As your system positively evolves two factors become increasingly more important, the room and the recordings. Once your system is capable of high volumes and deep bass a whole slew of room related issues arise. When your system starts to demonstrate transparency, dynamics and nuetrality, then you'll begin to notice how poorly recorded some of your favorite records are. There's a vast body of readily available knowledge on how to properly address room related issues. The quality of recordings is not so easily dealt with and I think it is the root of alot of disatisfaction among audiophiles. We want deep and wide soundstages from recordings that were concocted in a small studio. We want silky smooth strings from close mic'd violins. We want tons of details at the same time we demand a warm, full-bodied sound. Red Book digital standards only makes these goals more difficult to attain. All those Audiogon threads asking for a warm sounding cable, an analog sounding CD player, or a tube-like solid state amp are actually attempts to correct recording related issues.
How do you determine your weakest link?
I still, after all these years in the audio game, do not get this: I started, last year, with a speaker upgrade; which I was very happy with. Then, new stands for my monitors. The rest is history. Everything went. I finally ended with upgrading my CDP to integrated, IC. That difference, too, is blowing my mind. The litany of audio lingo seems to be redundant when describing sounds of ICs,amps, preamps, speakers. You know the deal. Everything from soundstage (my personal favorite. just fooling ya) to upper end detail. When I changed my Thiels because I wasn't happy with the upper end harshness, I knew it was the speakers. Would I have known it was from the speakers if I hadn't read posts and reviews galore about Thiel upper end harshness? Maybe (if I hadn't read) I could have decided that I needed a new, softer sounding, laid back, integrated? Since I have changed everything else, since my speaker upgrade, my upper end (as well as a ton of other things) continues to change for the positive. Now, I love my system. Really do. Eventually, however, I know, I will feel I'm missing something. How will I know which component will get me that something? Sorry about the cirmlocution? Thanks in advance my fellow audiophools. warren