system appreciation day

Elroy paid a visit today for a listening session today. the last time he heard my system it was bi-amped with a 60wpc Rotel on the high end and the Yamaha B-2x on the lows, so this would be his first time hearing the B-2x on the highs and a Yamaha M-2 running the lows. he also brought along his modded Zhaolu DAC to compare against my EAD DSP 1000.

my transport supplied both DAC's so the switching was done via the input selector on the pre-amp. this was a bit tricky because the EAD has a bit more gain than the Zhaolu so the volume needed to be adjusted each time a change was made. i have to say that the DAC's were very very close. what little differences i could discern, or thought i could, were minimal and seemed to be dependent on what material was being played more than anything else. for the most part i couldnt tell which DAC we were listening to at any given time so i would call this one a draw.

now to the main point of this post. today the intent of this session was to listen to the equipment, but try as i might, with each and every track we played i found my focus moving quickly away from the equipment and onto thoroughly enjoying the music. its really pretty basic, by listening to the music rather than the equipment, you may gain a new appreciation for your system. i sure did.

yep but the highlight was this, whoops thats me with my new ST "charlie harper" shirt that I wore to dingus's

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here is dingus's system with my DAC on top, as well as on top as the winner. kidding,
I was surprised that the zhauluo did as well as it did, not sure why, but dingus's DAC and mine sounded so close that it was indistinguishable at times. one cd sounded a little lighter and more airy on my Dac, and the same for dingus's Dac. but for the most part we ended up listening to good music and almost forgot about switching them back and forth.

with a good system, it seems that you end up listening to the tunes and forget about the hardware. I guess we are both lucky.

elroy





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oh yeah, i almost forgot about the WAF acoustic treatments.

Great story.

I guess I'm lucky that I waited and bought a decent system for my first. Although my Sansui AU719/TU717 is by no means the top of the list, neither is it the bottom. Every time I try new speakers or any other change, I find myself forgetting all of that and listening to the music.

Well FWIW, Here is my namesake "Des-Lab" system. Sorry. Don't really have any great stories to share at the moment. And while I am proud of my setup, I've seen some out there of others that make mine look quite humble.

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as Alvaro would say "simply smashing!" what speakers are you running?

I think that is the purpose is to forget the component and get into the music. I'm trying out the DBX today. So far not good. I'm glad I bought another. Can only record on 1 side. So it's going to be file 13.

Also it's good you have someone to share your interest in music so close. Sometimes it gets boring especially on a good piece that you wish someone else can hear.

Imo, it's always a good thing when we can forget about the equipment and moving only to the music and follow the tune, first of all that's all this hobby's all about - enjoying the sound of music.
I suspect it was a very pleasant day....

Can you tell us what was the system that allow you guys a more easy listening to follow the tune kind of sound?

Good times! That reminds me, I haven't had a session at my house in a while. I've made some equipment changes so it will be interesting what the mini-collective thinks.

Later today, I'm visiting another audio enthusiast to audition his Snell towers, which look a lot like the AR9 but with a few less woofers. Like the AR9, they have inward firing woofers.

Dingus: Your amp changes must have worked brilliantly if you guys forgot about the equipment. I'm curious about your before and after impressions. I bet with the addition of your M-2, the AR9's ran effortlessly.

When scott had his system setup with a yamaha cr2020 on the highs and a luxman r-117 on the lows, "I think" its been a year and a half. his system sounded very forward, almost bright, scott may disagree but thats ok.

Then he upgraded a bit. and his final incarnation of a system sounds awesome. I hadnt had a chance to actually listen to his system in about a year or so, and a year ago I was in the middle of a divorce so it was hard for me to concentrate on the system and music.

Anyway, on a whim I brought my Dac because it was easy to bring and do a comparison of his "a heavily modded EAD" and my heavily modded chinese made zhaulou. and the biggest reason, his wife left town for a couple weeks and we had some free listeining time.

Its nice to listen to a different system than mine and think, man this sounds different but very good, not necessarily better than my system, just different sound and tone quality. scotts system sounded great with both Dac's. What I noticed most was how smooth it sounded. laid back against the wall smooth. very clear and refined. I could hear all the layers of the music very clearly, very refined. I would say that his system is at the low end of high fidelity. for $2200 bucks I dont think you could get any better sound, and if you tried to make big changes it would cost you 20 times that amount. In my humble opinion.

An example, we listened to some steely dan, i forget which one, but wow, I cant describe it, maybe scott can. that all i got to say bout that.

elroy

it was my main system.

prior to the M-2 i had to throttle back the gain on the B-2x significantly so that it did not overwhelm the 60wpc Rotel. also the volume could not be increased to any kind of a high level without the sound becoming unbalanced. with the M-2 in place running the low end, the sound is much sweeter with the B-2x now on the high end, and everything is smoother, more effortless and more balanced regardless of volume level.