Preamp Deal of the Century

I just wanted to respond to the well intended comments Stevem1960, who says, "...Opus88 describes the sound of horns...with emphasized upper mids on his Cortese. I would have thought this is how horns are *supposed* to sound.....It is feasible that you are actually hearing for the first time how these instruments *should* sound...and perhaps you are being unnerved by the experience ? " Unnerved ? Yes, that is true. How horns are supposed to sound ? You are partially correct. Horns are certainly capable of producing strident sounds when called for, however, I have been hearing blare at times in passages where I have never heard it in the same passages of these compositions performed live in symphony concerts. I also have heard these passages reproduced in my component system, prior to the introduction of the Cortese, WITHOUT the "supposed to sound" glare. I've heard horns and massed strings sound urgent, vibrant, assertive, ambient AND wonderfully musical and naturally flowing all at the same time. I was able to relax while simultaneously enjoying impressively dynamic and electrically alive transients, sometimes projected with a stunning sense of grandeur. I had that kind of musical reproduction in my sound system a number of years back, then lost it. I'm confident I will get it back again, and WITH the Cortese. A paradigm shift, in the usual sense, is not going to correct the issue I am dealing with, and I certainly will not tell myself that I need to change what my own ears are telling me. Maril555's point about trying to convince himself "...that what I was hearing is the way actual instruments should sound like...But at times it simply was 'too much'" is understood very well by me. Sometimes we lose sight of the fact that all recorded music is made possible by the utilization of a vast array of electronic equipment---capacitors, resistors, wires, etc., not to mention the manipulations by sound engineers during that recording process. AFTER all that, our home or studio components take over the job. Under such circumstances, neutrality or "correct" sound possibly might be somewhat illusive. And finally, there's the listener's own subjective preferences in terms of how HE wants the illusion of live music presented to him in his living or sound room. I hope I may regain the kind of illusion that pleases me.

Well said Opus88, a good description of the varying nature of recorded music vs. live performances. Sometimes I just can't understand what's going on in my system, it can be spot on one minute and then you fiddle with something and that illusive 'real' quality is gone - best not to fiddle when you feel the magic is in place!

My current pet annoyance is that no matter what I do, my humble $100 Marantz analogue FM tuner sounds nicer (more natural to my ears) than my $5,000 CD replay system with $2,000 worth of fancy cables attached to it. This shouldn't be the case when most audiophiles consider tuners (with their limited bandwidth) to be a secondary source?

With home audio its best to savour the good moments while they last and try to ignore irksome (perceived) problems ...hard to do I know, because of our pedantic male driven audiophile tendancies. Other than that, perhaps we just need to go see more live performances to remain grounded.

Regards,

Steve.

04-02-07: Stevem1960
My current pet annoyance is that no matter what I do, my humble $100 Marantz analogue FM tuner sounds nicer (more natural to my ears) than my $5,000 CD replay system with $2,000 worth of fancy cables attached to it.

Ditto my vintage 1992 Yamaha cassette deck.

Stevem1960: Some of your last comments certainly are refreshing. Your reference to the sound of the little Marantz in comparison to the $5000 cd replay system and the $2000 worth of fancy cables probably strikes the kind of chord that sounds familiar to a number of others out there. ( I just noticed Tvad's admission, for example.) I also feel it sort of mirrors one of my recent comments (3-26) about objective data or numbers sometimes proving to be irrelevant in terms of what we are led to expect or believe vs. what we actually get. And yes, sometimes things do sound just right, but then that can't leave well enough alone tendency rears its ugly head. That's part of the explanation of how or why I lost what I once had. Oh well, back to the quest for peace of mind sound.

Tvad: I know the feeling with tape recorders, they're an excellent medium. I use to transfer my CDs onto Nakamichi tape decks or a nice Pioneer RT-909 reel-to-reel (Mick's got that machine now) and the results were superb! Kind of like the music got 'analogued' along the way...all for the better. I think the same thing is happening with FM's treatment of CD sound, that's why it sounds nicer.

There's no doubting CD's convenience and generally competent sound, so that's the medium for most of us I suppose.

Opus88: Isn't it ironic that we are being sold more and more technology these days, on the basis of number crunching creates better sound(all at high cost), but in all honesty the truth and beauty of music seems to be locked up in the old mediums like the ancient thermionic bottles we all like (a la tube devices like Supratek); analogue tape or vinyl & to a lesser extent FM transmission; good ol' Class A amplification is still hard to beat and electrostatic loudspeakers are still a reference point. Even some of the old point source loudspeakers like the Goodmans Axiom 80 and Coral Beta 10 (now some 30yrs old) are still unsurpassed.

When you've been doing hi-fi for a few decades, it seems to be a common thing amongst older audiophiles that life goes full circle. Some of the good things you heard are still good. I've tried a lot good gear over the years from valves to digital amps, from Accutons to ribbons etc. and the older stuff still competes (and exceeds) in a lot of areas. Its not nostalgia or your imagination either - it just is.

The high cost of Hi-Fi is hard to justify. Non-audiophiles must think we are MAD spending the dollars we do on equipment, for little improvement. I almost puke(Aussie slang for vomit) when I pick up a copy of Hi-Fi+ magazine these days. Don't get me wrong, this is a good magazine displaying dream-like thoroughbred equipment, but come on, you've gotta be kidding! There are small amplifiers with a toroidal transformer and a few circuit boards in that magazine that cost as much as my new Subaru Outback H6 SUV (bristling with the latest technology and a 180kW hi-tech motor), there's just no comparison for value, and they have the cheek to call the amplifier 'a bargain' at $50,000!

Anyway, time for me to go back to listening to some cool music with the mantra ...'I am happy with what I've got' ...'I am happy with what I've got' ...

Cheers,

Steve.