Your experience mirrors mine with the cd playback as I have the same player, the Arcam FMJ CD23. My old Audio Alchemy rig did not differentiate cd playback nearly as much. Good CDs sound good with the Arcam and bad ones sound real bad. Also from a/b comparison with my Denon 2910 (which sounds dark in comparison) the Arcam I think is a tad forward and maybe even to the bright side. Is any of this a bad thing or just the way it is? I still very much enjoy listening to music through the Arcam and to my ears HDCDs sound excellent, I just wish there were more around. BTW, I also have transparent speaker cables. The Classe 6 is a fine preamp, but you may want to consider experimenting by adding a tubed pre. This may mellow out your sound a bit by adding some ear pleasing distortion. If you buy a tubed pre (or get one loaned to you) listen for a couple of weeks and then reinsert your Classe. I think you will find yourself noting the differences. Then decide if you like what the tubed pre did for your system. I went to a tubed pre and gained mellowness but also a widened soundstage. Buy one used and if you don't like it sell it here and get at or close to what you paid. There are several good ones out there in your price range.
How do I know what my system's
Ok, let's say I have some fun money to upgrade something or other in my system. This may sound like a dumb question, but...how does one know where to begin??? I have a collection of pretty decent stuff, and it all sounds pretty good. But since I bought it all at about the same time, my problem is, how am I supposed to know which component to upgrade first to get a meaningful payoff? It's not that I'm unhappy with my system, it's that I have a couple thousand bucks burning a hole.
So I thought I'd post my stuff and see if anything ensued.
CD player: Arcam CD23 FMJ
Preamp: Classe Audio Six (discontinued, expensive model from the mid 90s)
Power amp: Bryston 3B-ST
Loudspeakers: Revel Performa F30s
All cables are by Transparent Audio:
PowerBank Ultra line conditioner
MusicLink Ultra interconnects
MusicWave Super speaker cables
Anyone? Anyone? Does any of this stuff suck enough to suggest an obvious improvement, or is it a total toss-up?
So I thought I'd post my stuff and see if anything ensued.
CD player: Arcam CD23 FMJ
Preamp: Classe Audio Six (discontinued, expensive model from the mid 90s)
Power amp: Bryston 3B-ST
Loudspeakers: Revel Performa F30s
All cables are by Transparent Audio:
PowerBank Ultra line conditioner
MusicLink Ultra interconnects
MusicWave Super speaker cables
Anyone? Anyone? Does any of this stuff suck enough to suggest an obvious improvement, or is it a total toss-up?
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- 23 posts total
- 23 posts total