2. amps-preamps
  3. 985572944

Changing Amps?? Are you Sure??

All frustrated audiophiles out there,should heed this warning: stay with your amplifier if it sounds right to you.
I have wasted more money in the last 30 years, listening to the advice of the alternative press. You read "This amp is great, it does everything right". Then a year later, its not on the recommended component lists anymore. Listen people, if an amp is great, its great!! The fact is there are not that many good ones around. It has to be that many of the amps they recommended as great, really were not. They did not survive the test of time, not even a year.The Audio Research SP-11 preamp was just such a product.
Funny , when I sold my Audio Research D-150 amp(1976),to upgrade to the newer models, it was never quite right again. On and on went the upgrades into the hybrids, to the all fet input stages, only to finally return to my D-150 22 years later...mated to my quads. 22 years of wasted money. Anyone else go through this sort of thing? or am I from MARS
frap

Showing 2 responses by shubertmaniac

shubertmaniac
350 posts
 
After following Audiogon for awhile, I got the bug to upgrade my current system(includes mid 80s ARC and Spectral). I visited my local high end dealer who carries
Maggie 3.6s, Martin Logan Prodigies along with Spectral
and Classe electronics. After three hours of intensive listening my wife(the golder ear of the family) and I
left. We went to dinner to discuss our findings. There were
some improvements but NOT enough to spend big$$$$. Since we
were not going to spend the money on hifi we ordered
a really nice 1990 Chateau Latour instead.
shubertmaniac
350 posts
 
Sdcampbell:

I subscribed to Audio for over 30 years they went out of business and was replaced by sound and vision; terrible magazine. So I replaced it with Stereophile and Absolute Sound; these are also terrible but in a different way. EVERYTHING sounds better than the previous model. You can see the crescendo building concerning the Wisdom/cj/VTL setup in HPs listening room.In a year it will be the Avant Garde Trios with Wavelength Napoleons. The ARC RefTwo preamp is only 10k but the cj ART is 16K. I betcha the house within two years ARC will have the super REF and it will cost 20k.
I do not know when the hype about amps will end. As I have
stated before I went to my local audio store were I auditioned Spectral/Classe electronics;Avalon, MartinLogan,
and Magnepan speakers. The differences between them
and my 15 year system was not as great as I expected. The
new models were not significantly better than 15 year old
models. The upshot: if your satisfied with your system
buy more music!!! Even better: buy season tickets to your
local symphony orchestra or opera company.
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