2. misc-audio
  3. 186570-6055

How do you add color?

For those of you who are adherents of straight wire, ruler flat frequency response, accurate and neutral sound, artists’ true intentions, etc. ... please stop reading now. You’ve been warned. If you continue to read, you might get heartburn and since I’m a nice guy, I don’t want to do that to you.

Now, for those who are not opposed to adding a bit of color and flavor to tune/tweak the sound to their liking, what is your preferred method of madness? Speakers, amps, preamps, DACs, cables? I know many who like the combination of solid state amps with tube preamps. Lately, a lot of upmarket DACs are using tubes (Lampizator) or R2R to add a sort of tube-like flavoring. Let’s say you’re happy with your solid state amp but want to add a bit of tube magic to the chain, would you get there by way of tube preamps or tube DACs? Or both -- which might be too much of a good thing perhaps?

128x128arafiq

Showing 2 responses by erik_squires

erik_squires
15,772 posts
 

Oh, almost forgot.  Mundorf Supremes, used in B&W and Magico, are very colorful, almost splashy. 

An expensive but effective way to add color, IMHO.  Too much for me! :)

erik_squires
15,772 posts
 

For the room, diffusion.  Adds color and imaging to an over treated room.

Otherwise, my preference has always been the preamp with either something sweet and liquid sounding like a Luxman, or downright overly colorful like a Conrad Johnson.  Ayre may also qualify here.

The issue with tube amps has always been, in my mind, that it's a see saw balancing act between the tube amp and the speaker impedance curves.  I'd rather get a stiff solid state amp that is speaker neutral (by comparison to tubes) and use my preamp for color.

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