Bypass preamp, better sound, yet fatiguing?

My hunch is you have several issues here;

1. You make no mention of line conditioning. If you were to install proper line conditioners, then not only will your enhanced detail become even more enhanced, pristine, and musical but you will notice that the listener fatigue should go away instantly. Everybody has dirty AC coming in from the street and everybody will benefit from proper line conditioning. Furthermore, if your source is digital, then your digital source is inducing a bi-directional digital noise back into the AC for the other components to pick up. So any line conditioners you were to consider should also be capable of bi-directional filtering.

2. Your ics and scs may be inducing a certain amount of time smear that leads to grainy or hash ear-fatiguing sound in the highs and an ill-defined bass in the bottom end. This is a very common problem among scs and ics but I cannot speak specifically about the Transparent lineup.

3. It sounds as though your preamp is a bit subdued in the detail department and is thus masking not only the detail but also some of the detriments of a system not using proper line conditioning.

I'd guess that lack of proper line conditioning is by far your biggest problem, then your preamp, and possibly your scs and ics.

Furthermore, I'd guess that if you borrowed the appropriate line-conditioners (not all are worth owning), not only will you be enjoying your system's sonics far more, but you'll probably sell your preamp (which would help pay for the line conditioners).

-IMO

Hgabert, I need to be careful here as I very recently became a dealer which included becoming a dealer for the Foundation Research passive and dedicated line conditioners.

I should also note that I've been using the Foundation Research line conditioners for almost 5 years now and wrote several reviews here on these products years before I became a dealer.

I could be very specific about the line conditioner you mentioned based on my personal experience at a customer's home (If you email me, I'll provide you the gentleman's email address so you can discuss with him.)

Rather I will simply reiterate my statement in my previous post where I stated, "proper line conditioning."

Your sonics did not improve so much because of the dedicated lines because, like everybody, your AC from the street is going to be just about as dirty as everyone else's AC.

The dedicated lines would no doubt offer your amp greater dynamics and may have helped tame some AC noise generated from inside your home by appliances and dimmers now on other circuits but they do nothing to treat the worst AC noise which comes from the pole outside.

So if the dedicated lines were not the reason for the improvement, then there is still another reason for the improvement you claim.

Don't get me wrong here as I'm not trying to sell you anything. Except perhaps the thought that not all line conditioners are created equally. Line conditioners, like any other component, will run the whole gamut.

There are line conditioners that induce sonic harm, there are those that rob an amplifier of needed current and thus strip away the dynamics, there are those that do little or nothing, there are those that provide any combination thereof, and then there are those that induce no sonic harm at all while providing tremendous musical benefit.

Foundation Research products are the best I know but they certainly not alone in this regard.

Regarding your question about the preamp, like I said in my previous post, my hunch is that your preamp is lacking in the detail department. That's why you hear greater detail when it is removed. At the same time, the preamp is probably also masking the higher noise-floor, digital hash, and lack of properly treated AC at the same time.

My only advise here is keep the dedicated lines as they definitely have their place in a system. But keep experimenting with different line conditioners. You'll know when you've found the right ones for your system.

-IMO

Hgabert,

Maybe I interpreted your original post incorrectly. You stated that without the preamp you are experiencing greater detail.

But is it possible that you are using the term fatiguing when perhaps boring could be more appropriate?

Generally, fatiguing occurs with ears bleeding, overly bright, or beaming, or anything else that causes the ear to dodge certain sounds or frequencies.

Boring is like elevator music where it may seem soothing and pleasing at first but after a time, the lack of dynamics tends to make one fall asleep?

-IMO

Jsadurni, I wasn't necessarily making a statement in my last post. I was really seeking clarification on his use of the term fatiguing by asking Hgabert a question.

But if we're talking a truly ear-fatiguing sound that can cause the 'ears to bleed', then (assuming the tweeters are of good quality), in my experience the biggest culprit by far is improper or no line conditioning and secondly ics and scs that induce much time-smear causing a digital-like grain or hash in the highs and a bloated, ill-defined bass.

Since you say you are experiencing this ear-bleeding problem, would you care to share what line conditioners, ics, and scs you are using?

-IMO

Jsadurni, it appears that you like to tweak quite a bit and that's good.

However, from where I sit (in Salem, OR), it's difficult for me to see if you have any serious benchmarks in which to compare your tweaks.

I've heard one very authoritative source state that isolation transformers have their own pitfalls and in general are no match for excellent line conditioners. But I'm out of my league as to the whys and wherefors. The fact that you seemed to experience some positive benefits by plugging straight into the wall would seem to substantiate such claims. The other problem is finding line conditioners worth owning that do not induce their own sonic harm. In my experience the most popular brands actually sound worse than plugging straight into the wall.

As for the ics and scs, I'd highly recommend acquiring some Speltz anti-cables and anti-ics. Speltz' anti-cable speaker cables cost $10 per foot, the anti-ics cost $100 for 1m pair and are the second best cables I've yet heard. Moreover they require essentially only a few hours burn-in time and they come with a 30-day satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.

These should give you some good benchmarks for your other cables and they induce little to no time-smear. You probably are aware that some to many ics and scs induce much time smear which in the highs produces a digital-like noise or hash and induce much ear fatigue. Time-smear in the lower bass regions simply make the bass sound wooly, loose, bloated, ill-defined, etc.. Anyway, the Speltz' cables absolutely minimize all of these ill affects and when the anti-cables are elevated at least 1 or 2 inches off the carpet, they will sound even more pristine and with greater speed.

In my experience and almost without exception silver cables/ics without the best line conditioning simply accentuate any fatigue already present. And that's assuming the silver ics/cables offer good sonics to start because there's plenty of poorly designed silver ics just as there are copper.

-IMO