Confused and need help

mofimadness+1

   I strongly agree with mofi and in home auditioning of speakers. My current speakers had been out for years and were recommended by the most knowledgable people I knew. Listening to them in stores and at shows they seemed sleepy to me so I passed on them.  
   What I didn't know was a great deal. What I heard as attributes in other speakers were actually weaknesses. At home and by a one on one comparison what I heard as being sleepy turned out to be a cohesive point source and musicality. The difference was immediate and so obvious that my family heard the difference just as quickly as I did.
   I haven't made a major system purchase in years.

No surprise that the post preceding mine was deleted by our resident Deleter In Chief. Here is her post, for continuity and context purposes:

elizabeth 8,001 posts11-07-2019 11:30am

I would blame the Parasound gear as a wild guess. Agree try the Maggies with something, anything else.

I paired Maggie 1.7 with a Parasound hint Halo and the sound was phenomenal do I'm surprised that they may be your problem. Maybe an audio friend can bring an amp or pre so you can experiment.

+1 mofimadness
Location, location, location.

I completely agree with david_ten. Years go by, unless you have oodles of money, we make changes slowly. Our brains change slowly. Our ears change slowly. Our perception changes slowly. What we never imagined may all of a sudden be reality. All of a sudden a mismatch may become a match and the opposite. For instance, I have had some Roxy Music vinyl in my collection for a long time. Never cared for it. Tonight, I said let's give it a chance and loved it. Why? No clue. But sounded fabulous. Same system as last 5 years. Nobody ever takes into account aging as a major factor in this hobby. Why not? Every other aspect of society does. I can't imagine that I hear the music anything close to that which I did 20 years ago. Still love it the same. Actually, love it more. My brain now loves the sound, the variation, the skill, the talent, the time and artistry it took to create the recording. In the end however, it is still my ears sending the data through a neuro network of past memories to my brain and down to the pleasure receptors in my body which make the experience. Any hiccup in that chain results in alteration of perception and thus one's interpretation of the beauty.