[George Prentice]

Thank you for sharing your journey. Mine has been over a period of fifty years. Early on scraping together the best used equipment I could. My system would occationally venture too far to the detailed and harsh side. I learned to walk the line. I have always loved the look of MacIntosh and every five years went in with the intent to buy a piece. That would be dashed in seconds by the lack of detail. Great muscle equipment. I completely understand the kind of person that would want to own it.

I have owned Threshold, Pass amps and preamps primarily. Over time each time I would acquire an Audio Research piece of equipment, it would stick and that slot would become ARC then upgraded. The first was my phono stage 35 years ago. Then my preamp became ARC. I had SIM Moon, and VPI for a decade or two. Then over the last few years I switched my amp to ARC and finally my DAC. The last two were so synergistic I was simply shocked. The system I have now sounds exactly what I have wanted my system to sound like for the last couple decades (as I learn enough to know what I really wanted). I use a Koetsu Rosewood Signature… btw.

So, I got here from heterogeneous components. High end companies have house sounds… Mac, B&W, Boulder, ARC, Pass has two… etc. My theory is that typically if you are in alignment with the house sound of a company (ARC and I have been on the same trajectory since the beginning) then the same company’s components are typically going to bring significant synergy.

My way of explaining it to myself… I have no idea if this is true. Assume component one is a tad warm (could be many different parameters), the second cool (so there is a little subtraction), the third a bit warm (additional subtraction). But all the components of a single company are tuned the same… no subtraction.