Warm vs Revealing—the struggle for balance
For me my upgrade path has been finding balance between warmth and dynamics/detail.
It’s looks something like this: find satisfaction (Raven Nighthawk + Tekton), get upgrade bug seeking more dynamics, get more revealing gear (Ma 352), feel fatigued, buy new tubes (Telefunken) and speakers (SF Olympica); want more dynamics (Mc 601 + c50), I immediately get tube pre because of fatigue (c2300), still too sharp (new tubes and DAC); excellent balance, but of course sell speakers, new speakers too revealing, buy Cardas cables to replace Wireworld (ahh just right for now, but may be a little more revealing might be nice).
And oh yeah, working on fixing the damn room problems!
Chasing the unicorn.
Anyone else doing this back and forth?
The pursuit of resolution for its own sake is not the road to go at all ... Synergy between components and acoustic optimization go toward musicality : which is details and relaxed sound at the same time as put it very well by atmasphere... 😊 I enjoy that on my two system , speakers and headphone... This is why i am in love with my two low cost system... They are impossible to upgrade at low cost , only at 10 times their basic cost... 😊 but i dont need to go there to be happy... |
@ghdprentice thank you for the thoughtful response. I’ve just ordered The Complete Guide to High End Audio. Great suggestion. Take it slow is a good idea. I have the Amati Traditions— great speakers — and I think are good match with my Mc gear. I like the idea of going to a city to listen to a variety of gear. It’s a journey and that is part of it. Getting to see some live music would be a good baseline for sure because it’s been a long time and honestly I have no idea how it is supposed to sound. |
OP, ‘Thank you for your response. On the subject of the sound of music. I grew up with cheap systems of the 70’s and live concerts… The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Moody Blues…etc. in really good venues and towers of amplifiers and speakers. I actually thought cymbals sounded like tsssshhhhh, and that correct treble was mostly (now that I know) high frequency hash and distortion. As my systems got better the high frequency got quieter and quieter and from amid the tssssss emerged the sound of touch of a drums stick hitting brass and it resonating resonating. Well, if you have got Amati’s… then great place to start. No need to go for different speakers. |
