Hi y'all, just a little light hearted thread. I tend to pontificate a bit about my journey, but since I've made some wrong assumptions, and taken some obvious things for granted, when I get it right despite previous left turns, I'm always particularly relieved.
22 years into the system building hobby, and I'm really really happy w what I'm achieving, despite making some serious errors along the way. The idea of this thread I guess is for others to discuss their dead ends and reverse directions, and how, if at all, they were addressed for the better.
My first big lesson was absolutely dismissing the critical nature of acoustics and the listening space itself. I used to live in what I now know to have been a truly awful acoustic, harsh and reflective, defeating any meaningful deep bass, imaging and micro dynamics. Because I had no comparison to an excellent acoustic, I tended to dismiss all comments of my compromised SQ. Indeed our resident commentator Ked was scathing, and things weren't much more positive from my dear friend Barry/Blue58 who never lost his frown while he endured music at my old place. Things were not helped when rooms I visited that were comprehensively treated always felt too dead and dry.
It took the move to my new place and $50k spent on a moderately treated dedicated space w hugely superior acoustics for me to readily admit my acceptance of previously poor SQ was bad form on my part.
Now, I'm obsessed w how much of a neutral open canvas improved acoustics provides, and every subsequent step I've made here, from balanced power/dedicated lines, to investment in fantastic cables, to speaker positioning etc, has proven to be markedly audible.
My second major admission is one I'm much more culpable on, and that is my poor previous attention to analog setup. I'd always winged it here a bit, and no wonder my digital came to sound better than my vinyl. It took a busted stylus, replacement install, and Audiophile Bill to coach me thru the finer points. Now, together w exemplary isolation, my analog is absolutely compelling, and I can't thank Bill enough for putting me right.
A couple of other areas I'll discuss later, but that's me for starters. Over to others, if they're prepared to confess.
22 years into the system building hobby, and I'm really really happy w what I'm achieving, despite making some serious errors along the way. The idea of this thread I guess is for others to discuss their dead ends and reverse directions, and how, if at all, they were addressed for the better.
My first big lesson was absolutely dismissing the critical nature of acoustics and the listening space itself. I used to live in what I now know to have been a truly awful acoustic, harsh and reflective, defeating any meaningful deep bass, imaging and micro dynamics. Because I had no comparison to an excellent acoustic, I tended to dismiss all comments of my compromised SQ. Indeed our resident commentator Ked was scathing, and things weren't much more positive from my dear friend Barry/Blue58 who never lost his frown while he endured music at my old place. Things were not helped when rooms I visited that were comprehensively treated always felt too dead and dry.
It took the move to my new place and $50k spent on a moderately treated dedicated space w hugely superior acoustics for me to readily admit my acceptance of previously poor SQ was bad form on my part.
Now, I'm obsessed w how much of a neutral open canvas improved acoustics provides, and every subsequent step I've made here, from balanced power/dedicated lines, to investment in fantastic cables, to speaker positioning etc, has proven to be markedly audible.
My second major admission is one I'm much more culpable on, and that is my poor previous attention to analog setup. I'd always winged it here a bit, and no wonder my digital came to sound better than my vinyl. It took a busted stylus, replacement install, and Audiophile Bill to coach me thru the finer points. Now, together w exemplary isolation, my analog is absolutely compelling, and I can't thank Bill enough for putting me right.
A couple of other areas I'll discuss later, but that's me for starters. Over to others, if they're prepared to confess.
