may i offer a contrarian view: do not listen blind- we don't listen to music with just our ears, but you should trust what you hear, or what you think you hear, even if you know what you're listening to.
a case in point- I recently added a new phono pre to my system, to replace the on built into my amp. i ordered some relatively expensive interconnects to go along with it. from the moment i hooked it up, it just didn't sound right. on one level, bass was overwhelming, something that wasn't a problem with any other source, including the Transporter. music sounded disjointed, a collection of sounds rather than a cohesive performance. i figured both the cables and the phono pre needed time to burn in, so i tried (not very successfully) not to listen critically for a few days. after a while, and out of frustration, i swapped the cables i was using w/ the transporter and the phono. the phono was now much better, if a little warm, and the transporter exhibited some of the same problems i'd heard with the phono, again primarily in the bass region, which was over-emphasized and boomy. So i put the transporter cable back where it was, and hooked up a 3rd manufacturer's cable (that i had sitting around) to the phono. this was a cable i bought a while back to use in an HT system, but had found it too lean, not to say bright. with the phono however, it was now just about right, with good depth and space, natural instrumental timbres, if still a little bass shy. My dealer had a deal on the same manufacturers current step-up cable, the price was identical to the first cable i tried, so i ordered a pair, and BINGO! everything popped into place- bass was now perfect, and the transparency i'd heard with the older cable was still present. so, in each case i heard clear differences, and ended up preferring a cable from a manufacturer i'd not been previously disposed to like. for the record, and in no particular order, the cables were made by WireWorld, Nordost, and AudioQuest. -- 4 TB Drobo-->FW 800-->mac mini-->Ethernet Transporter--> Wireworld Eclipse 6 coax-->Meridian G61 G61--> Nordost Red Dawn-->Primare 30.3 Primare-->Ocos--Vienna Acoustics Beethoven/Maestro ------------------------------------------------------------------------ netchord's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=21002 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=102596 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
