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Your experiences with system synergy

Hi All -

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to demo a top of the line tube amp in my system. This is a summit piece that many audiophiles would consider and end game piece. I was ready to open my wallet and spend a big chunk of money to upgrade my system. 
 

Upon arrival at my home, I set this tube amp and sat back to experience the magic. To my surprise, the amp sounded good, but it did not best my far less expensive current tube amp. I played with speaker placement and demoed lots of different styles of music to find the magic. 
 

Eventually, I plugged my own amp in, the one I was expecting to replace, and there was an immediate sense of rightness. It was if I’d introduced a new dancing partner to my current system and they just could not match rhythms on the dance floor.  Now, to be clear, my current system has great components. I don’t think there is a weak link in the system. Thus, I thought the end game amp would be revelatory and transformational, but it wasn’t. 
 

It made me realize the profound importance of system synergy. 
 

I’m wondering if others have had this moment or epiphany when introducing a vaunted and desirable component into their system just be sort of utterly disappointed? 

128x128bluethinker
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,181 posts
 

@bluethinker I would allow 24hrs for the amp to settle if it’s used with over 200hrs on it. If it’s new then give it around 200hrs. Don’t jump to conclusions too soon and don’t do a quick A/B comparison. Get used to it for few days then switch back. 

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,181 posts
 

Also what is this mystery amp?

onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,229 posts
 

Your expectation that the new amp would be revelatory and transformational is unrealistic.  If you have a high quality, well matched system, then that just doesn't happen.  At a certain point the differences between components is subtle and user preferences become just as important as the ultimate sound quality.

soix
9,591 posts
 

Just because a pre is expensive and even highly regarded obviously doesn’t make it automatically better for you. Perhaps you just chose a very good pre with the wrong sound-characteristic profile for your system and tastes. Maybe do some more research on other top preamps that may better provide what you’re looking for and give it another go. Sure would help make this more useful, informative, and interesting if you’d just share the equipment in your system, and you may even get some helpful suggestions to ponder rather than just going it alone especially if you also share what improvements you’d like to achieve with an “end game” pre.  It’s kinda the whole point of the Forum here.

grislybutter
3,122 posts
 

from previous posts: 

Innuous Zenith, Merason DAC1, Linear Tube Audio Microzotl preamp, Audio Hungary/Qualiton 100 watt tube power amp, and QLN Prestige Three speakers

or who knows what by now, OP seems to be upgrading these days :)

 

On the subject, unfortunately I don't have this problem. Maybe, with my upgrade cycle, in 2028.

 

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