Lost in the details

[George Prentice]

I have spent the last fifty years slowly learning, earning, and building my audio system. I loved the outcome and process. I upgraded to what I thought was to be my ultimate system about eight years ago with an ARC Ref 5se preamp, Sim 650 DAC with outboard power supply, Pass x350 amp and Sonus Faber Olympica 3 speakers, VPI TT and a couple subs. I did this while still working, in advance of retirement. It sounded fantastic. I have an incredibly good sounding audio room (lucky not good). It was good at all sorts of music.

Throughout the process of building over the years, details, tonal balance, midrange, imaging, rhythm and pace, etc.… I took into account. For much of my life I had ribbon speakers of some kind but I was careful to built a system that was not too far into the detailed end so half my recordings sounded bad… however, they imaged the soundstage very accurately. I could easily hear the venues. They were also musical and believable. I have had season tickets (row 8 center) to the Oregon Symphony for nearly the last decade. It has a surprisingly outstanding orchestra and hall.

On my quest for my system, I occasionally would hear an incredibly musical system. One that would just pull at my emotional core and involve me in the music. These were inevitably tube systems. Usually the emotion came with an incredible loss of detail. Sometimes I would hear incredibly detailed… natural with great slam… but usually lacked in the emotional draw.

I found my system found a great balance to all the different aspects. I tried and quit streaming… then tried again and upgraded to an Aurender WE20se… that incredible piece of equipment changed everything and caused a cascade of upgrades… see my signature line.

While auditioning the ARC REF160s my audio guy brought over a ARC REF CD/DAC. I did not want to try it… I was not interested. But he had brought it over, I respect him, we have had a relationship for twenty years. Within two minutes I had sent him a message to order me one. I really did not have the money… I then upgraded all my interconnects to Transparent Ultra. Wholly cow.

So, the reference system is gone. Now I have a 100% music system (funny it is a known thing: All Audio Research, Sonus Faber, Transparent interconnections). It has the heart and soul of those incredibly emotional tube systems I heard but with all the detail, silent background, and imaging. I am completely captivated. But it is making me rethink the approach I had taken to get here. I just wonder when one triggers the "evaluate… analytical" process in our brains it jumps on the easily distinguishable parameters… details, slam, stuff that really should be secondary thoughts not primary. I know some folks start looking for musical first… but I am pretty sure that is the minority. Most of us are pretty analytical. I am not sure that sometimes we get waylaid by details that are really not important. My system does not have the slam, the vivid edges of the sound stage, the micro structures of the edges of instrument sounds, but it has better bass, and the emotional pull of incredible rhythm and pace. It does not make poorly albums sound bad… but just plays the music and draws me in and makes the experience amazing. I can't help but thinking if I had taken a turn towards smaller scale musical system 35 years ago, and built up from that side of the equation I would not have gotten here much quicker. But, then, I really did enjoy the journey.