Curiosity is Dangerous

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This could be dangerous . . .

At my job, and after a long time, all eligible non-represented career and salary employees are receiving a raise: a 4% increase, effective with the latest paycheck (yesterday). The raise is supposedly retroactive to January 2013, and a lump-sum check for that would be coming separately.

I had to suppress an immediate urge to buy something. But it does make my internal "discussions" about equipment more interesting. I plan to increase my 401k by 1% and add 1% to my monthly church envelope, then we'll see what happens after that. But this puts a new spin on my curiosity about certain products I've been interested in. Some of them may be a bit more feasible now, though caution is still key. But this check had 6.75 hours of overtime in it, so I'd like to see a "regular" check before I get too carried away.

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Originally Posted by Formerly YB-2

Maybe I can help by taking that HW-19 off your hands. Have always regretted selling mine those many years ago.

I never responded to this. I have to decide what I want to do there as well. There's a lot of buzz around the Classic III; several rooms at the NYAS used the Classic III in their setups. Even the Classic I looks good. There was a guy there in the VPI room who had just bought a Classic I and really liked it. The upcoming Prime is only $500 more than the Classic I, though the design is different. But there are other curiosities beyond a turntable. The main ones are speakers and the upcoming Pioneer Elite BDP-88FD.

By the way, if I went to another speaker, say, the Model T which goes down to 25Hz, versus my Mirages, which go to 30Hz, what do I gain with the additional 5Hz, putting aside the sonic characteristics of each speaker and dealing rather with theoretical or practical differences between 25Hz bass and 30Hz bass?

[Still-One]

My guess you will the 5Hz difference will mean very little. The entire speaker design differences will have a much greater overall impact If there is a difference in the bass it might be just a bit more solidity to the sound.

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Originally Posted by Still-One

My guess you will the 5Hz difference will mean very little. The entire speaker design differences will have a much greater overall impact If there is a difference in the bass it might be just a bit more solidity to the sound.

I was thinking that, other than any notes which fall within that 5Hz window, there might not be a lot of difference. Maybe the bass would be a bit cleaner or tighter? And if I wanted a noticeable difference I might have to go at least another 5Hz down, which is Legacy Focus SE territory. But they're over $4K more than the Brystons and heavier, about the same weight as my Mirages. This is a 14 x 18.5 room, and I wonder if 20Hz is overkill here. I at least got to hear them for the first time in the Audio Classics room at the NYAS, with a C2300 (stock tubes, I think) and AC's own tube amp, the new ACL 9B (KT88 version, 80wpc at 8 ohms). Sources were VPI Classic III (them again) and the MCD500. Had I thought of it, I would have taken a CD with me, one of my go-to audition discs; perhaps they took requests.

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This past Saturday night I attended a Jazz at Lincoln Center concert, Basie & the Blues, led by Eric Reed and featuring a set of songs done by Basie but with a 5-piece combo and two vocalists rather than an orchestra. The show took place in JALC's Appel Room. The show was awesome, and the two vocalists, Kenny Washington and Brianna Thomas, were excellent. Everyone involved had a feel for the blues, and the program featured a range of tempos. Mr. Washington's range exceeds four octaves!

At one point during the program, I caught myself wondering how this would sound on my system. If I had a recording of the show, how close would I get to the sound I was hearing? Would it sound close enough to be satisfactory? Perhaps I should pull out sone well-recorded live material to play, and see what that does for me. Curiosity strikes again.

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Interesting how perspectives change. I was away for the holidays, and by the time I came back, most of the "curiosity" had faded. I don't have any significant urge to replace anything, I like what I have (even if my schedule makes real listening/viewing sessions difficult to come by), and want to enjoy it. I am helping an acquaintance of long standing who's in a bit of financial struggle, which ends any upgrade urges for the foreseeable future, anyway. I go through my TAS magazines and Audio Advisor catalogs with no voices in my head saying "get that" or "investigate that piece." This is a good spot. I may still tweak a power cord or two, but I seem to be good. Who'd have thought it? I don't know how long it lasts, but I'm good for now.

[skreich]

Although intuition would suggest that attending audio shows will fan the flames of new equipment curiosity, I've found the opposite to be true, at least lately. I've attended the last two NY Audio Shows, and possibly because hotel rooms hastily set up as audio listening rooms often sound so awful, I come home from the shows, turn on my system, and am very satisfied with the way it sounds, often in preference to systems heard at the show that cost magnitudes more than mine. It's a great feeling......sitting back and listening to music and being grateful that I have the system I have and have no desire to change out any of my equipment.......unfortunately, it doesn't last long enough.

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Originally Posted by skreich

Although intuition would suggest that attending audio shows will fan the flames of new equipment curiosity, I've found the opposite to be true, at least lately. I've attended the last two NY Audio Shows, and possibly because hotel rooms hastily set up as audio listening rooms often sound so awful, I come home from the shows, turn on my system, and am very satisfied with the way it sounds, often in preference to systems heard at the show that cost magnitudes more than mine. It's a great feeling......sitting back and listening to music and being grateful that I have the system I have and have no desire to change out any of my equipment.......unfortunately, it doesn't last long enough.

What, do you think, is responsible for changing your perspective so the non-desire doesn't stick around?

You're right about playing your system. I have found that to be a decent cure in the past myself. It also helps to not try comparing the sounds at the show and from your system, I think. The September NY show was my first one ever, and I thought it was fun. I was stoked about several items I saw/heard, but not so much now. Reality has a way of setting in, and there are practical considerations as well as financial ones which can blunt the urge. It also helped to have a 2-week break from all of it to realign perspective.

Desire and ability must meet, I think. I don't have financial ability right now, what with helping the aforementioned acquaintance. I was hit smack between the eyes the other day with a Legacy Audio ad in the March TAS which featured a beautiful photo of a pair of Aeris speakers, with a mention of the Focus SEs. It elicited no lust, only an inner acknowledgement that I like the Focus SEs. I like the Aeris sound a bit more actually, but am not partial to powered speakers and could never afford the Aeris anyway. At this point I don't know how much my perspective would be altered if I had the money to make the equipment changes contemplated earlier; not much, I hope.

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I've been trying to coax greater fullness and dynamics out of my system since the C2300 arrived. I haven't thought that it was as dynamic on the video side as the solid-state ARC LS3 it replaced (though it does nice things the LS3 doesn't); I've even considered replacing the 2300 with a C48. An interconnect switch gave me a pleasant surprise, as going back to my Kimber Hero on the BD player yielded a pleasant increase in the fullness of the sound, in combo with the NP Mullards in the 2300. Maybe still not the punch of solid state, but clear improvement over the AQ King Cobra I was using, which replaced the Hero at first.

Now, I get an e-mail from Transparent Audio regarding opportunities to audition an all-Transparent setup. I read the copy describing the MusicLink Plus interconnects in particular, and note MLP is supposed to be strong in lower frequencies, and the wheels are churning . . .

I have the means to make a direct comparison, as there's a pair of MLP at my pre/power connection. I can swap them out with the Hero and see if things improve further with my BD player. This could be dangerous. Has anyone here ever compared these two interconnects?

[Haurock]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

This must be the end of the rainbow.....

Never get tired of seeing that... awesome...