Do you find your system mesmerizing?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Khorn, Dec 3, 2020.

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  1. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian Thread Starter

    I’ve had most of my system for years and it still blows my mind daily. As long as it keeps you involved and enjoying music it’s doing the job well. You must have a certain synergy with your system.
     
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  2. doctor fuse

    doctor fuse Forum Resident

    Finally rolled some tubes in my preamp and 7868 push pull.

    Replaced modern JJ ECC83S tubes with old Brimar 12AX7s, in the preamp, and Rogers 12AX7s (most likely Mullards rebranded, from about 1962) as the input drivers in the Conn 7868 amp, replacing Conn 12AX7s.

    Amazing transformation! Less artificial lushness, but more detail (especially bass articulations), sparkle and solidity, less noise (those JJs are noisy!), and much better tonalities (instruments sound more like themselves).

    Since these old tubes were just lying around, this was a very satisfying and fun way to tweak the system into even more mesmerizingness!
     
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  3. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian Thread Starter

    Seems like you have some great stuff and certainly experience with speaker systems. Hope you’re project is a success.
     
  4. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    It's called the treble knob. I have an early or mid 2000's Yamaha AV amp in my walk-in closet for back up when the Sansui craters that can't match the Sansui's smooth and broad arc treble boost. I rarely have to adjust volume and just use its treble knob.

    But there are some digitally mastered CD's that introduce non-linearity in high frequencies where sections like brass flourishes quickly go raspy hot the treble knob just can't compensate for.
     
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  5. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian Thread Starter

    Tubes can be make or break. When I used a tube preamp if the tubes were right it was magical no question about it.
    My main problem was tube noise for a couple of reasons. The pre itself was a fabulous sounding unit for its price point but it was built to a price point even though a Pass design. I must say that a tube pre along with good SS can be purely magical and hard to beat.
    I was offered a 16k pre for a good price recently whose build guaranteed to minimize tube noise. Would have been nice but not right now. Tubes can be so very very good but at times oh so frustrating.
    BTW: Great system you have.
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2020
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  6. DrZhivago

    DrZhivago Hedonist

    Location:
    Brisbane Australia
    I do find my tube preamp, phono preamp combo very seductive with female vocals, jazz trios and softer rock pieces.

    Regards
     
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  7. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian Thread Starter

    Yes, in the examples you’ve given tubes can be sheer magic.
     
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  8. Schwinnparamount

    Schwinnparamount Forum Resident

    I think we all have that experience. That's what makes us spend the money we do. If we didn't have it before, we do after we spend $10k+ on a system. Most of the time we are genuinely engrossed in the wonderful sound and we really believe we are hearing far better sound than our neighbors with their $500 systems. For a while, I would find my daily "Oh My God, this is wonderful!" experiences questionable. Am I convincing myself that my audio is THAT good and worth $10k+? Then I go listen to my friends ... ahem, inexpensive system. I realize that my money was well spent.
     
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  9. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian Thread Starter

    It’s all somewhat subjective. I’m very satisfied with my systems and don’t regret the cost for one second. I do remember though being totally engrossed in music from a little red plastic pocket radio when I was a teenager. It really rocked.
     
  10. Schwinnparamount

    Schwinnparamount Forum Resident

    In the case of the red plastic pocket radio, it had to be the qualities of the song itself. You could have heard the song coming out of a tin can at the end of a string and you would have loved it. I think this thread is about how your audio hardware enhances that original red plastic radio experience, right?
     
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  11. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian Thread Starter

    Sure, ultimately it’s the music but it requires exposure to a quality sound system to enlighten many.

    Way back around the time they came out I bought a Bryston 1B pre and 4B amp. Not long after some friends came over and some music was playing. Now the frightening part. They both stood staring at the sound system with their mouths wide open. One turn to me and said “I can actually understand the words they’re singing and it’s all coming out of some plain black boxes with no lights or meters or anything”. Now these were seasoned music people that hung with some top musicians so they know sound.
    It brings me to wonder what the average non audiophile listens to at home. I’m sure they really can get into the music but wonder how much more involved they would become if exposed to a quality sound system. Too many never have that opportunity.
     
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  12. LitHum05

    LitHum05 El Disco es Cultura

    Location:
    Virginia
    It’s a lot longer than that. You ought to hear the whole thing!
     
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  13. LitHum05

    LitHum05 El Disco es Cultura

    Location:
    Virginia
    Sounds like a Covid special. When you just want to turn your back on the world and go with music! :righton:
     
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  14. jcmusic

    jcmusic Forum Resident

    Location:
    Terrytown, La.
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  15. Morbius

    Morbius Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookline, MA
    My system is quite a chameleon, no matter what I throw at it - jazz, rock or classical and whether its CD, SACD or vinyl it always comes through. Lately I've been mixing it up with some classical SACDs of Hayden string quartets and Beethoven symphonies. The Chiaroscuro quartet uses natural gut strings on actual period instruments with a deft touch and can go from piano to screaming forte as the music requires. The Beethoven like the Hayden I'm getting familiar with and I'm amazed at the sounds he could he could create for a full orchestra considering his handicaps.
    [​IMG]

    In addition all week I've been savoring the Analog Productions Doors re-issues that I picked up at the beginning of Acoustic Sounds' Black Friday sale. The jackets alone are a work of art, laminated gatefolds and the original artwork which has some updates to coincide with the re-issue content are stunning. The vinyl was mastered by Doug Sax and supervised by Bruce Botnick who originally engineered the Doors Albums. They sound is flipping amazing! For yesterday's listening I started out with Neil Young's recently released Homegrown and segued to Morrison Hotel. I think Hotel is a more straight foreword classic rocker than The Doors, Strange Days and Waiting for the Sun that precede it. I'm especially fond of the addictive beat driven Land Ho! that I had never heard before.
    [​IMG]

    For Monday I think I'll start out with a single layer SACD I have of Steely Dan's Aja and follow up by popping the seal on LA Woman, but for today I think I'll listen to a couple of these AP 2x45 Verve re-issues I ordered before the end of the sale featuring Oscar Peterson, Ben Webster and Jonny Hodges with Billy Strayhorn. Talk about mesmerizing!
    [​IMG]
     
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  16. Shiver

    Shiver Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Yes. Latest changes have brought the effect of feeling like you're sharing the room with the music, rather than the music being played in the room. Superb effect.
     
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  17. Andy Saunders

    Andy Saunders Always a pleasure never a chore

    Location:
    England
    Yes sometimes - l am in awe of how big my system can sound- with ProAc Tablette 10 plumbed in.( oh no l am going to go all gooey thinking about them.) They are just a perfect fit in my listening room. It is probably one of the most musical system l have build over the years.:)
     
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  18. jonwoody

    jonwoody Tragically Unhip

    Location:
    Washington DC
    I find that the system and music sound so good it prevents me from doing other things. I sit here thinking I should get up and do this or do that and I just sit here listening. So I guess, yes.
     
  19. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian Thread Starter

    I understand. Great comforting and inviting looking system you have. I can see why you’re captivated.
     
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  20. GKH

    GKH Senior Member

    Location:
    Somerville, TN
    Whoa!!!
    You might have the speed checked on your tape deck!!! :laughup:
     
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  21. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian Thread Starter

    It must have sounded like those little ant marching bands in the old cartoons.
     
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  22. GKH

    GKH Senior Member

    Location:
    Somerville, TN
    :goodie::evil::biglaugh:
     
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  23. gmcjj

    gmcjj Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mid Michigan
    For me it depends on what my mood is. If I'm not into the music it seems like it sounds worse. And for some reason my system seems better to me at night then during the day. Maybe its a placebo effect from relaxing as my body is use to calming down at night, I don't know. But I'm very happy with my modest little setup.
     
    Khorn likes this.
  24. Khorn

    Khorn Dynagrunt Obversarian Thread Starter

    I think we all suffer “nothing sounds right” times and just hope it doesn’t happen very often.
     
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  25. Jim Hodgson

    Jim Hodgson Galvanically Isolated in Greenpoint

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    Wonderful thread! This is the sort of discussion that makes this forum so amazing and unique: the celebration of an audio system’s ability to permit a much deeper musical connection. It’s incredibly difficult to find online both a music/gear balance and this particular angle. So, lots of appreciation and compliments!

    Many great descriptions and sentiment in the 99 posts above. A good audio system really does have the capabilities that have been described. And once those capabilities have been experienced, I think they prove to be so addictive that it’s basically impossible not to build a system more and more in this particular direction (and also to ever again be satisfied with less).

    We probably all experience this a little differently. I personally have the distinct feeling of my system reaching out, welcoming me in, and even embracing me. (Trust me, when a huge horn system hugs you, you know it!) At that point, the experience is really one of being placed inside the musical event as a participant. I think of it as the exact inverse of the headphone-listening experience, where the musical event seems to be placed inside you (meaning your head).

    Many people describe great audio, and especially the soundstaging and imaging aspects of it, as psychedelic. Complete immersion involves more than just the spatial effects, though: a break in what tethers us to reality can occur; concepts can fall away and lose their accessibility; you can end up feeling like you’ve entered a complete dream state—or a totally different reality. The first time I experienced this, I was listening to a really majestic horn system with a friend. He was standing next to where I was sitting, talking to me, in fact talking directly at me—we were the only ones there—and I kept thinking, “I wonder who he’s talking to?” That was immersion and non-substance-induced intoxication like I had never experienced, and I guess I’ve been chasing it ever since. For me, this is the perspective that’s so addictive. Being so disoriented by the experience that you’re confused, for however long it lasts, into feeling like this is what exists, and I exist in the middle of it.

    Until it crashes ... and you wonder where you’ve been for the last eight hours, and how you’re going to get up for work in two—haha!

    Anyway, so satisfying and good to see and hear lots of other folks having and enjoying similar experiences. We should keep it up!
     
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