I “downgraded” and I’ve never been happier…

If you like the 500c over Cornwalls you’ll love the a-s2100. I rotated my 500c back in last weekend and really missed the 2100.

 

Being a WRX owner myself, I can tell you definitively that I have no desire whatsoever for a Porsche GT3. I'm fairly sure it can outrun my WRX performance wise, but I'd hate to hunch in one for everyday driving. Same with audio systems: some will excel at one or two things (charging an arm and a leg for them) while compromising others, others will be all-around great performers, if not necessarily award winners in any one category.

As to listening to multiple AN systems/variations to find the one you like - sounds to me like a recipe for someone who is determined to go with AN at all costs (perhaps a newly indoctrinated member of the "cult"), not for someone who has tried it already and feels disappointed. I have heard full AN systems twice at NY Audio Shows, and, while openly admitting they sounded fine, I wasn't "sold" on them even once. There were WAY better sounding rooms at the shows than AN. Suffice it to say, I feel no urge to continue looking for AN systems to like.

Again, please do not consider this a bout of AN bashing, this was just analyzing your logic. Feel free to substitute "AN" with any other brand name, and you will see that the logic remains the same, and flawed, IMHO.

 

What's broken? Do you need any help? We have some good techs around here.

 

I won't quote any specific post, but just say, "let's not do this, please." I may have started it, and I'm kicking myself now. Let's celebrate the OP's happiness and not do this here.

 

Watching your journey has been really interesting, albeit a little whiplash inducing! Happy you’ve landed on something you’re happy with. It takes a lot of work to separate true preference from the influence of ego and expectation.

To be honest if I had the space and no wife I’d love to live with a pair of heritage Klipsch speakers for a little while. Do you listen to metal at all? If so, how do you find them?

 

Seafinch, great post and thank you for your honesty in discussing your journey. I've been there myself, right down to having DeVore and Audio Note in my room. I don't have anything bad to say about either brand, but our hobby is much like comparing chocolate cake recipes and ultimately their gear didn't float my boat.

 

I notice a lot of backlash against expensive equipment. I agree that one doesn't need to spend six figures, or even five. My system is pretty modest compared to many - what a typical middle wage income earner might own. But I do believe that "you get what you pay for" is generally true. I think we all have to admit that there is some really nice gear as you move into the $2K - $6K bracket (and even higher of course). And it's not like the OP has bargain basement components.

There are lots of variables. Price is just one of them. It doesn't guarantee great sound if you mess up on other variables. But it sure doesn't hurt. Spend more doesn't necessarily equal better sound. But neither does spend less. And spend more will generally get you more, until diminishing returns start to really take over.

As for AN, I heard an AN system at TAVES one year and it was amazing. Those who aren't impressed maybe didn't hear an AN system at it's best. Or maybe it's just not quite the sound that they prefer. Personally I wouldn't write anything off unless I had the chance to hear it in my room for an extended period.

I think this is something a lot of us go through. Most of us probably start really loving music, listening on a low-fi system. Then you get your first system and it sounds great. But you then want to upgrade. And you start moving components in and out, and you start focusing on how the system sounds rather than the music. That's a habit one has to eventually learn to break.

I think some of the problem is because we get too focused on the gear. But I think sometimes a lot of systems just don't sound right for some reason. And if it all just doesn't come together into something that sounds cohesive then the listener will focus on the stereo, rather than the music - because the stereo is calling attention to itself. And it's easier to get things wrong than it is to get them perfect, where a system is singing at it's very best and it's most engaging. So I think this is a lot of it - it's not just that a person doesn't know how to listen. If the music was really humming then I think it should pull you in and get you to stop obsessing on the equipment.

 

I have no opposition to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars... It's just that most of the expensive gear isn't amazing. However neither is the cheap gear! Figuring out what's what isn't easy. Sometimes it really helps to have someone help you understand sooner than later, but those people are very rare that can put things into words - let alone recognize what exactly they're hearing. Even more so people often get bent on seeking certain qualities so no one can get through to them.

What else makes it complicated? Well, people's assumptions about what has to make better sound. Rarely do very many actually understand all the physics involved with speakers - I can't make that claim. So they make inferences about what makes good sound all the time. The same goes for electronics... It's easy to be dazzled by fancy parts - that no recording studio ever used. It's easy to assume things like lowest resistance is always a good thing, when it just isn't true... I could go on all day.

 

I've quite enjoyed reading this thread as it has evolved. For the most part, the usual suspects (they know who they are) didn't show up to spoil the "honesty" of the feelings being expressed here. Thread after thread these same people seem to find their way in to remind us all just how much they love brand X, Y, or Z and I get it, you're hooked on that brand! Sadly, they can't stand the thought of someone not loving it as well and they fight for it as if they were the company owner.

With that said, I'll apologize to those who have read this thread and who possibly own brand X, Y, or Z and took my posts here the wrong way. Sometimes I'm a little too honest myself and when I say that a pair of speakers "suck", that's a bit harsh. The thing is, if you've been on the roller coaster audio ride like I have for the past so many years, with so many miles and stores in different states between them and my home, I'd hope that you'd understand my pleas?

I feel that I should be forthright and just admit how my own Audio Note UK audition went so wrong. Here's the thing, my wife and I were on one of our many trips up to the wine country area of "Niagara On The Lake", which we both love so much. On one of our days up there I talked my wife into driving up to the Toronto area and finally audition these highly praised by most AN-E speakers that she had heard me going on and on about, after reading about them on this forum, so she agreed. Sometime between our last time in Toronto to see something like "Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" or "Phantom Of The Opera", Toronto changed. "Sam The Record Man" was still in business, if that gives you some sort of time line as to when we were last up there? These days the highways into and out of Toronto look more like L.A., than L.A. itself and it's a clusterf$%^ getting in or out of there during busy "drive times". Nobody warned us of this and it really was frustrating and it made us a bit late for our appointment at the dealer. That dealer didn't help matters by calling my cell phone nearly every half hour starting off nicely enough with "we are looking forward to seeing you" to an eventual, "Are you coming as I'm going to miss my lunch?" So, when we finally get to this dealer, the plaza that they are in is a nuthouse of everything from a pizza place to an employment agency and there are few places to park. WHY, with so many places to locate an audio store in that city, would someone think that crazy plaza was a good idea, is already pretty telling. So, we hit the door and the guy is waiting for us. I'll call him Francis, because his name was Francis. A few others are in the store so I'm guessing that Francis has a popular store. Now please know, that I called this guy days ahead, telling him that both my wife and I were driving up there specifically to audition these speakers, so I wanted to be sure that he would have them properly set up, so we wouldn't have to wait for him to do that when we arrived. I'll give you this, he did have them set up (a complete Audio Note UK set up, for that matter), but they were way back in a back room that seemed to be more of a storage area, than one of their proper listening rooms. It was cold in there and he had two cheap "director" type chairs (the kind that you see in the movies), set up in that room. I told him that I would be bringing my own audition CD-R's, so he kindly had the CD player ready to go. He handed me the remote control, hung around for a few minutes and then left, allowing my wife and I as much time as we would like to audition. As I said in an earlier post in this thread, it only took ten minutes for this audition to fall flat. The room just had no (get ready audiophiles as I'm about to use one of your BIG words here) "synergy" (how did you like that?). For years I've attempted to use words like "warm", "neutral" or "balanced", only to discover that those words mean mostly nothing to an audiophile. No, the word that seems to please is synergy. Now WHY, might I ask, if this dealer is the only game in town for Audio Note UK, would he have these beautiful speakers and their equally lovely looking AN equipment, set up in a back "storage" type room, rather than in one of the two better "front of house" listening rooms, was quite telling, right? I mean, why bother as all the guy ended up doing in the end, was ruin our experience. You know wives and since she saw it all come down in real time and in living color, any time after that audition, when I would even "mention" the words Audio Note off my lips, it was like saying the name of another woman, as she felt so betrayed by the entire experience, so that was the end of my short affair with that brand. So, at ease Audio Note enthusists, if you dig that brand, more power to you as I'm sure that in the right room, one with some "synergy", they might be the best ever, but I guess that I'll never know myself.

 

did i offend you? sorry man. not my intention. the car analogy is just a thing ... .

my point was it is NOT fair to say AN equipment is all overpriced. my point was to say they make lots of different system for any number of music lovers. if you don't like that or i hurt your little feeling with my car analogy ... tough!

 

I too have found that "downgrading" my equipment can be a recipe for being happier with my system. I think it comes down to system/room synergy and the quality of your favorite recording. Of coarse the gear the "OP" is discussing as downgrading to would be an upgrade for me. Its all relative.

With my downgraded system I find that more music is enjoyable to listen too, but my better recorded music is not as good as it could be (from a listening to the gear standpoint).

I've enjoyed the OPs story and good luck to all with their audio journey.

 

I've got some AN UK components and am feeling most seriously butt-hurt right now

Nah.

One should take/audition any piece of any gear as a blank sheet of paper. Especially, I think, if it is somewhat pedestalled or enshrined in mystique - like AN tends to be along with other brands we could name. Just strip that back and see it cold light. If it still works for you, great; if not, move on. No right and wrong. Infinite variables at play even before you get to personal taste.

It's particularly relevant too when your own point of diminishing returns kicks in, whether going between brands or up the ladder.

The only other thing I'd put in to the equation is the added value of knowing a manufacturer has good back up and customer support.

 

Oh no, bro - I'm not easy to offend. I was born WAY before the snowflake generation. The car analogy works just fine.

 

Different folks, different strokes. Ultimately it comes down to room and gear matching.

I have a friend who’s an expert at matching systems, granted he is a hoarder and has the luxury of trying a variety of combinations but he always has great sound at virtually any price point.

 

It's all about the music..........

 

bingo bingo earns a star!

 

That’s a bad to the bone little integrated.

 

Great story thanks. Poor, poor, poor Francis. hahaaaa..what a schmuck.

 

Get drops if you can’t smoke... best upgrade you can do to any system..ever

 

Definitely! I currently have the AP2 pre and the 55pm monos on loan. While they do a couple things better it’s definitely not a big gap in performance.

Funjoe has a new integrated coming out that is supposed to be the bees knees.

 

Don’t upgrade or downgrade!
Just add more systems
I’m running out of rooms
I like old stuff so I don’t spend lots of money.

 

It’s been interesting for me to follow this thread - I assumed it’d go the way of so many other threads around here and am happy to see it hasn’t. While I think there’s been a few threads that discuss the idea of diminishing returns I think posts like @avanti1960 ‘s sum up what I was getting at really well when he said...

“part of the problem with more expensive system components is that you want them to live up to expectations in line with the investment.”

In my recent experience I found that the curve for actual sound relative to the investment is not near as steep as my expectation of the sound relative to the investment. While I’m sure there are some exceptions that prove the rule - I didn’t find those in the brands I listed in my OP.

I think in the spirit of fairness though -I listen to a lot of different kinds of music - if I only listened to audiophile recordings the differences might be more significant and get those curves closer, but I don’t actually know that, just a thought.

As it relates to listening to music vs listening to gear I just saw a post about one of the brands mentioned in my OP where a guy was having a convo with someone about a new preamp and said that he listens to the same CD for over 100 hours to really hear the break-in. I can’t think of a better example of listening to gear vs music. I’m glad my case of gear-over-music syndrome never got that bad.

 

Agreed! I've been auditioning both audio stuff and guitars the past couple of years, and now I ask myself: "Does it have 'It'?"

 

@Seafinch plus I love my Cornwalls!

 

interesting post!

actually the only real music system you need is the bottom right corner of the last photo.