Well, I am not going to chain together three pre-amps, at least not any time soon, but I do appreciate all the ideas!
elizabeth - I read with interest your thread titled "how do you know which component to upgrade" and found it very insightful, except for the fact that it ultimately didn't answer my question, not that I really expected it to :). But I am happily following your advice so far, as left for me on a similar post, kind of a false start to this one.
atmasphere - I am dedicated to keeping all things balanced.
mrdecibel - 85% of my listening, and nearly all of my critical listening, is a mix of Americana (Tidal's nomenclature, aka folk, alt-country, chamber pop, laurel canyon pop, jazz pop, non pop radio pop, alt/indy, some but not all rock-n-roll, etc) as well as jazz and classical, generally at 75-85 dBs. To my inexperienced ears, my system sounds pretty darn good for this type of music in my room. It just bugs me that when I want to rock out, the sound is not as enjoyable. Ditto the treble.
gosta - I love the Theils - for now. Speaker upgrade is well out over the horizon, but certainly out there, albeit way out in the future (2020 maybe?). My goal for now is to make the 2.3s sound as good as possible, maybe even upgrade the crossovers, before moving on.
all - sounds like there possibilities both ways, my conclusion so far is that ultimately what I am looking for COULD be achieved without a preamp, AND it's also likely that the RIGHT pre would also make me very happy. If the right pre is right to me because it colors the sound a certain way, perhaps I can get there following another path?
So far I have improved isolation of the amp (moderate improvement) and plugged it right into the wall outlet (also a moderate improvement). Next up is a Furutech wall outlet (Rhodium plating, "Rhodium especially excels in the high frequencies which are detailed and clear. Overall rhodium yields a super responsive, delicate, expressive and neutral sound…" - we'll see. Then I think I will try some NOS 6SN7s, old Russian tubes from Upscale, in place of the current Sylvania Chrome Domes. Upgrading the source to a PS Audio DSD is the next big component improvement. After that, speaker isolation? And then, maybe, the Schitt Freya, because it is balanced, gives me three modes of operation to play with including passive, (four if you count the Octal LISST option) but even more importantly, it can be returned (it will be a tough 15 days of burn-in and listening, but if I plan ahead, I think I am up to the task). And of course, room treatment will continue. Or maybe I will come across what could be the perfect pre-amp at a price that not buying would be very regretful, who knows, it could happen!
More advice is welcome!
elizabeth - I read with interest your thread titled "how do you know which component to upgrade" and found it very insightful, except for the fact that it ultimately didn't answer my question, not that I really expected it to :). But I am happily following your advice so far, as left for me on a similar post, kind of a false start to this one.
atmasphere - I am dedicated to keeping all things balanced.
mrdecibel - 85% of my listening, and nearly all of my critical listening, is a mix of Americana (Tidal's nomenclature, aka folk, alt-country, chamber pop, laurel canyon pop, jazz pop, non pop radio pop, alt/indy, some but not all rock-n-roll, etc) as well as jazz and classical, generally at 75-85 dBs. To my inexperienced ears, my system sounds pretty darn good for this type of music in my room. It just bugs me that when I want to rock out, the sound is not as enjoyable. Ditto the treble.
gosta - I love the Theils - for now. Speaker upgrade is well out over the horizon, but certainly out there, albeit way out in the future (2020 maybe?). My goal for now is to make the 2.3s sound as good as possible, maybe even upgrade the crossovers, before moving on.
all - sounds like there possibilities both ways, my conclusion so far is that ultimately what I am looking for COULD be achieved without a preamp, AND it's also likely that the RIGHT pre would also make me very happy. If the right pre is right to me because it colors the sound a certain way, perhaps I can get there following another path?
So far I have improved isolation of the amp (moderate improvement) and plugged it right into the wall outlet (also a moderate improvement). Next up is a Furutech wall outlet (Rhodium plating, "Rhodium especially excels in the high frequencies which are detailed and clear. Overall rhodium yields a super responsive, delicate, expressive and neutral sound…" - we'll see. Then I think I will try some NOS 6SN7s, old Russian tubes from Upscale, in place of the current Sylvania Chrome Domes. Upgrading the source to a PS Audio DSD is the next big component improvement. After that, speaker isolation? And then, maybe, the Schitt Freya, because it is balanced, gives me three modes of operation to play with including passive, (four if you count the Octal LISST option) but even more importantly, it can be returned (it will be a tough 15 days of burn-in and listening, but if I plan ahead, I think I am up to the task). And of course, room treatment will continue. Or maybe I will come across what could be the perfect pre-amp at a price that not buying would be very regretful, who knows, it could happen!
More advice is welcome!