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 roxy54

I think that speakers or electronics that portray timbre and texture well are perceived by the mind as "colorful."

I think that a couple of you misunderstood what I said. I wasn't suggesting that certain speakers or electronics add timbre or texture. I was saying that the best ones expose the timbre and texture that actually exists in the recording. It's not an added coloration.