Is D for Dry? Class D...

I’d tapped out a couple of replies when this was current the other day, only to see that id been banned temporarily and my posts removed.

I don’t see much point in interacting in this kind of debate if the mods are going to delete/ban people for having a different opinion.

zephyr24069,
Thanks for being totally honest.  My audio experience started as a child 66 years ago as a 2 year old child.  The classical music radio station was playing all the time.  Audio was my first understood language, since I said my first English words at age 3.  I started the violin in school at age 9, although as an amateur I didn't make my debut until age 40, playing solo in the Mendelssohn violin concerto.  My audiophile life started when I was 25, so my audio qualifications are based on many years of familiarity with live sound.  I dabbled in recording, experimenting with various top condenser mikes.  Like you, I learn much from random audio experiences anywhere.  Although my expertise is classical music, one of the best live experiences I had was in the summer of 2005 in New Orleans just before Katrina at the Preservation Hall.  A small unamped jazz band with piano played in a small cave of a room with 3 rows of audience benches.  The sound cracked and snapped excitement. On vacations, I enjoy street performers and the bells of street cars.  Anyone who says that they want to smooth out the sharp, brilliant natural sounds of reality is missing the boat and defiling the concept of high fidelity.

You are smart to enjoy your stock Legacy IV as it is.  It is possible it is better than the stock Rouge Audio Studio N-10DM because of more refined parts, etc.  Possibly the most important mod that Ric does is increase the input impedance from 38K ohms to 150K ohms.  I am not a circuit engineer, but I would make an analogy that just as with moving coil cartridges, 47K ohms reveals more HF than loading down a cartridge way below at 100-1000 ohms.  Advocates of loading down the cartridge say that many MC cartridges have HF ringing, so the ringing is reduced by loading down.  All I know is that in my experience using various MC cartridges with various phono preamps, I hate the rolled off duller sound when the loading down is used.  Ric specifically states that increasing the input impedance to 150K ohms sounds "way better."

Agree--don't break your back and bank account by trying to find a heavy expensive amp that is better than the Legacy IV.

@atmasphere 

Tube mics and mic pre amps falls under my original statement, which is that tubes are great as creative devices, in the creation process. Accurate reproduction, sans 2nd order harmonics and erroneous noise, not as much. 

I have owned a Mac MC275 and a Mac C20.  Both refurbished. Nice, transparent and warm...  Years later I discovered a NuPrime ST-10.  It matched the warmth and transparency in its own way, but controls the bass near perfect. The tubes can not match the accuracy, nor bass control  I can not speak for all D amps.

dougeyjones,
Around 1995, I experimented with various mike preamps using a few SS condenser mikes.  I made a 1 min recording of my violin part in the opening of the Mendelssohn violin concerto for each combination.  I tried to standardize my playing of each take, although of course I can't be sure each take was identical in my playing.  The famed B&K 4011 cardioid SS mike was flat in freq response, but it was smooth and rounded like tubes.  I tried Shure, Schoeps, AKG small diaphragm cardioid mikes, but my favorite sound was the Neumann KM184 for its brilliance.  I didn't even consider any tube mikes or tube mike preamps, because I had long outgrown my brief infatuation with romantic, euphonic tube sound.  The industry standard mike preamp was the Millenia Media for accuracy.  But the Bryston and John Hardy mike preamps were significantly more revealing.