2. amps-preamps
  3. 1183336650

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

Showing 1 response by cdc

cdc
1,865 posts
 
"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.
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