brucew268
30-03-2012, 20:57
In my 20’s I discovered Jazz. Ah, yes, in actual fact jazz was around long before me. But listening to jazz became one of my celebrations of life. In the residents lounge at our uni, a Marantz power amp drove some Bose 901’s, my first taste that sound could be better. Tchaikovsky rumbled and made me shiver (Ormandy’s 1812 rendition, complete with Russian choir).
Early in the decade of 1990 I now had some funds to pursue sound as it could be and was fortunate to find a dealer who loved music more than stats, and turned me on to new artists as much as he did to new gear. So over 4 years I built a pretty decent system that played satisfying music, not that I ever gave up on ways to tweak it further. I could easily have gone the analogue and valve route, but it turned out that I ended up with digital and SS.
Classe Audio was a Canadian company that put out some rather good balanced amps that were higher current than average, if I recall. Though SS, they put out a detailed and fairly refined sound, and were often compared to tubes for their warmth. In the early 90’s the only digital sound I liked seemed to be nearly £5k, which just seemed a bit OTT. So I was excited to find the Muse 2 DAC, which sounded to my ear very similar to the Theta Pro IV at a fraction of the price. Together with a Theta Data Basic transport I was pretty happy until, the drawer gear mechanism failed, followed by the laser unit a year later. So I moved to the ARC CD2 which I’ve been pretty satisfied with these last years.
I love the speed and openness of planar speakers, but never got around to putting some in my room. Von Schweikert Research put out their VR4, which was a very fast dynamic unit with a time-aligned crossover. They put out a smooth, detailed sound more coherent than most other speakers I’ve heard, even if their bass was a little boomy. But they are large speakers, not friendly to the size of most lounges, so I changed over to Proac Response 1SC’s. I warm romantic sound, great vocals, but I miss some of the detail and speed from my VR4’s. The Proacs were just a little more syrupy than I preferred, so after a little research and a look in my pockets, I replaced the caps with Ansar, which helped a good deal toward a more presentation that has a bit more balance and detail to my ears.
I am only mildly interested in the technology and theories of audio reproduction and am far more interested in how a change actually affects the sound rather than how one supposes it will affect the sound. I am also a little suspicious of some audiophile descriptions of sound, wondering if we are actually all using the same language, or if some are merely adopting language without using a common definition. What annoy me more than anything are those who demean others who have a different opinion or experience than their own. ‘Knowledge’ and ‘truth’ are often far more complex commodities than we give credit.
Ah well. More important that we are listening to music and enjoying it.
Early in the decade of 1990 I now had some funds to pursue sound as it could be and was fortunate to find a dealer who loved music more than stats, and turned me on to new artists as much as he did to new gear. So over 4 years I built a pretty decent system that played satisfying music, not that I ever gave up on ways to tweak it further. I could easily have gone the analogue and valve route, but it turned out that I ended up with digital and SS.
Classe Audio was a Canadian company that put out some rather good balanced amps that were higher current than average, if I recall. Though SS, they put out a detailed and fairly refined sound, and were often compared to tubes for their warmth. In the early 90’s the only digital sound I liked seemed to be nearly £5k, which just seemed a bit OTT. So I was excited to find the Muse 2 DAC, which sounded to my ear very similar to the Theta Pro IV at a fraction of the price. Together with a Theta Data Basic transport I was pretty happy until, the drawer gear mechanism failed, followed by the laser unit a year later. So I moved to the ARC CD2 which I’ve been pretty satisfied with these last years.
I love the speed and openness of planar speakers, but never got around to putting some in my room. Von Schweikert Research put out their VR4, which was a very fast dynamic unit with a time-aligned crossover. They put out a smooth, detailed sound more coherent than most other speakers I’ve heard, even if their bass was a little boomy. But they are large speakers, not friendly to the size of most lounges, so I changed over to Proac Response 1SC’s. I warm romantic sound, great vocals, but I miss some of the detail and speed from my VR4’s. The Proacs were just a little more syrupy than I preferred, so after a little research and a look in my pockets, I replaced the caps with Ansar, which helped a good deal toward a more presentation that has a bit more balance and detail to my ears.
I am only mildly interested in the technology and theories of audio reproduction and am far more interested in how a change actually affects the sound rather than how one supposes it will affect the sound. I am also a little suspicious of some audiophile descriptions of sound, wondering if we are actually all using the same language, or if some are merely adopting language without using a common definition. What annoy me more than anything are those who demean others who have a different opinion or experience than their own. ‘Knowledge’ and ‘truth’ are often far more complex commodities than we give credit.
Ah well. More important that we are listening to music and enjoying it.