Ever discover good sound right under your nose?


I'm sure it's happenned to plenty of people, but I'd like to hear about listeners that have come across substantial improvements to their systems unintentionally.

Personally, the lease to my loft-style apartment ran up last week and I temporarily moved back into my parents' home until I find out what city I'll be attending school in. Immediately after I set up my system in my old room I noticed a HUGE leap in performance. No fiddling with toe in, placement, etc - I'm talking about an enormous and sudden improvement here. The funny thing is that for the last month or so I've been considering a speaker upgrade and then all of a sudden everything, and I mean everything, improved with a room change. Now I'm thinking about just adding a sub and calling it a day.

Anyone else have a similar story they'd like to share? Anyone find Audio Nirvana by swapping out that megabuck pre/amp combo with the Realistic receiver that's been gathering dust in the garage for the last twenty years?
ethanh
i neglected to take advantage of the capability of my VTL amps until recently and then noticed a significant change in presentation when i did.

the VTL deluxe 120 amps use 807 output tubes, they operate in a "triode" or tetrode mode.

changing from one to the other was very enlightening.
Not exactly under my nose, but Salvia Divinorum is said to greatly enhance the auditory senses.
Yes, after cleaning the window then I can see the music playing way out side of my room.
Yes - I owned these old QUAD II tube amps for a very long time but they just sat in the closet.

One day I decided to pull them out - replace all the internals and get a decent pre-amp and hey presto. I am in Audio Heaven! I can't believe that I didn't do this a long time ago. They were sitting still for 3 years!

DV
The room plays the largest role in the sound of your stereo. No question. Changing rooms always yields drastic sound changes - and sometimes for the better!

But as for your second question, we bought a $35 solid-state Fisher receiver from the 1970s and couldn't believe how good it sounds! It was a real shocker and eye opener.