will
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So many variables in a complex system and room, even with really real sounding gear and setup, it gets challenging to make general observations. But I have been into music a long time, and by being into adjusting instrument sound and audio sound so long, I have had pretty nice sounding stuff, even if not all that costly at that time. And I don't know if I have had a front end so bad I wouldn't hear notable differences in things you mention.
I had to stop playing going on 30 years ago due to some severe back and neck damage in a car wreck... too much pain when playing. But before that, I always loved the sound of my instruments as much as the music they made, and the rooms we played in effected that as much as with audio... a good sounding instrument and room making it easier to play better... the sound engaging and inspirational. I have always found audio the same...trying to choose carefully and squeezing the most out of a given setup, and I guess making changes pretty noticeable. From the pretty profound change you found with your UFO2, I suspect you will hear quite a lot in your setup too.
But even with decent gear, with lots of minor weak links, no doubt, they can add up and limit the potential of the components, and the whole. And perhaps especially with not-so-good speaker placement and room issues, I can sort of imagine not hearing these specific differences you mention enough to matter...
But with a relatively refined setup, especially if the nuanced speed and resolution aspects of revelation are important to your musical experience, then the choices get more limited within reason cost-wise. And lots of front ends (and everything else) just can't do all the fine stuff in most decent recordings as completely as I need for a more ultimate musical experience. Finally though, with all nice gear and cables, and a room and setup that shows it all without notable compromises in refined resolution and balances, then a really refined and revealing front end is pretty huge.
That said, there is a lot of nice stuff out there that appears to show it all pretty well, but does not quite, and I suspect lots of folks with nice setups might be surprised what they are missing in the front end. I think this is in part remnant from the legacy of makers trying to "solve" digital with artful tone tuning and masking that to me never completely works... I think this legacy and associated design habits tend to result in sonic habits that can seem good, but are limiting, in turn limiting more "state of the art" innovation toward a more complete and engaging experience. I figure, why not just focus on making digital sound like real music rather that using old school ideologies to try to make it appear "analog." And we seem to be getting there finally, and this applies not just to front ends. As front ends get more complete in musical resolution, all the rest has to be up to that, and visa versa to get the most from it.
Once it is all more complete and balanced, then even with sort of minor (rather than major) weak links most of us still have, differences between A-mods and not can really be heard. I have been working on this stuff a long time, but here different good quality individual resistors and wires of the same values are generally pretty noticeable. And the difference between stock and anniversary-like mods are enough that I can't use stock stuff I have had anymore in this setting. I don't have any with A-mods Steve did, but have done similar and gone further. And when it is all like that, the stock stuff I once loved is no longer up to the rest, needing upgrading to match without sacrifice to the whole. I have not heard the more recent Decware amps though where Steve is spending more and more attention on nice parts and wires as aspects of refining his already great designs. But I guess part of the point is, that if possible, I find it is better to go for the better options from the start, as they will hold up better to system/room improvements over time.
Also this is me in my room. And a lot depends how hard we listen and what matters in system sound. But here, having been going for sort of ultimate resolution, tonal, and speed balances for a long time, no mod, or new cable, or foot, or whatever stays if it can't improve things without sacrifice... And this gets notably progressive, the whole revealing more and more, while having more and more musical potential. But also, the better it all works individually and together, the easier it is to use comparably really good stuff in the chain without notable compromise... each thing being more transparent, it is easier to add things that can compliment the flexibility and beauty of the system/room, allowing it to play more music with less notable negative effects on revelation.
From this path, once all the resolution and balances get pretty close and pretty right, it is also easier to hear if they sway off a little... which points to another need for me... how different recordings sound in the system/room. My ultimate system/room "mastering" tool is variable recordings. If most sound really good and alive without masks and system compensations, then the system tuning is to sort of master of all those master recordings, and can make them all sound better, not just "audiophile" recordings. I am not sure if I even have those here... I have some recordings that sound more exceptional for sure, but have never bought "audiophile" recordings for that reason. And I don't stream yet, so don't have easy access to the latest and greatest of these, and don't even know what they are. I really like good recordings, but the main emphasis is the musical experience for me, and a lot of what I listen to is well recorded, but not brilliant. So gradually it has all continued to get more and more real, and with built in tuning tools for gain riding helping me fine tune individual recordings to sound more complete and engaging, most all recordings I listen to feel more and more real and engaging! To this end, for me, everything, literally everything, matters. My take anyway...
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New to me UFO2 (Read 632 times)
