All gear has a "sound"
Unless someone gave you your system, you put it together by yourself.
The voicing of this gear has to appeal to your "innervoice".
And believe me, over time, this inner voice changes as you mature and really start to listen to the "sound" and not just the music.
I enjoy the music, but I don't want my enjoyment to be less than maximum either.
Every system has the potential to sound great or sound less than great,just by how we approach the hobby.
You can throw big bucks into the music and build a huge record collection but, why compromise the sound by skimping on the gear end?
Makes no sense to me.
Neither is ignoring the electricity, the room, all the connectors, the speaker position, what the gear sits on, etc.
All the stuff that splits the audiophile/music lover into choosing between the two camps, one where nothing makes a difference, and the other where everything makes some sort of difference.Difference doesn't mean better,but it's not to be confused with "all sounds the same".
If my system was too "warm" I wouldn't want to add a cable that leaned to the warm forgiving side, unless of course if that was my desire.
Sometimes our desires change.
I realized that all that warmth was robbing me of detail that is just as important to my enjoyment of the music.My tastes changed.
Some folks start off with going for gear that pushes out the most bass, and there's no such thing as too much bass to them.
Later they discover that they've been missing 40% of the midrange of the music.
You can have too much of a good thing.
It depends on how you've voiced your system.
Bass heavy, too top endy?
Find wires or ways to fix the problem or move on to other gear that isn't so coloured.Yes I agree.Been there done that.As have all the others who have gear for sale on this site.
I don't like to use the term neutral because that is a term that can mean different things to different people in the context of what they are listening to.
I would say,don't rely on the system that you've set up at this point to be the ultimate reference system .
Go out and listen to different systems,with different speakers.Listen to panels if you are a cone person, and vice versa.Listen to tubes, listen to well set up vinyl systems.
Listen to rooms that have treatment, and power conditioning.
I think you will, as I did, come to a much better understanding of how much the little things that shouldn't matter ,when combined, really do add up to improvements.
You really never know if your system is too thin or too thick, if you have nothing better to compare it to.
I've been fortunate to have had friends and audio dealers who helped me find my way.
Had I not had the help, I probably would also speculate about wires, and fuses having any effect on the sound of my system.
To me, this hobby is all about discovery, and it's not about standing still and accepting that what came out of the box is as good as it can be.
I've learned otherwise.
It can be a costly education, so be warned when you open up Pandora's box.
Sadly there's no free lunch.
The performance of your gear is a direct result of how much effort you put into your system.
It will sound great with stock this and that,but in my experience, it can sound even better.
But to get it to sound better costs time, effort and money.
For some folks that's not being "all about the music" and being all about the gear.
Unless you hire the performers to play in your room, then it is all about the gear.
And it's all about how you tune that gear to please your inner voice.
At least for this moment in time.
