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How to listen to the good stuff?

How is one able to hear some of the 100's of great systems described in review after review?

There's been six or seven high-end dealers in the local area and I've been to a few out of state, and among all the auditions I've listened to at these places with all sorts of different speakers and electronics, from systems costing hundreds of dollars to systems costing many tens of thousands of dollars, only one system ever sounded 'great', and only one or two I would consider barely 'good'. The vast majority have sounded quite poor to awful.

The funny thing is, even with the awful sounding systems, the dealers will gush about how great it sounds, how it sounds so live, and use all the usual audiophile superlatives and descriptions to describe what I'm supposed to be hearing. Yet it sounds nothing like that to me at all -- poor sound, little emotional connection with the music, no PRAT, nothing like live music, and almost always boring. It doesn't come anything close to what I hear at home, or anything like the descriptions in so many reviews. Yeah, I know it's their job to talk about everything in glowing terms, but that is the point I'm trying to make. If all of this stuff sounds like crap at the dealers, how do I find speakers I might like better than the ones I have? How do I hear a great SET amp or an exotic horn system?

I want to hear some more of these setups that are described as being able to image a full size orchestra right in your living room and you can pick out each individual player, etc., etc.

The descriptions I've read of all the different audio shows over the years make it sound even worse than auditioning at a dealer. Crowded rooms with little chance to sit in the sweet spot. Systems setup the day before in a crappy hotel room. Poor selection of music. etc. And I don't know anybody with a high-end system, let alone the high-high-end stuff, and the audio 'club' (society?) is pretty much dead.

Do you guys think most of the dealer setups you've heard sound good? How do you guys listen to some of the more exotic stuff? Pretty much going to shows, or do you live in L.A. or N.Y.?

(Some of the speakers heard at dealers: Magnapan 1.7, Sonus Faber, various B&Ws, Wilson X-1 and Sasha ?, Joseph Audio Pearl, Linn, Vienna Acoustics, Totem, various Martin Logans, Thiel, ...)
bdhgon
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,333 posts
 
It is tough. Keep looking and one day you may get it. It hit me in late 1995 - just by hazard I found something that worked. I wasn't even looking but stumbled into a dealer while on a business trip. When you hear it you will know. So keep checking out dealers - I assure you that when it hits you you will know - we are talking the "earth moved".

So keep looking.
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uru975
684 posts
 
Agree with Shadorne, when I heard my present amps, they were being sold by someone on audiogon nearby it was obviously to me, they were something special. Have heard some decent sound in stores but rarely enough to get me back, When I have, that gets me back. A good salesman who is looking for a long time client and not a quick sale is also really nice to find. Also I never sit in the sweet spot. If it sounds good further back and off to the side it can only get better. Have tried being in the sweet spot and had it deteriorate seriously due to synergy, room, buggadyboo, who knows.
bdhgon OP
10 posts
 
Maybe I did not word this correctly. I have two incredible systems in my home right now. Much better than anything I've ever heard at a dealer. But reading all these reviews of so much different equipment makes me want to see if there are better speakers, amps, sources, etc. that I would like even better. While I can afford what I have, it's not practical for me to buy and sell $5,000-$20,000 (and above) speakers every six months, just so that I can try different ones out. (Let alone the wife-acceptance-factor with doing that.)

The one system that did sound great was 16 years ago at a dealer and was a B&W 801 Series 3. Which I bought a year later and paired a Conrad Johnson Premier 11 amp, Melos pre-amp, Marantz CD player, and a Rega 3 turntable. I eventually sold it all, but it was great while I had it and is still pretty good compared to what I have now.

However nothing else at that dealer has sounded good then or since. I think I just got lucky then.

Why do dealers setups sound so awful to me?
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,333 posts
 
Maybe I did not word this correctly. I have two incredible systems in my home right now. Much better than anything I've ever heard at a dealer.

That would probably be your room - extensive room acoustic treatments and a large space will always sound better than the limited setups that dealers can afford (due to the multiple setups they display dealerships are often cluttered)
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onhwy61
4,163 posts
 
Two points:

you're confusing words with how music actually sounds. Audio writers are writers and they have developed a specific vocabulary that while sounding nice is actually quite meaningless. It's like "Star Trek" talk, "the warp coils are being effected by the sub-space phase distortions." You hear and read it so often that you forget and gloss over how nonsensical the language really is. Here's an actual quote from a well known, major magazine reviewer:
The fast-moving "X-1" produces more of a fine-grained, crystalline transparency and purity that lets me see further into the musical presentation —like viewing a high-definition video broadcast at full 1920x1080 resolution. The somewhat slower-moving "X-2s" presentation was more soulful, more viscerally textured and tactile, and more cinematic, though equally well resolved.
Does that really make sense to you? Trying to hear what people write is a lost cause.

Second point, if you have two systems that sound better than anything you've heard at numerous dealers, then could it be you have great systems that cannot be practically improved? You're at the top of the mountain. Congratulations!
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