Dynaudio focus 360

@twangy57 Not quite encouragement, but I am very experienced, and honest. With all of your posts, I hate to be the barer of bad news, but if you are expecting your 360s to reproduce a Marshall stack, at the spl levels I believe you are speaking about, you are fooling yourself. I believe your new amp will be wonderful, at 1st, but certain weaknesses will show themselves quickly, with your speakers. Truth be told, there are speakers that can be cranked, and those that cannot. Dynamic compression is a real thing, with amplifiers, and with speakers. Keep in mind as well, that the louder one plays music in their room, the room itself can show weaknesses, way before your ears. Your use of percentages, 70%, 80%, 90%, is confusing to me. Are these numbers based on the volume control setting of your preamp, or are you using a decibel meter measuring the room from your listening seat? Another thing I always mention in my posts, and you mentioned it here, are the production qualities of the "recorded music" we all are listening to. Such a variation. A great system set up ime, is a system that can play all music at all volume levels, that the listener desires, and enjoys. My best, MrD.

@twangy57 I was not trying to be negative, but I am familiar with the 360s as I have heard them a few times. A great speaker, for the right listener. @jeffbij The Mcintosh MX 110 has a mm phono stage. My best, MrD.

@twangy57 thank you for your response. I obviously read your meaning incorrectly. I hope everything works out for you. Music listening is awesome for many of us, so I always wish the best. As far as stuffing foam in the ports on the 360s, I never heard them that way, but my feeling and experience is that they were designed as a ported box and therefore would sound best this way, at least the way Dynaudio intended with the design. Just have to dial them in within the room, which can take a while. My best, MrD.

@twangy57 , did you hear this problem through your Polk Monitor 10s? Although I was a horn guy (still am), I admired many Polk speakers and have had quite a few floor standers by them, including the 10s, in my rotations. I found every model to be able to play at a satisfying listening level, with all types of music. They can handle loud; I am talking about the models manufactured before they went overseas for build, as the 10s. However, I do understand why you changed from them and, did well. Keep in mind, that the 360s reveal a good amount of detail, so you might hear some weaknesses in the recordings themselves. Many listeners only listen to "the finer engineered recordings", and I can understand why. You experienced this in your original post. I would not be surprised if you start listening more and more to these quality recordings. Everyone loves music, but to only a small number of us (relatively to the rest of the world), this is a characteristic of being an audiophile.  Last note. IME, most classic rock is not recorded well, so you may hear things in the recordings...use of compression, equalization etc., which becomes obvious once you reach a level of transparency. My truth that I believe, is for bad recordings, listen to the musicians "play" and forget everything else. I feel the same way about great recordings too (1st and foremost, it is all about composition and musicianship), but when one of these recordings is playing on your system, you understand why you spent the money upgrading. It is amazing how recordings can sound so good through the home system. You will have a lot of fun with the CJ 350 (I liked it the few times I listened with it in a friend's system). MrD.

For many years now, a simple (well maybe not so simple to some) modification of mine was to replace the power cords on gear. Yes, go inside the component, remove the factory cord, and hotwire with a much heavier gauge power cord (gear that did not have an IEC power inlet). I mentioned to the OP changing out the cord of his Adcom 545. I have done this with hundreds, yes hundreds, of power amps (other gear as well), and the improvements in sq, in every case, was substantial. Generally, I used 12 gauge cable from the THD or Lowes, sold by the foot, alongside a high quality 3way plug, creating a 2ndary ground. Why it made such as difference? Non restriction of current to the power supply, which is what I was told by an engineer. This one mod was incredible back then. Now, we have ac IEC inlets, and with power amps specifically, huge improvements can be had with power cable upgrades. Anyone who says power cords do not make a difference, has either never tried one, or cannot hear it through their system. My best, MrD.

To all. I suppose the next thing for twangy57, is to receive his new, to him, power amp, the mighty Conrad Johnson Premier 350 stereo amp, an amp that will easily do the job driving his Dynaudio speakers. Considering he has not listened to the speakers before purchasing them, or the CJ amp, I believe he will have some fun. I do have a few concerns. The MX110....it might be a bit noisy because the amp has a higher than normal input sensitivity, around 1V. The amp takes a long time to break in. If listening to the system daily, I would encourage to leave the amp on 24/7 (as I do with all of my ss gear). This would require a preamp left on all the time as well, something most tube users do not do, and I understand why. I am excited for twangy57. The owners manual is available online to download.....remember, the amp is phase inverting. My best, MrD.