Downside to "revealing" system?

One of the more impressive results of my system improvement is the way all my records sound much better than ever before. Many that were blah are exciting, and many more that seemed mediocre now sound exceptional. If any are becoming unlistenable, its not because your system is more revealing. Its because its more colored. In other words you're not doing something right. Find it, fix it, and you will see.

Did I step on your toes by merely explaining to your audience something they might want to consider in making a choice of what kind of tone controls might be important to them

No, but the 509x has great tone controls for the OP to try before having to buy anything more.

Having owned many esls, I would suggest looking at the crossover network and any other signal processing. You may find that there are very low quality capacitors in the signal path (yes, I do mean in speakers costing many thousands), and changing those can take away the unlistenable glare.

I have done this with great success. Any good tech should be able to help you here - don't try it yourself though, because esls can KILL YOU in several ways.

I suggest film and foil caps with polypropylene or styrene dielectric - stay away from teflon, as it too can sound analytical. Or, an active crossover and four channels of amplification. Good luck!

We’ve got a somewhat similar system Joey, I’ve a Luxman 507UX integrated, a VPI Classic 2 turntable with an Ortofon 2M Black cartidge, and Magico A3’ speakers which are quite revealing.


After reading your post, I’m listening right now to some earlier Warner/Reprise Neil Young albums purchased when first released. "Cowgirl in the Sand" off Everyone Knows this is Nowhere and "Cortez the Killer" off Zuma are first up. "Cowgirl" is harsh in the upper frequencies so I can see what you’re saying there. The lower frequencies are not lacking. I played with the treble control as Erik suggested and that seemed to lessen, but not fully correct, the harshness. "Cortez the Killer" was fine, kind of an average recording, but not unlistenable at all.

I’ve lots of Joni Mitchell vinyl records and none of them seem flat sounding or lacking in any way except for one odd German pressing, I can’t recall which. On the contrary, most of her recordings, both vinyl and
CD, seem to be especially well done.

Now there are some real dogs out there that fit your description, like the original Layla and the Stones’ Let It Bleed pressings, which need to be replaced if you love them as any right thinking person should. But the Neil Young’s are definitely not nearly as bad as those two tragically truly un-listenable albums . Maybe your Luxman 509 is that much better at helping reveal things the 507UX masks. It would be interesting if you could borrow CD versions of your Neil Young’s and see if you hear much difference in how they sound. Or take your Neil Young records to a friends to hear them on another system.

Mike

Those '70's Reprise recordings I'm guessing you are referencing (NY, Joni, Randy Newman) are sounding pretty decent on my quite revealing system.  Sure, there not the very, very best, but they are absorbing and completely musical.  Something is amiss, it seems to me, and would benefit from sorting out.