Dear friends: I know that almost everyone of us are in constant " movement " looking for a quality improvement in our home audio system and between other subjects there are at least three things that are very important for to know what we can/could achieve about are: to attend as too much we can to live music events and try to hear as much other home audio systems we can and maybe more important that some other people attend to hear your/our home system.
In all cases with a full open mind and with out any pre-conceived/judge .
The third not to be " married " for ever to any single audio item/link in our system thinking that it is " perfect " because nothing is perfect.
When we attend to hear other people audio systems or when they come to hear ours our attitude ( open and positive ) is very important to grow up:
+++++ " thanks for the candid comments/criticism which you offered at my home. Too often visitors are fast to praise but reluctant to offer honest criticism... " +++++
+++++ " Thank you for your honesty in judging my system Raul. I agree with Fcrowder when he says that many listeners will praise your system when they don't necessarily mean it either because they don't have the experience, the right software, or because they are afraid of offending you... " +++++
Over the years I had and have many experiences about of almost any kind and one of the last ones could help to understand that subject:
during my trip I visit a person ( other that the ones mentioned here ) that owns a 140K+ audio system with top names all around and where any one expect to hear something of first rate quality music sound reproduction and that's exactly what I was looking for.
Well he put some Lp's different tracks and what I heard was a good sound but not music at all, the system sound was lifeless and I comment this with the person ( very bad move from my part ) who told me that one of the audio items was almost new and with " only " 240 hours of play, I take this explanation but makes me no sense because of what I was hearing.
After 15-20 minutes we start to hearing the system I note that the right channel had a lower gain that the left one ( with the volume in the same position for both channels ) and I comment on it and he give me an explanation about SPL differences due to its home roof, this explanation does not make sense to me so I ask for hear a CD and see what happen, well with the CD everything ( gain on both channels ) was fine and this confirm that the phono stage was faulty: the subject here is that this person ( and his audio friends ) till that day never take notice of this gain problem. He was surprised about and his only comment was " to compensate that gain difference through the preamp volume position ".
I insist on the lifeless system sound and that comment helps because he made two changes in the " new " audio item that made a little better the system sound reproduction. Then I ask which was the value of the load impedance in the phono stage for his cartridge and he give me the value that IMHO was too high and I told him to change at 100 Ohms, he did it and he like it better, but even with those changes the lifeless system sound reproduction still there.
This person was extremely angry with my comments ( that I give to him trying to help: nothing more. ) and I try to calm him explain it some of the problems ( and I give some answers/solutions about ) that he has all over his system where he has a lot of " land " to improve the quality reproduction of the system.
One of the big problems in that expensive audio system is that the signal pass through several differents stages that IMHO are too much, example: the cartridge signal pass ( at least ) for 22 stages before goes out of the preamp where in each one of those stages the signal suffer a degradation ( distortions/noise/colorations ) on different ways an at different levels, that audio system is full of caps and transformers where the signal pass through even he told me with a conceit attitude that in the " new " item are 14 teflon caps!!!.
IMHO I think that he has that lifeless sound system not only because the signal pass over 60+ different stages on it but because his own attitude and closed mind and because even that he has audio experience his knowledge is really low ( he thinks is at the top ).
I already posted several times: HUMILITY is a must to have attitude to grow up on our audio hobby.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
In all cases with a full open mind and with out any pre-conceived/judge .
The third not to be " married " for ever to any single audio item/link in our system thinking that it is " perfect " because nothing is perfect.
When we attend to hear other people audio systems or when they come to hear ours our attitude ( open and positive ) is very important to grow up:
+++++ " thanks for the candid comments/criticism which you offered at my home. Too often visitors are fast to praise but reluctant to offer honest criticism... " +++++
+++++ " Thank you for your honesty in judging my system Raul. I agree with Fcrowder when he says that many listeners will praise your system when they don't necessarily mean it either because they don't have the experience, the right software, or because they are afraid of offending you... " +++++
Over the years I had and have many experiences about of almost any kind and one of the last ones could help to understand that subject:
during my trip I visit a person ( other that the ones mentioned here ) that owns a 140K+ audio system with top names all around and where any one expect to hear something of first rate quality music sound reproduction and that's exactly what I was looking for.
Well he put some Lp's different tracks and what I heard was a good sound but not music at all, the system sound was lifeless and I comment this with the person ( very bad move from my part ) who told me that one of the audio items was almost new and with " only " 240 hours of play, I take this explanation but makes me no sense because of what I was hearing.
After 15-20 minutes we start to hearing the system I note that the right channel had a lower gain that the left one ( with the volume in the same position for both channels ) and I comment on it and he give me an explanation about SPL differences due to its home roof, this explanation does not make sense to me so I ask for hear a CD and see what happen, well with the CD everything ( gain on both channels ) was fine and this confirm that the phono stage was faulty: the subject here is that this person ( and his audio friends ) till that day never take notice of this gain problem. He was surprised about and his only comment was " to compensate that gain difference through the preamp volume position ".
I insist on the lifeless system sound and that comment helps because he made two changes in the " new " audio item that made a little better the system sound reproduction. Then I ask which was the value of the load impedance in the phono stage for his cartridge and he give me the value that IMHO was too high and I told him to change at 100 Ohms, he did it and he like it better, but even with those changes the lifeless system sound reproduction still there.
This person was extremely angry with my comments ( that I give to him trying to help: nothing more. ) and I try to calm him explain it some of the problems ( and I give some answers/solutions about ) that he has all over his system where he has a lot of " land " to improve the quality reproduction of the system.
One of the big problems in that expensive audio system is that the signal pass through several differents stages that IMHO are too much, example: the cartridge signal pass ( at least ) for 22 stages before goes out of the preamp where in each one of those stages the signal suffer a degradation ( distortions/noise/colorations ) on different ways an at different levels, that audio system is full of caps and transformers where the signal pass through even he told me with a conceit attitude that in the " new " item are 14 teflon caps!!!.
IMHO I think that he has that lifeless sound system not only because the signal pass over 60+ different stages on it but because his own attitude and closed mind and because even that he has audio experience his knowledge is really low ( he thinks is at the top ).
I already posted several times: HUMILITY is a must to have attitude to grow up on our audio hobby.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.