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?
I had a tube DAC but comments here helped me understand that tubes in the input chain might be removing too much information. So, now, they're out. Adjustments come, in descending order of impact, from (a) tube preamp input tube and (b) DAC. Some adjustments also come from (c)alternating between SS and tube amps and (d) adjusting room treatments. I have not found cables to move the needles significantly for my setup. The other variables have a much larger impact. |
I think this is exactly right. The word "color" is not helpful. The question really is: "What are the ways to get my system to please my taste?" If one answers with, "I want to get back to the original recording’s intention" -- then: (a) Do you want to sound like it did on their studio’s monitors (which were used to mix the recording)? Even if all recordings used the same monitors (and electronics), you’d be unable to do this for all the recordings you listened to. (b) Do you want to capture the engineers’ intention? How would you know what that was? Which system did they intend it for? This would be impossible to determine and, again, varying from recording to recording. (c) Ok, well maybe it’s a classical or live recording. You want to "hear the room." Ok, well where in the room do you want to be sitting? And what about your room’s acoustics? Maybe headphones are the answer, then. If all these questions sound impossible to answer, then the above quotation is what you seek -- you want to try to please your own taste using room acoustics plus whatever else factors in. But let’s not talk about "getting back to the original recording" because that is a Fountain of Youth type of fantasy. All this in mind, some equipment really does add additional harmonics and some room treatments do really muffle or over-exaggerate certain elements of the acoustics. If you like that -- fine. But if you don't, it's a question of knowing which levers to play with to reach your satisfaction or pleasure. It's not about what's "really" there. |
@arafiq Thanks for a nice thread. Enjoying it!
I really enjoy going back and forth from non-tube to tube preamp with my Pass XA-25. At first I enjoyed a preamp with an 12AT7 tube input (2 tubes). But once I tried a 6SN7 tube, I sold my first preamp without any regrets. If there's a good match between preamp and amp, you may hear what I did: a really inviting, smooth, more spacious soundstage and a midrange that really draws you in. Seductive is the word. Of course, there are many differences between systems, but those who love the 6SN7 used these types of descriptions and I found them apropos even in my room, with my speakers, etc. |
Profound observation and eloquently put. This is the kind of discovery that puts the lie to gear-churning and rash upgrading. I can imagine one engaging in this hobby not with the goal of reaching "the top" but of listening to as many kinds of systems as possible. And the best part about that goal is that it is best done by exchanges with others -- meeting people, talking, listening, developing a vocabulary which reaches across rooms and ears and tastes. It's really what makes this a "hobby" and not just a consumeristic merry-go-around. Of course, the influencer industry on YouTube (and magazines, etc.) finds such a method anathema to their business, but that puts their opinions into proper perspective for the rest of us. |
