Ax:
Bomarc is on to something. I recently sold my solid state CJ line stage pre as I am reconfiguring my main system. I replaced the CJ with an old Hafler 100 pre that had been sitting in storage for years.
Eureka! I had the same nagging problem with my system --- sounded great with jazz, orchestral, acoustic, and vocal material, but SUCKED the life out of rock. In fact, I had stopped listening to my rock collection over the years precisely because of this. The Hafler, with its tone controls, has made it so I can listen to rock again, and I love it! Now I'm not going to lie, the Hafler is nowhere near as detailed, the soundstage is not as well defined, and it is a noisy little bugger, but ahhhh, the glorious BASS response.
I am going to grab an old Adcom 565 pre that has tone controls and is actually pretty decent sounding, and I'm going to use the system with it primarily for rock. I am lucky to have a second Magneplanar/Roksan-based system that I will listen to jazz, acoustic, etc. on.
Please do yourself a favor and consider tone controls at least as seriously as you consider cables and other tweaks. I know that this advice will be looked down upon by many of the pointy-headed audiophiles that lurk here, but what will it hurt to experiment? Musical Fidelity makes/made such a device called the X-tone. You've nothing to lose by bucking the audiophile orthodoxy and giving tone controls a try.
Bomarc is on to something. I recently sold my solid state CJ line stage pre as I am reconfiguring my main system. I replaced the CJ with an old Hafler 100 pre that had been sitting in storage for years.
Eureka! I had the same nagging problem with my system --- sounded great with jazz, orchestral, acoustic, and vocal material, but SUCKED the life out of rock. In fact, I had stopped listening to my rock collection over the years precisely because of this. The Hafler, with its tone controls, has made it so I can listen to rock again, and I love it! Now I'm not going to lie, the Hafler is nowhere near as detailed, the soundstage is not as well defined, and it is a noisy little bugger, but ahhhh, the glorious BASS response.
I am going to grab an old Adcom 565 pre that has tone controls and is actually pretty decent sounding, and I'm going to use the system with it primarily for rock. I am lucky to have a second Magneplanar/Roksan-based system that I will listen to jazz, acoustic, etc. on.
Please do yourself a favor and consider tone controls at least as seriously as you consider cables and other tweaks. I know that this advice will be looked down upon by many of the pointy-headed audiophiles that lurk here, but what will it hurt to experiment? Musical Fidelity makes/made such a device called the X-tone. You've nothing to lose by bucking the audiophile orthodoxy and giving tone controls a try.