The Horror

@audiodidact @tvad has given you some great advice about booking some time with Mr. Smith.

I'm certainly not pointing any fingers at anyone on this thread with what Im about to say but I've listened to some pretty nice systems in pretty terrible rooms. I try to be polite but there are alot of bad rooms depicted in some of the system photos and everything is system/room dependent. Just because a panel is in a photo and the person says it sounds great now, dont think that buying one will solve anything. You need the right tool for the job and you simply dont know the right tool yet. You need information and a plan. Your room, gear, goals and desires are different than theirs. In fact, I took down the photos of my system room because people would write and say "I'm thinking of buying X, Y or Z and I wanted your thoughts" or "I see you have a whatchamacallit DAC and I was thinking of buying one". Everything matters, it isnt complicated, but you have to be purposeful. The one that gets me is when someone says hey, you have xyz power cables, how do they sound? They may or may not have similar gear, room, goals etc but I try to answer what are you trying to accomplish and its usual crickets. All cables dont improve things. Same for dacs, other gear, acoustical treatments. As proof of concept, have you ever heard anyone say that things sounded terrific right out of the box and went downhill as the unit broke in...

Going to these show are like Monterey Car Week. Most beautiful, expensive, fast and some simply unatainable automobiles in the world. Then I get in my old M3 or Miata and just enjoy the experience that I have. 

My audio set up is modest at best but it sounds pretty good to me and I do the same. BTW, if you are in SoCal spend some of those thousands of dollars on LA Phil and Hollywood Bowl. I'm pretty sure it is the most "real" you can get, not a "representation" of sound, the actual sound. 

Here I go again.....One problem I see constantly is listeners have the wrong gear for their rooms and/or tastes. Other problem I see, listeners are still trying to figure out what characteristics of recorded music playback are important to them, thus the race for the latest and greatest. There are Two major characteristic within our music library, that is a "given", the Musicianship & Composition. OH NO, I have done it again. My best, Always, MrD.

tvad, your system is lovely, and I am sure your system does all of that for you. But for my needs, my tastes, my expectations, many pieces of your system would not do it for me, and I know many that are in my camp. My best and always, enjoy. MrD.