OK, so tonight I was in the mood for some Stones and I threw on a DSD rip of "Exile On Main Street", the song was "Sweet Black Angel".  I've heard this album a bunch (as most probably have or at least songs from it) and all of a sudden I heard Richards' and Taylor's thumbs moving up and down the frets of their guitars and the picks strumming the strings.  At first I was like "wow" that is some serious resolution I got going on here and went and got my son to see if he could here the same thing and he said yea.  

But then all of a sudden I start analyzing everything on this record, I felt I could hear where the players were, Jagger's breath, etc. which has been said to be (by Mick Jagger's own record) one of the worst Stones albums as far as mixes go and besides that fact I don't even hear the music anymore as I am paying attention to the actual nuances rather than the music.

I know a lot of you guys are way advanced than me and I have barely tipped the iceberg with things such as power and isolation devices, etc. but do you ever feel yourself having such good synergy that you start to over analyze stuff?

Here's my pretty modest system:

Amp = Decware Taboo MKII
Speakers = Omega RS7
Preamp = McIntosh C220
DAC = McIntosh D100
TT = Rega RP6 with exact cart
Cables = Speaker = Zenwave, Interconnect = Decware and Zenwave, Digital and Wireworld
PC = AsusVivoPC with Windows 8.1 and JRiver MC 20.

Sounds like a very nice system to me Beowulf. I think the thing is balance. If something sticks out, it can be something good that is unfamiliar, and needs getting used to....or it can be something that is maybe good and perhaps a little dominant.... Might need to balance the whole with something else... like warmth, fine detail, bass body or resolution... or whatever.

If I find the analytical ahead of the pleasure, I trust that some perceptions are pointing me somewhere. I may not know the answer, or how to explain the problem, but by following my preferences as I experiment, I always seem to figure it out and get the enjoyment and amazement back to the top...most often, ending up having taken it to a higher level from solving some challenge.

Putting my PureMusic player in a RAMdisk made my setup "too good." Too clear and dynamic based upon how it was set up. Liking the good parts of this change, I started working to "find" the new sound. First I played with isolation, damping and feet...Then a little IC change...Then put in some warmer power tubes (the Valve Art 350Bs had one go bad, so switched to the richer Genalex KT66)...Then a warmer, copper receptacle power strip for computer, DAC, USB power, Shunyata Defender, and some other little things, over a very clean tweaked out Brickwall (this was the big one). And finally some EQ adjustments.

Wow...things are very beautiful tonight. The decreased noise and subtle distortions from the computer, and associated increases in black, clarity, and dynamics...they all seem to be a part of the amazement and beauty now. Gorgeous music!

Won't know for sure until I play a lot more recordings, and may need some fine tuning, but wow! With any luck, the "too good" has turned to better than ever. Listening to the last record, all I could hear was great music. So, for me anyway, I think the analytical is usually awakened by something being a little out of balance.

Course...when you have hundreds of recordings of various recording qualities and characters...and maybe a new cable or piece of gear here or there....seeking the balance can be sort of perpetual! I love it!

@ Lon, thanks for posting that ... after a bit I found myself back I the music.  It caught me off guard though.  I have always heard that the SACD versions of the Stones' albums were mastered quite excellent and I have just acquired a new DAC.  Before it was the Rega DAC which makes everything warm and fuzzy ... it has PRat, but not the best resolution, but now I have the McIntosh D100 which has some really great inner detail, so I had a combination of things going on ... first my friend ripped a few Stones SACDs to DSD for me and then combined with the new Mac DAC things got a little "too" good for a few moments and yes FINGERS not THUMBS doh'

@ Will, yes so you were right as well, although the improvements to the gear were substantial, the mastering of these discs are very good.  Funny that I was considering a brick wall, and then Dave (from Dave's Cables aka Zenwave) happens to be taking SurgeX SEQ's (which use brick-wall tech) and hot-rodding them into very audiophile surge/conditioners.  He will be having a tour pretty soon so I can't wait to get my hands on one of those.

@ LR, the RAMdisk is only going OK for me ... I think I may need more RAM to bring out the best in this, but will be experimenting with this more down the road.

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I tried pressing Ted Smith to use his magic MIT EE powers on why the RAM-Disk (in Foobar2000 in my case) works so well for me, and why it may or may not for others. It was tough to follow, but the short version is "everyone's system is different, and it happens to work well for yours".  Which doesn't really explain *why* it works well - that discussion got a bit obfuscated (I'm starting to wonder if this was intentional), and my take on it is:  "I have lots of random theories, I don't have time to really care, and I really have no idea what it might be". Those aren't actual quotes, just what I feel was the message.

Also, for those using Foobar2000, the Ram-Disk is a 32bit Application, and tops off at 4GB of RAM. I've asked the created if I could entice him to make a 64bit version that can address more memory, but none of my E-mails or PMs have been responded to.