Tekton Double Impacts

One of the things that fascinates me about this hobby is how ubiquitous it is.

I purchased a Musical Fidelity A5 disc spinner early 2016. My impression with limited experience with CD players was it was good but had a deal breaker flaw. It had a lighter, leaner lower mid-range which seems somewhat similar to some of the recent opinions of the LTA gear. 

With a lot of Herbie's isolation products, along with excellent additional advice on DIY efforts (I'm not referring to parts upgrade, which I never learned enough about to venture into that realm) the player truly is balanced from top to bottom with excellent richness.

The final piece which took it from frustratingly close to a proper musical piece for me was with the addition of their tiny CD mat. No give and take which was my experience with another mat, only give what was still needed. 

Of course my efforts with this player would not exactly coincide with amplification. However, so much can be done for equipment just in the areas of isolation, acoustics, tube rolling, and if you have the skill, part upgrades, etc.

So much to consider when we evaluate the many forks in the audio road.

   LP

LP - Once you get to a certain level of performance you begin to realize literally everything in your system can make a difference in perceived sound quality. However, fundamental design improvements (such as the Tekton tweeter array) is what propels this hobby forward IMO. I could tweek all day long and never get a normal set of speakers to sound like these.

At the time Charles heard my system I was running Marconi BL 63's ( with adapters) and Brimar 12AT7 yellow T labels. I'm now running the TungSol 12SN7 round plates with Sylvania Gold Brand double mica 12AT's. Sound quality is quite similar and I can put the cover on the MZ2 with the TungSols in it. 

I thought the sound difference between driving the DI's with the MZ2 alone and using the MZ2 as a pre driving the Frankensteins was quite dramatic. I'd describe the MZ2 sound as very pure and clean, which I like. But compared to the Frank's that purity seemed as if the music was stripped of texture, density and weight. I can see where some might prefer that lean, pure sound but I preferred the more weighty sound of the Frank's. I'll be getting teajay's Cyber 30 2A3 SET today and the Aric Audio Transcend KT 120 SET in a couple of weeks to experiment with what sound I like better. I have high hopes that Aric's amp will sing with Eric's speakers. 

lpretiring

One of the things that fascinates me about this hobby is how ubiquitous it is

Huh? You find high-end audio ubiquitous? Where do you live? In my part of the world, it's very much esoteric.

Sbayne,

I agree with you that design breakthroughs can bring gear up to another level, and is the foundation for audio advancement.

As we acquire different equipment either purchased or auditioned, it is an evaluation process for each of us to decide which pieces are a hit or miss, and also how to extract all the potential from a worthy candidate.

    LP