That Audiophile Thing




It took me years of going to "high end emporiums", reading every audio magazine printed, including those in the UK, and listening in that "audiophilic manner" to get my system together. It has the holographic sound I worked so hard to achieve.

Recently, I was admiring another audiophile's exquisite system (not personally, but here on the Gon) and I was wondering how long it took him to put it together. After admiring his system, I began listening to mine, and enjoying the music immensely. While I thought about his system, the thought also came to me about the headache of putting a new system together in "your" listening room. Even if you have the money, you don't just plunk this stuff down in the listening room and get good sound out of it.

To complicate matters even more, this is a 300B system utilizing extremely efficient speakers. Although I know "zip" about a 300B system, I'm positive from what I've read, that his sound is exquisite. My question to you, is after taking into consideration all the "minutiae" involved in getting audiophile holographic sound in your listening room, are you ready to do it all over again? Money is not a consideration in regard to this question.
orpheus10
You make it sound so complicated! Sure there are some things to learn, but the little that is needed is not overly technical. A foolproof way to try out 300b tubes would be to get a full Coincident system, preamp/amp/wire/speakers and match it with a high quality source. Of course, you could spend the next 5 years reading magazines and perusing on-line forums looking for the perfect synergistic match of components. One path is real easy, the other less so. Now if you're the type of person who feels that changing electrical outlet plates produces profound changes in you system performance, then there's really no choice between the two paths.

I would strongly encourage every serious audiophile to have multiple systems. Having secondary systems really helped me put the main system in perspective. The secondary systems should be high quality, but they don't have to be perfectionist oriented. It really is quite easy and highly enjoyable to relax and listen to music without getting into the audiophile thing.
"understand that the Quads sound better with tube amps"

The best I have heard Quads was with Gradient subwoofers and Quad solid state electronics.
Frogman,
Another thoughtful post as usual.For someone who does`nt have a 300b based system you sure described their attributes very well.To tell the truth you can play pretty much any genre of music'with the proper speaker match'.All amplifiers regardless of topology or power will have some degree of inherent limitations(I know of no exceptions). It just depends of individual listening priorities and what compromise you`ll except in exchange. Certainly jazz fusion and big band can sound wonderful,I play lots of Duke Ellington and Gil Evans big band.Every type of amplifier has it`s area of strength.I could be just as happy with an 845 amp based on whatI`ve heard of them.

Within 300b or any amp type there`s always a hierarchy,just pick a good quality one and you`ll be very pleased.My 8 watt 300b SET replaced an excellent push pull 100 watt amp 3 1/2 years ago and there`s no going back. A bit less bass weight and presence but other than that I find the SET just a better communicator of the music, of course YMMV.Frogman, I suspect you`d really like a well set up 300b system.
Regards,,

Since your answers are much more interesting going with my original thread, forget about the two restricting comments I made. Maybe this "geezer" can get motivation to do new things.
Meant to write the 100 watt PP amp had a bit more bass presence and authority. In terms of tactile presence and realism of venue ambiance the SET 300b is more convincing.You feel you`re in the same space as the live performers,I like that.
Regards,