Dear hevac1: I respect your point of view but certainly I don't agree with. My comments on the VPS have the same " decorum " that the one over the Atmasphere. If you read carefully what I posted you could understand that I " go " to a more wide level subject(s) that only quality performance in the VPS item.
First than all I'm a music lover and second an audiophile : the Essential was a happy " accident " and I'm not married with it and don't makes me close my eyes with what is happening around: for the good or bad. It happens that I like to learn in a continuous way.
+++++ " Not everything on paper sounds good, thats why we listen. " +++++
exactly and that's why you have what you have and listen what you are listening.
In the MF review he certainly heard exactly how the VPS measure , of course that he has to be polite/corteus due that the magazine needs advertizing but he write about those VPS colorations/distortions.
There is nothing wrong with what you like, this fact is part of our each audio learning curve
Now, today audio " things " are improved in some ways and are different from the old times when we readed " incredible " audio item specifications and when we heard that item the sound was terrible, IMHO today is different the item sound is better and now you really can hear " inside " those specs. I always say that I'm nt a specs lover but as part of our learning curve and as part of my quest for " perfect " synergy " I have to choose very carefully some specs to decide about, example: RIAA eq. deviation, amplifier output impedance, preamp output impedance, etc, etc., these specs are critical as critical is a cartridge/tonearm match.
Imho we need to understand at least those specs and understand why are so important and how affect the quality performance in an audio system.
At other level of " things " IMHO we need too to understand the advantages and disadvantages of different kind of designs in audio items, example: non feedback VS feedback and where, balanced vs unbalanced, direct coupled, fully differential, etc, etc,, this is not only part of our audio culture NO it is part of our audio learning curve that can help us to improve and achieve our top quality performance targets in our home audio systems.
IMHO to bring a top quality performance audio system is not only a money subject but know how in different topics and is this know how what makes " the difference ".
You and me want to learn every day sometimes with very simple things that sometimes we can think are not important till we try it.
Anyway, the important subject is that you are happy with what you have and this is what it counts about.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
