Elizabeth, I assume your Naxos Haydn box set is the Kodaly Quartet. I have v3, which has an assortment of Op 9, 33, and 42 quartets. If that is representative of the recording to which you refer, it appears to be recorded in a hot, reverberant venue. It is not bright or steely through my system, but because of the venue, it wouldn't take much wrong to make it present that way. What you experienced with changing one IC is akin to what I experienced after having replaced numerous components of my system. The big question is does this improvement extend to most if not all of your music collection? If the answer is yes, then you have in fact addressed the weakest link. If not, you have found an IC that will optimize a portion of your music collection at the expense of the remainder.
For me, I have found several breakthroughs that make everything sound better-- and a relative few that have just given a bit different voicing that makes certain recordings sound better at the expense of others. The former are still in use, the later have passed into disuse.
For me, I have found several breakthroughs that make everything sound better-- and a relative few that have just given a bit different voicing that makes certain recordings sound better at the expense of others. The former are still in use, the later have passed into disuse.