SOS: Can't find any system that sounds as good as my current one from 2000. How can this be / what am I doing wrong?

SwedishChef

SwedishChef

Junior Audioholic
I think psychology, habit, and preference can play a big role. Many years ago I got on a "detail kick" and was pursuing the most detail I could get in sound, particularly with headphones. I wanted to be able to count the number of skin cells someone was sloughing off as their fingers slid over the strings. I wanted to hear what the singer ate for lunch.

Not only is there a limit to this, of course, but I reached a point where it began to impair my enjoyment of the music. I listened too loud. I listened to very bright speakers and headphones that emphasized high frequencies. This did reveal more detail compared to other equipment but was really fatiguing, leant an unnatural character to instruments and voices, and ended up being less enjoyable.

Later I tried to pay attention to the naturalness of the overall sound, not just how many tiny details I could pick out. I ended up less tired, and enjoyed the music more. That's when I discovered I had come to consistently prefer speakers that also were reported as measuring pretty flat, even though I was giving up some detail.

In another case, more recently, I'd been running my home theater receiver with Dynamic EQ off. As a "purist," I presumed I'd just be annoyed by any "weird tweaks" to the sound. But something I read last month made me decide to play with it. I often listen at -36 to -40 db at night and at those levels the bass is just GONE - entirely missing. Dynamic EQ brings it back, while the overall sound remains pretty quiet, and I found I actually prefer it most cases, and have been leaving it on. Purity be damned. (Until it's time for serious 2 channel music listening, and then it's Pure Direct or another system :) .)

Perhaps you can use this situation to play and explore? View it as a game, rather than a repair. Try some different things and see what else you might like, or might learn to like. But in the end, if you prefer a particular sound, or don't end up caring much about some things other think are "critical in sound reproduction," I say go with what you enjoy.

Sorry I don't really have suggestions about how to recreate "your sound," but I hope my story might make it easier to view the process as exploratory and fun, rather than stressful. (Buying an extra one as a backup is so me - I laughed at that one. I have a few of those.)
 
SwedishChef

SwedishChef

Junior Audioholic
Oh, and I think there are amps that still have bass boost. The PS Audio Sprout (haven't heard it) defaults to it on, I think, the NAD D3020 v2 (now being replaced, I think, and I can't recommend it), even the Outlaw Audio RR2160 has an option for it, and has tone controls as well. Or you could look at the Schiit Loki. But any of those is going to cost more and be a different system.

Although many home theater receivers include various EQ modes and can apply many of them to stereo, so you could play with that, as well.
 
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