How's does Spectral compare to Soulution ? Sound wise
- Thread starter Mdp632
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One way to put it is Spectral is more "neutral" while Soulution is "sweeter". If you are philosophically inclined toward "neutrality", go Spectral.
i don't think i understand what 'neutral' is. does that mean it plays exactly what is on the source? if that is the case it is impossible to do that as every component has a sound whether you think they do or not ... and i am not even getting into how the source material was recorded and with what equipment. assuming you can have a speaker and amp and pre amp and source with no sound is that what one would consider "neutral?" i wonder if i am missing the boat by building a system based on what my big ears like to hear ... ?
To me personally I would describe "neutral" as nothing added and or nothing subtracted. The first time I heard a Magico/Spectral combo on a demo with a friend who was interested. His comments were this is "too analytical and soulless for me" I said nope its neutral to me. I guess he liked the sound of tubes and colored speakers. To each their own.
I like the sound of tubes too, but I had the Spectral DMC-15 SS/DMA 260 combo at home for audition and the tonal balance of it was practically the same on my speakers as that of my tube amps (which apparently means that these are 'neutral'). Every time I have heard Spectral it sounded incredibly engaging and exciting to me. Soulless and analytical? No idea what people are talking about.
that is a nice thought but i don't know how that is possible. would you rather sit in front of a hifi or the actual performance?
I don't understand neutral as being absolute but rather more general and holistic a trait. It doesn't exactly translate as absolutely transparent... which is a bit more of an unobtainium a quality. In my understanding it just rather that the component doesn't really alter the system's overall balance and essential sonic character in any more obvious ways. The component that is neutral has a signature that is less overtly recognisable. It might add distortion but it is just more even handed in its distortion. It tends to be coherent and the overall quality would be neither noticeably cool nor warm or vary much from bottom to top and comes through as a trait that you can recognise when listening to that component and swapping other components that clearly do have a recognisable signature and that the gear that is not neutral is always recognisable as truer to itself. Eg a neutral amp and speaker combination lets you hear the differences in all the other gear much more easily and clearly because a bit like pure alcohol they don't mix the cocktail of signal traits up when added and when you change other gear in.
Most components have some characterstic that sets them apart from neutrality but yes some components do leave a lot less trace of themselves and certainly don't alter the balance or nature of the total system in any significant way. Relative neutrality amongst more components tends to keep the overall signature of a system a bit less complicated.
Most components have some characterstic that sets them apart from neutrality but yes some components do leave a lot less trace of themselves and certainly don't alter the balance or nature of the total system in any significant way. Relative neutrality amongst more components tends to keep the overall signature of a system a bit less complicated.
that makes sense to me. this notion of a speaker or amp or pre amp or anything for that matter to not have a sound just doesn't make sense. it is impossible. but being able to clearly hear differences does make sense to me. thanks.
Cant comment on Spectral gear since it is not represented in Turkey. But since 5 years I am a very happy and loyal owner of Soulution 700's pre & power combo. I did several auditions vs Soulution combo but nevertheless in all of the cases Soulution was far better on imaging, bass control, really deep black noise floor. I have not come up with any brand that I would say yeah I can now change my Soulution combo yet. So far I have tested Constellation Audio, new Gryphons, Dan D'agositinos, MBLs, Lamm's, Wavac 150pwc mono's. But as I said no idea on Spectral so they might be better or maybe not.
I've heard the combo... and not by any means would I say it over-rided the recording and made it sound "live" on non-live recordings. The pairing seemed to favor hot recordings, almost exclusively. And in no way did I think it was soulless with recordings it liked. Several tracks I heard were very engaging.
Downsides? Well timbre could swing both ways, and the middle of sounds/notes were a little flat. I wouldn't single it out in particular for low color/neutral.
+1
I have no idea what neutrality is
When I can change any aspect of my system and it sounds different
What aspect does the amp convey?
If the playback is seriously flawed well that's not neutral
But at some point variation in system set up outweigh individual components idiosyncratic nature
Maybe this is the neutral point?
For me sounding like real instruments is my goal
To me neutral has a perjorative meaning like grey
It just doesn't sound like a positive attribute
When I get instruments that sound real.. I don't think Wow ..neutral
I go " Wow" music
I have no idea what neutrality is
When I can change any aspect of my system and it sounds different
What aspect does the amp convey?
If the playback is seriously flawed well that's not neutral
But at some point variation in system set up outweigh individual components idiosyncratic nature
Maybe this is the neutral point?
For me sounding like real instruments is my goal
To me neutral has a perjorative meaning like grey
It just doesn't sound like a positive attribute
When I get instruments that sound real.. I don't think Wow ..neutral
I go " Wow" music
I suppose it is a good thing that there is a sameness to the sound of the better ss amps
designs. Boh companies are frequently used as demo amp for some very good speakers. Neither has tube like qualities. I have heard Solutions most recently. Spectral has a longer pedigree.
The conclusion is I don't think you canake a bad choice between the two
Probably not much help.
designs. Boh companies are frequently used as demo amp for some very good speakers. Neither has tube like qualities. I have heard Solutions most recently. Spectral has a longer pedigree.
The conclusion is I don't think you canake a bad choice between the two
Probably not much help.
On the contrary. Neutral allows the colors of real instruments shine through in all their diversity.
A colored system, on the other hand, imbues everything with a sameness of color, on top of the real color. Color is homogenized. Now that's grey.
Neutral is good but,
WOW that sounds uncoloured /natural is better
.
madfloyd should be able to comment , CAT and soulution pretty far apart soundwise i think
WOW that sounds uncoloured /natural is better
.madfloyd should be able to comment , CAT and soulution pretty far apart soundwise i think
They most certainly do, but the OP is asking about Spectral vs Soulution, not CAT vs Soulution
They most certainly do, but the OP is asking about Spectral vs Soulution, not CAT vs Soulution
Thanks for everyone's feedback. Soulution is certainly an amplifier I'd like to hear in a private demo sometime but, alas it's out of my reach to actually purchase. Their new "entry level" stereo amp retails for 35K MSRP
. However, I've heard talk of an "entry level" 3 Series in which an integrated amplifier will be included. I will be listening to the new Spectral DMA-240 amplifier soon. I will report back with my impressions.
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