Anybody tried this ?


I am in the midst of revamping my systems.
In the process I stumbled across a nice improvement to my existing gear quite by luck.
I have Meadowlark Heron i speakers,a tube integrated amp(soon to be a Cary 300sei)and some home theater gear that was sitting idle along with some power cord and IC from Shunyata.
Now what I did was run a Y cord out of my cd player into the tube integrated and another pair of IC from the cd player into an EAD Encore, Powermaster 500 combo.
I have the tubes running the top end of the Herons and the solid state EAD running the bottom.The Meadowlarks have separate low and mid/tweeter terminals.
This is the best sound I have ever got from the Herons, and I have abandoned my quest for replacement speakers.
When the 300sei is put into the system,I think I will have a poor man's Aurum Acoustic system, the sound of which is in the top five best sounding systems I have heard.
But I am not fooling myself or anyonelse by claiming my set up is just as good.But... it is so much better than it ever was, I have lost the desire to make any further improvements.What I felt was lacking in the sound of my system has been eliminated.I now have much more control of the mid and woofer sections and can adjust each volume individually and from cd to cd if I want.No more over blown or under nourished bass.
Has anyone done anything similar ,and achieved the same improvments?
I can see using a couple of small integrated amps in a similar fashion. In my mind, the separate volume control function in this kind of set up is the icing on the cake and betters the old single pre amp to mono block or using an integrated amps pre to drive the power section and another external amp.You have volume control over top and bottom sections of your speakers if they are bi- ampable.
And to think I had most of this stuff up for sale.Goes to show you never really know how much good stuff you have that is just sitting there collecting dust.
lacee
Give it some time and the upgrade virus will return.

Your system will sound great and then you will read a review or see an item or talk to someone or hear a piece at a store and wonder if ...

Find other audidiots in your area and listen to different components to see how your gear stacks up (pun intentional), then spend countless sums chasing the that elusive sound like the rest of us.
Or, you could say, hey, this is it and listen to music from now on. (Easier said than done, unfortunately, since this is the supposed goal of this hobby).
or you could say, live music sounds so much better than any stereo, i will go out to hear live music (unamplified, preferably) and not be so concerned about a stereo system.
Well my problem is that I go out and play live music.
Been doing so for 40 years.
I have friends with CAT + Soundlab ultimate ones, Sonus Strad. nagra gear, you get the picture?
I am no newbie ( 30 + yrs in this hobby) when it comes to live versus reproduced sound and perhaps because of my background I am very sensitive to systems that try too hard( you know the usual suspects that do the most advertising in the audio rags).
I have had the Meadowlarks for a number of years and have powered them with everything from an ancient 18 watt push pull tube integrated to mono block 400 Classe amps and middle power solid state and tube in between.
I have used bi wires, and single runs and jumpers and I have to say that the latest set up is by far the best yet.
My audio friends have never heard the Herons sound as good either.
well lacee, you realize that live music sounds real and stereos don't. why is it that so many musicians have, by certain standards, inferior sounding stereo systems ?

they certainly have a better idea than most of us what an instrument sounds like, especially, the one they play.
"Most great ideas are found in the competitor's trash bin"
I always liked that quote.
IMHO many hi-end stereos are voiced to produce dissatisfaction by emphasizing one certain aspect to the detriment of others. Most hi-end stuff does something to the sound in an effort to produce better-than-reality-sound. Eventually this artificiality becomes obvious then it's off to another system and another type of distortion. An evil plot? Probably not as it keeps people on the "upgrade path" which is what the modern audiophile by definition is. Then people wonder, gee, why is 2 channel audio dying?
A couple questions:
1) why does an upgrade always have to cost MORE money? If you're not happy with the stereo?
2) why do you always have to spend MORE if you're not happy with your current system?
These rules of thumb are never questioned, why not?

Don't mind me, just some holiday ramblings.
CDC,

Nice post! Some wisdom there, Grasshopper!

I agree about the "voiced to produce dissatisfaction by emphasizing one certain aspect to the detriment of others" ...the trouble is most people buy based on a demo and the demo lasts rarely more than half an hour.....this is not long enough to tire of the deliberate coloration in most gear...
"this is not long enough to tire of the deliberate coloration in most gear..."

or lack of coloration...

It ALL sounds old after we habituate...