Has anyone else ever reached an audio impasse?

Sean - thank you for the wisdom. I do not believe we are taking anything for granted or making any presumptions based upon price or brand for cables. Each component and each cable was purchased one-at-a-time based upon synergy and what it gave (or in some cases took) to the system.

The inability to determine various source components from one another has very little to do with synergy at this point. In fact, it has more to do with the validity of this practice of high end audio and system building all together.
Which is why I have called it the "impasse" it seems like the system has been built out to its maximum potential.

In fact, it sounds like a 100K system regardless of source component. SACD's do not sound any better than regular CD's. I know it's strange but this is where we are.

This person first used B&W N 805 speakers and Krell KAV components prior to slowly upgrading and hence building his 100K system. Each step along the way made significant improvements - now it seems that nothing can improve on the system. Certin components only ad color (Hydra) but lend nothing to the musicality of the performance - the clarity - the micro/macro dynamics, liquidity, etc.

Sean, I would have to agree that perhaps the better preamps are somehow enabling the weaker sources and in effect diminishing capabilites of the better sources upstream. This is the only real explaination for what we have experienced. Somewhere there is a "coating" being applied that limits some sources and benefits others.

This impasse seems even more impassable right now.

You say SACDs do not sound better than regular CDs. Do they at least sound different?

You say SACDs do not sound better than regular CDs. Do they at least sound different?

The reason, I suggested trying an ELS speaker was in fact for you to see, if the "coating" still persists, because those kinds of transducers never come close to "coating" the music even ever so slightly. A "positive" result would rule out, that the cause lies in your Dynaudios. Perhaps, as was suggested above, it is indeed your listening room.
I've been in a similar quandary before, which I was also quite unable to resolve, but later learnt to put down to overwork and mental fatigue, which simply closed my ears down for a while.....

Detlof - this might be something we should try. At least it will help us to determine the bottle neck - if any. And you may be correct. We could have been listening too much lately - and become burnt out.

Drubin - CORRECT! SACD's sound almost exactly like the regular CD. In fact in most cases, the regular CD (un-remastered) sounded slightly better than the SACD version.

For instance, the degree that the 15K cd player is better than the $900 SACD player is virtually the same if the SACD is playing a SACD or a redbook CD. AND - if the SACD player is playing a SACD compared to the redbook player with a normal CD.

Likewise, the 100 DVD player sounds only marginally different (better or worse is difficult to determine) than the 15K CD player or the SACD player (with both formats).

This simple test is what has me stumped. It seems that regardless of source component or software, the system has reached a level of resolution with its preamp/amp/cables that cannot be outdone or even altered by the source component. I hesitate to think there is a "bottle neck" but what else could it be?

The easiest and most noticable difference between the various CD (DVD/SACD) players in the past has been the size of the sound stage. Playing the Sony caused the soundstage to collapse dramatically when compared to the 15K cd player.
It took less than a second to hear the difference as it was not subtle.

For whatever reason - now there seems to be no difference. My gut tells me that something we did to improve other areas of the system - somehow adds dimension to the less expensive CD players but doesn't seem to benefit the more expensive CD player as much.

Dont get me wrong - the system sounds fantastic. I am simply in a quandry as I try to figure out why there isn't a more dramatic change in character between the various source units and software.

Detlof may have the answer. Maybe it's those darn Dynaudio's but they are simply one of the finest speakers in existance. 5 way design which ranges from a super tweeter - tweeter - dome midrange - midrange/midbase - dual 10' bass drivers. This speaker should play anything which is thrown at it and if it is the bottle neck, I would be very, very, very, surprised.

Argh!!! This is making my head hurt!