noble100 -
You wrote, "the thought struck me that this poor performance may be a result of a very revealing amp combined with poorly engineered and/or poorly recorded source material."
I agree, in my experience the better your system, the more revealing it is of bad recordings. And many, if not most recordings are pretty bad.
My speakers are 4-way hybrids - two 15" dipole bass cabs + mid-horns + bullet horns per side, DSP'd by DEQX processors and powered by eight modified NuForce Class-D amps. My system is accurate and very revealing of poor recordings.
Some of my favorite records sound pretty bad on my system, in the same way that low-definition movies look sub-par on a high-definition front-projection video system - low def video looks better on low-def TVs. And low-def recordings sound better on lo-def systems.
With excellent hi-def recordings my system shines. No problems with tone or anything else.
I tried using a Yamamoto se45 amp on the horns, and a Pass Labs Aleph, and MacIntosh and Marantz and Fisher tube amps - all were outperformed by my Class D amps.
By the way, I would buy eight Mola Molas or similar if I could afford them - and if they sounded noticeably better than my hot-rodded NuForce I would be surprised.
You wrote, "the thought struck me that this poor performance may be a result of a very revealing amp combined with poorly engineered and/or poorly recorded source material."
I agree, in my experience the better your system, the more revealing it is of bad recordings. And many, if not most recordings are pretty bad.
My speakers are 4-way hybrids - two 15" dipole bass cabs + mid-horns + bullet horns per side, DSP'd by DEQX processors and powered by eight modified NuForce Class-D amps. My system is accurate and very revealing of poor recordings.
Some of my favorite records sound pretty bad on my system, in the same way that low-definition movies look sub-par on a high-definition front-projection video system - low def video looks better on low-def TVs. And low-def recordings sound better on lo-def systems.
With excellent hi-def recordings my system shines. No problems with tone or anything else.
I tried using a Yamamoto se45 amp on the horns, and a Pass Labs Aleph, and MacIntosh and Marantz and Fisher tube amps - all were outperformed by my Class D amps.
By the way, I would buy eight Mola Molas or similar if I could afford them - and if they sounded noticeably better than my hot-rodded NuForce I would be surprised.