Changing Amps?? Are you Sure??

Good thread. I can really identify with Audio4fun's comments. I owned the Duntech Sovereigns for 14 years before I let the "bug" get to me and sold them. I have a friend who still owns his Sovereigns and when I hear his system, I realize that, even today, it is hard to beat this "classic" for musical enjoyment.

The "high end" world is pretty small in relative terms and the wheels have to keep spinning to keep the business going. Hence, the flavor of the month club. I stayed on the sidelines for a few years, blissfully enjoying my Stages and associated equipment, never reading an audio magazine (although I still have piles of old one in the closet -- go figure), rarely even contemplating an upgrade, not asking myself whether new equipment here or there, or a small tweak would get me *this* much closer to the music (holding thumb and forefinger really close together now). These were my best times as an audiofool.

Fast forward to 2000. A spade breaks so I go to my local shop for a quick repair. Something bites me. I start thinking about equipment again. I start hanging around the shops listening to the "hot" new stuff. I start reading the mags again.

Well you know what? When I look at a current issue of an audio mag, not much has changed. A few familiar names are gone. A few new names have arrived. Some well known people have changed horses, so to speak. Aside from some genuinely new technology, the same banter is thrown about. The reviews sound the same.

When I listen in the stores, things don't sound any better than they did before. (I will say that the exception to this is some of the lower and mid priced gear. Improvements in actual components -- i.e. soft diodes and the like -- have made these pieces notably better than their counterparts from the past IMO.) But did I hear anything that I thought was better than the *old* Quads, the classic ARC amps, Threshold for solid state, a Linn or the top-of-the-line Oracle? No way. But business is business and the wheels must continue to spin.

I doubt that I would have had this perspective had I not sat out for nearly a decade. This, however, did not stop me from getting "new" speakers which turned out to be "old" ML CLS's with new panels. And I had to change amps due to the needs of the speakers -- and while I was at it I bought some "new" old IC's that I couldn't afford when they were $1,000 a meter but are dirt cheap now. I then somehow fell into a deal for a pair of subs that are pretty much dedicated to the CLS's -- too good of a deal to pass up, so I had to have them. Now, I need additional speaker cables so I finally buy something that is actually new-new. Oh, had to have some surge protection and lite filtering. Like I said I was bitten.

So after several months of mucking around, and several thousand dollars later, I think I am close to getting back to where I was when this started -- on the sidelines listening to the music and not sweating the equipment side of things.

Frap, you are from Mars. But that's OK, so am I. Thanks for a great post.

Hi, Frap: Your thread reinforces a point I have made repeatedly in these forums: that next great upgrade often turns out to be DIFFERENT, not necessarily better, than the unit it replaced. I've tended to stay with good equipment for relatively long time periods, particularly stuff that is made by value-oriented companies such as Vandersteen and Bryston. During the late 1980's, I belonged to Pacific Northwest Audio Club, and was amazed at the "audio paranoia" and "component of the month club" mentality. Ultimately, this hobby comes down to one golden rule: believe your own ears. If you can't hear the difference between the old and new unit, or you can't tell if one is better than the other, then stick with what you have -- no matter what the audiophobes or high-end mags say!!

Sdcampbell:

I subscribed to Audio for over 30 years they went out of business and was replaced by sound and vision; terrible magazine. So I replaced it with Stereophile and Absolute Sound; these are also terrible but in a different way. EVERYTHING sounds better than the previous model. You can see the crescendo building concerning the Wisdom/cj/VTL setup in HPs listening room.In a year it will be the Avant Garde Trios with Wavelength Napoleons. The ARC RefTwo preamp is only 10k but the cj ART is 16K. I betcha the house within two years ARC will have the super REF and it will cost 20k.
I do not know when the hype about amps will end. As I have
stated before I went to my local audio store were I auditioned Spectral/Classe electronics;Avalon, MartinLogan,
and Magnepan speakers. The differences between them
and my 15 year system was not as great as I expected. The
new models were not significantly better than 15 year old
models. The upshot: if your satisfied with your system
buy more music!!! Even better: buy season tickets to your
local symphony orchestra or opera company.

Just think how your hearing has deteriorated over those 30 years! The moral of the story: buy some classic stuff like
Frap and live with it! After 30 years, there may be better stuff out there, but will you still be able to hear the difference?! If so, by then your old stuff will be worth $$$!