and couldn’t listen to TV over the TV so picked up these Virgos and attached the Knock off - Rawson clone Pass Labs Alph 5 and Manley Shrimp and some type 4 AudioQuest Speaker Cables and some Darwin Silver Interconnects. My source was the DAC in my Pioneer Elite SC-57 AVR. Show how dum I but it was a head of its time with a Network over Ethernet so made other room possible via JRiver and bam - smack my whole Audio world was turned upside down. This sound - what is that. It was not as transparent or quick but man it did something that the pannels could never do. There was this realness and this image that was so ventriloquist like that I was amazed. Needless to say i sold my Martin Logans and i was on a mission. This new sound - this new idea - i must see where this leads me and this what started a dizzying few years of rifleing through Speakers and Amps and pres. I could go on and on but wanted to give you an idea of where I was and why is all.
Thank you for your question because it lets me think about the process in a way i normally would not have :)
I followed my ears and my brain followed which was too bad really to a certain degree because when looking back although no regrets much of it 2/3 I now know was not matched up or set up really well but just didn’t know then.
In all honesty i had a lot of gear where my speakers for a while there - that I liked them very much but now as I know better and learned much later that they were really under driven.
Loved tubes and used tubes and now know they were not powerful enough for the Speakers I had back then but thought they sounded great.
Sort of settled for a lot flabby bass and rolled off top and bottom because extension and my geniune understanding and appreciation for it came later in the game so I wasted a lot of great gear to be honest.
They would do what I loved them to do so well / 3D / Palpable / Realness that tubes do so well with goosebumps / and was happy with much of it then where if i plugged it in now I would cringe but just didn’t know and read about stuff but thought i was hearing what they described but i got better at this hobby and at matching up gear and learned along the way about impedance and frequency limitations and my systems got better even though some at times with lesser equipment due to better matching and there was some nice Audio intellectual growth there / and there were some epiphanies along the way with that then - there - Oh man - how did I not know that - oh I see now - type of thing.
Awe should have known that before type of thing. It wasn’t like i was looking for a specific sound because I didn’t know what I didn’t know and now that i know what i didn’t know its much easier to judge but of course heinsight is always 20/20.
If i told you oh yeah i was looking for this sound or that sound well that would be disengenious using to today’s knowledge to describe yesterday’s lack there of is the best way to state it.
Yes a lot of that great stuff was matched quite poorly when looking at it now I’m heinsight but didn’t really know that then.
Heck for quite some there for a while I used a PC via USB cable direct to DAC. We just didn’t know better. The future would teach us different but i liked better than my CD and only dabbled with vinyl later on. See i needed to sell what I had to fund something new type of thing.
Pannells and tubes.
That was what first drive the Audiophile stake into the ground for me.
Man that transparency and speed and sound stage driven by tubes did wonders for me and that sound forever forward to a certain degree would need to be part of any and every system I would have. If any add did not do this to a certain level sound wise then off with its head didle - didle.
So that was a sound I loved and chased. I know now that the bar was pretty low for what i wanted and liked but i did have the instincts to keep pushing forward to learn more.
Many of my Martin Logan were underdriven because I just didn’t like the chalky SS sound on those but then along came the Audio Physic Virgo II and everything changed and my Audio world and what i thought i knew was forever forward altered.
That was an epiphany - I would say now that those and the First Watt F2J or J2 were so enlightening and both sent me in a tail spin firing off in other directions like no other components.
Not they they were the best but what they taught me at their times fundamentally changed my ideas of what I thought was important and left and idelable mark on this green and nieve but learning Audiophile.
The Audio Physic Virgo II signaled the death of the panel Speakers in my life and opened me up to the big old world of dynamic drivers.
I just never had the earge to change away from pannels and tubes. I loved Martin Logan’s Spire - Summit so much - they were great speakers and did what i wanted but my idea of ideal sound was rather narrow as experience and time has taught me.
Their self driven bass drivers let me play with my tubes - (i thought) and life was good in the Audio spear.
There were turning points or growth points along the way. I was pretty serious with my tubes and Martin Logans and for quite a while there. I loved them and was on the path of the best tubes for Martin Logans or that was what i thought anyways.
Man if I knew then what I know now. I mean CJ Premier 12’s, Decware Tori MKII then III, Manley Snappers, Primaluna Prologue 6 them 7,s. CAT Sig MK II them MK III them Manley Shrimp and Cary SLP-98 then Decware CSP2+ then another CAT because i missed it then well you get the picture. Then tried the real good NOS EL34 Mullard tubes and so on.
I can really remember not knowing and changing cables and power cords when I know now I I had not the right marching amps but i digress.
i bought those Audio Physic Virgo II as speakers for my front room. Wife at the time thought i was spending too much time in my Audio room which was true and couldn’t listen to TV over the TV so picked up these Virgos and attached the Knock off - Rawson clone Pass Labs Alph 5 and Manley Shrimp and some type 4 AudioQuest Speaker Cables and some Darwin Silver Interconnects. My source was the DAC in my Pioneer Elite SC-57 AVR. Show how dum I but it was a head of its time with a Network over Ethernet so made other room possible via JRiver and bam - smack my whole Audio world was turned upside down. This sound - what is that. It was not as transparent or quick but man it did something that the pannels could never do. There was this realness and this image that was so ventriloquist like that I was amazed. Needless to say i sold my Martin Logans and i was on a mission. This new sound - this new idea - i must see where this leads me and this what started a dizzying few years of rifleing through Speakers and Amps and pres. I could go on and on but wanted to give you an idea of where I was and why is all.
Thank you for your question because it lets me think about the process in a way i normally would not have :)