Hello Bishopwill, you are right, in the late 80's early 90's I'd bought some of Telarc/Shaw/Atlanta Orc.'s and found exactly the same as you stated: Thick, opaque, congested. At the time I had what I'd called a synergy system. two 20 amps dedicated circuit breakers/Distech Powerbridge PC's/Tice Power blocks/Krell MD-1/Wadia 1000/ML-No.26/ML-No.23/HPC XLR ics/Monster M1 Spearker cable (I could be wrong on speakers cable model) JBL Studio monitor upgraded crossover with sledhammer caps, resistors etc... Anyway, I quit the "Hi-end" hobby and sold all except a few CD's left. Now that I am back, and and have a new system almost the same accept a bit more :-) (better situation you know) I try the recordings mentioned again, and found the sound is stunning resolution, soundstage is hugh - high/low/wide/inside/outside/precise/deep. Sorry for the long... What is the subject, again ? :-)
ISTT