will
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Joman said: "What matters is not how it's done, but how well it's done whether that be Fully Balanced or SE. When done well the need for components that "fill in so speak" is no longer there. The problem is that doing something well is very demanding the budget."
Here, my highly modified Decware is like stock in basic characters, but "much more" translucent, complex and complete than stock, or A-mods. So I have occasional concerns about commenting on these things. But my audio memory is good, so I can still "hear" my system at various stages along the way. Now, "adding things" that enhance the experience transparently are pretty much just additive, importantly, after fully modifying each "addition" to match the rest. And all of it, including power and cables, etc being pretty crazy good these days, there is "much less" subtle hit to transparency, speed etc with additions than there once was when balancing underlying sacrifices with enhancements was more notable. But back then, all stock, new pieces tended to stay for me too once fine tuned with really transparent and resolving tubes and cables to the system/room.
So when I talk about things now, I always try to put myself back to when things were more stock, or closer to A-mods, my tuning tools being mainly gear, room, tubes, cables, vibration mitigation, power, etc.... trying to stay as real as I can in my comments. Finally, with the right room, source, tubes, etc, I think Decware really well set up is so good toward a "real" sound stock, that my modifications mainly enhance what Steve's designs already do so well, so there is a strong sonic thread.
To me, this makes "additions" pretty relative based on the overall state of modifications versus stock across the system. If the system is all stock, or all A-mod, or all more fully modified like mine.... the possible effects from adding this or that, with all the Decware at a similar level, it tends to carry new peices in the same state, either stock or ultra-modified, similarly. But, for example, when I added a ZRock2 with just the tube mod, and later beyond A-mods, it would not have lasted in my system, so I had to take it full out like the rest for it to match.
So, of course, if it is all stock, there are more subtle hits on transparency, resolution, speed, etc from adding things, and in my current setup, almost none. But I loved adding stock Decware pre stages when all was stock too, once finely tuned with really complimentary tubes and cables, the enhancement possibilities for me notably outweighing subtle transparency hits.
All that said, I would not be without transparent and musical "gain riding" tools to fine tune density, resolution, dynamics, speed, etc, to my system and room, and very importantly for me, to tune various recording styles to better fit the system/room.
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