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Walking that fine line: What would you do ?

I recently installed an amp on loan from a friend in one of my systems. We swapped amps just to "compare notes". I had an amp that he wanted to hear and vice-versa. The fact that we are a couple of States apart makes it hard to do first hand comparisons with each other, so we have to be selective, especially with amps. Between the shipping costs and the potential damage, this is the first time that we've done this. If we were both happy with the results, we were simply going to swap amps and compensate the differences in cash.

As it turns out, i like the amp quite a bit. It seems to be a good match for the preamp and speakers that i'm using it with. There is only one "problem". Whereas the system has always sounded very musical with good accuracy ( hard to achieve ), i've now moved up a notch on the "accuracy" scale. I'm now hearing a little deeper into the discs. While most would call this a step in the right direction in terms of being "revealing", i'm beginning to think that it is "annoying" and "distracting". Don't get me wrong, the amp / system sound quite good, maybe the best it ever has. It is not "etched" or "analytical" by any means. I could use all of the superlative's to describe what i'm hearing, but i've now got one nagging problem.

I can now hear just how much the engineers are "twistin' knobs" on several recordings that previously sounded "warm and sweet" i.e. very enjoyable with no distractions. One in particular is Diana Krall's Love Scenes. On some songs, you can easily hear the faders come up as she begins to sing and drop down as she stops. This is evident as the noise floor increases and you hear more hiss. When the mics are open, you have less of a "black background" between musical notes from the instruments. On some of the other songs, they simply leave the mic open most of the time and you hear hiss throughout most of it. On a few others, the leave the mic open, then fade it in a few spots, open it back up, etc... Some of this was obvious before, but not anywhere near the extent that it is now.

While most of us would not consider this a big deal, it kind of gets annoying after a while. To me, it's kind of like looking for a smaller hidden picture within a much larger picture. Once you find it, it is all that you can concentrate on. How you could've missed it for all that time is beyond you. So it is with this system now. In other words, these "small details" now distract me from the "big performance" taking place.

Has anybody else run into a similar situation and what did you do ? I'm open to suggestions as i'm kind of twisting and turning on this one. I like the amp a lot, BUT.... Sean
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sean
sean OP
6,231 posts
 
Greg, it still sounds quite musical but is not quite as "warm" of "full bodied". It is cleaner, quicker, better bass definition, more accurate, etc.. whereas the other amp that i was running was a little more "colourful" and "sensual" sounding on female vocals ( which i liked ).

I'm glad that we have similar points of view on gear being "different". While some stuff IS noticeably better than others, a lot of it is just being delivered from a different perspective. Your suggestion to try some various types of music is a point well taken. I've been listening to a few discs quite a bit and i probably need to widen my horizons in order to grasp the full potential / differences in these amps. Both are fast / wide bandwidth designs, as i really don't like bandwidth limited stuff for "serious listening". It's okay for relaxing, background music though i.e. the bedroom, etc... Sean
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abstract7
541 posts
 
Sean:
I've had the same experience. It has changed my listening practices. There are some albums I simply can not enjoy on my main system. I like the material (composition), but the engineers turned a few too many dials--added too many effects--and then when listening to it I feel like I'm listening to effects--not music. I save those recordings for other systems (or in the car). What the system does for well recorded and well engineered albums however is exceptional--and I wouldn't go back.
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
I had a similar experience but a different result. I have nothing against my system. What I have found is some recordings that I liked with my old "budget audiophile" system, now sound like crap on my what I'll call my "Upper Mid-Fi" system. I can hear when recordings have been processed to enhance the sound. What sounded full and rich before, now reveals that they added Echo. On other recordings the orchestra balance is off because they boosted the midrange so it sounds good in the car and on a boom box.


I advise staying away from the current crop of classical DG reissues under the "DG Originals" label. I have been slowing replacing the ones I have with earlier releases that were simply the original LP analog recording transfered to CD with no changes. They sound a lot better on my newest system. (or I try to find the LP.) Some new EMI reissues have the same problem. The ones on London Decca are great!!

blkadr
739 posts
 
Detail is good, but it sounds like you have too much of a good thing. Try playing with different cables. I hope you can regain your balance.
cornfedboy
1,645 posts
 
sean: sometimes, i think, it's better being ignorant. you hear the faders because you know what faders are and how they are used. you know that the noise floor is affected by the mic level, so you can perceive it when it changes. these effects may be "getting in your way" because you've not really experienced them before, at least in the system you've described. eventually, i think, you may be able to "enjoy" the work of recording engineers if it's well done. good recordings may be likened to well-edited movies. some such movies (e.g., "run lola run") employ obvious, in-your-face techniques in an artistically satisfying way; others (e.g., "almost famous") employ more subtle but also satisfying editing tricks. the problem with this analogy, of course, is that most recordings are engineered for playback on the radio or less-than-sota systems rather than for the world to see in 70mm. there are, tho, some classic examples of recordings done carefully on primitive equipment that are gems, especially on the most "revealing" of systems.

there is, indeed, a fine line between "musicality" and "accuracy." i remember listening to the first generation of wadia and theta dacs, when they played a monthly game of leap-frog. what impressed me, at first, about this generations of digital devices was the way they took the edge off of previously unbearably bright discs and made them tolerable. as dacs and transports improved, we learned that the earlier sota products had taken the edge off of EVERYTHING. i've just bought another in a long list of dacs i've owned. it's a boulder 1012. after months of listening to this product loaned to me off-and-on by my audio dealer and best friend, i've found that, to my ears, it combines better than anything else i've yet put into my system those ephemeral qualities of musicality and accuracy that seem so often at odds and are at the heart of your query. i applaud you for your efforts to do inexpensively what i haven't the patience or, likely, knowledge to accomplish. you have realized a conundrum some have waited many more years and spent much more money to comprehend. -cfb
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