Most audiophiles are male, and generally spend more time listening to the system than their wives. So, why would you want to gear the sound toward her preference? I dispute yours and your anectdoatal "audiologists" claim that men loose more high frequency sensitivity than do women as they age, or that acuity deterioration begins to occur at age 12 in males. This has not been my experience (with myself, or in scores of others I've known), and I feel that sensitivity loss has more to do with non-gender specific genetics. And even MORESO, you must take into account how much noise exposure either the man, or the woman, has endured cumulatively through their life. I FEEL THIS IS A CASE OF GUYS JUST NEEDING TO GET APPROVAL OF THEIR AUDIO EXPENDITURES FROM THEIR WIVES, more so than that their wives are critical listeners, with "trained ears" that somehow have superior sensitivity in ANY of the frequency range. I've never met a woman who could hear as well as me in any aspect, or was as interested in listening critically to music on an audio system as I am. It's fun to experience other things with them, though...Anyway, women generally find musical fulfillment in radically different ways than male audiophiles do, IMHO, and I've never seen any real evidence that begins to refute this. Have you? And it's not just an issue of them not being as interested in "electronic gadgets", either. It's that they don't see a point in sitting and listening to recorded music...Just like I don't see a point in gardening as a hobby, or following "high fashion" clothing. And interestingly (aside from gender observations), HAVE YOU EVER MET AN AVID AUDIOPHILE WHO WAS ALSO AN AVID GOLFER? The two obsessions don't seem to have room for one another. That's just been a curiousity of mine, since I've never heard of any...but golfers are certainly as taken with it as audiophiles are with audio/music, it practically controls them like a substance addiction. ANYHOW, WE ALL CAN REVERT TO OUR OWN ANECTDOTAL "EVIDENCE" IN HOPES TO PROVE SOME POINT, but it generally doesn't do much of anything to sway the opinions of others, since they know what they experience first hand. SO PERHAPS THIS HAS FALLEN ON DEAF EARS, I dont know.
Please recommend Tube pre-amp(s)
I've listened to, and liked the Conrad Johnson PV 12 (a bit under $2,000) and really liked the Conrad Johnson Premier 14 ( $4,300?). However the Premier 14 is a lot of money, and we wouldn't even have listened to it except it has a remote control which my wife insists on, and then she fell in love with the higher quality sound of the Premier 14. I've listened to solid state gear from Rowland, Ayre, Classe and Krell none of which I liked although I thought the Rowland was incredibly precise, detailed [and lifeless.] The only other tube gear I listened to was the BAT preamp/amp combination which didn't do it either - I thought the sound was kind of dark and a bit dry emotionally. We felt that the CJ sound was very open, inviting and involving - we felt like part of the emotional experience of the music. I'm quite new at this and it seems like the preamp has a large effect on the overall character of the sound of the system, at least more so than the power amp. So far I have a Cal Audio CL 10 5 disk CD player and a Conrad Johnson DA-2b D to A converter plugged into my soon to be replaced old receiver and speakers. I have no plans for vinyl, so I'm looking for recommendations for line stages. What preamps can you recommend in the $2k to $4k price range with remote controls? The two dealers who had the CJ line said CJ has a distinctive sound - do you agree? If so, how would you characterize the sound from other amplification companies' equipment - like VAC, etc. etc.