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 lacee

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.