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?
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. |
@jji666 glad you mentioned toe in as this can be a great way to manage overly strident treble. This has definitely been a tool I have used to manage my system’s treble. I’d add managing a big window behind my listening position has been important. I’m working with a studio design engineer and he showed me the treble spike the uncovered windows was creating. When we covered the windows with a pile of pillows the spike disappeared and the SQ was much more measured—working on getting some window treatments that are acceptable to the family. The room definitely is a part of the equation as we tweak our systems to our liking. Lots of hard surfaces are going to increase fatigue but a well treated room presumably can handle more detailed speakers with causing harshness. |
The balance IMO has to do with the parts in the components you are using. They are usually lower grade resistors and capacitors. PLUS the AC filtering is usually non existent. You can filter AC noise with filter chokes and that usually provides more clarity and reduces noise that impacts harshness. Then upgrading capacitors in the power supply also adds to that benefit. Cleaning up the noise usually provides more clarity and detail without the harshness. Capacitors like V-Caps usually provide greater separation of instruments and vocals in my experience so you get better images and better soundstage. These improvements are a much cheaper way to go that cable changes, room treatments, etc. PLUS they are consistent with system changes. Happy Listening. |
