Reconciling conflicting listening interests?


On the occasion of popping a resistor in my VT100, I'm pondering the way my equipment/listening tastes have changed. I'm a pretty addicted listener, so keep "spare" gear around for when repairs become necessary. (Hate system down time...also may be turning into a gear collector.) My current system is pretty euphonic and soft around the edges--more mid-hall than up-front.

So, when I took the busted amp out of the system, I started playing with other aspects as well, putting a transister amp in, different speaker cable, etc, till suddenly I had more of an up-front in-the-same-room sound, and pulled out some pop and jazz favorites, and had some fun. A couple of years ago, I would have called the more up-front system sound "more accurate." But I listen to a lot of classical music, and found the up-front sound all too frequently fatiguing, with orchestral music especially. And, indeed, after a bit, I put things back more or less the way they were, to my mid-hall sound. The pop and jazz discs don't sound as exciting with the mid-hall system. But the orchestral and other classical material generally sounds very nice (like a warm bath), and rarely fatiguing.

I pondered how exciting the up-front sound was in the shops and my house, but how it doesn't work for everything (and can even be fatiguing, though also still fun), and how difficult it's been to find a way to the mid-hall sound (which you never hear in shops), and trying to juggle various listening needs, and just thought this might be worth reflecting upon with my Audiogon friends.
eweedhome
"each of us would like to have 3 or 4 systems and 3 or 4 listening rooms"

Amen brother. However the dream collapses when we must turn it into an 'all around' system. They are 2 totally different ways of thinking.
I've gone back and forth on soundstage perspective over the years. In the past year I've gone from pretty laid back to too forward, and now to something entirely new. These changes have been effected with room treatments, speaker placement, power cord and AC receptacle changes only, no equipment changes.

The latest cabling change has resulted in a new wonderful soundstage that I would categorize as being neither forward or laid back. Rather it is immersing, the sound now simply fills the room, while it is surely greater projection, it is presented in a way more life-like, palpable way.

By the way, this amazing soundstage only occurs with my vinyl rig, the digital remains in that forward/laid back conumdrum.
Our taste in music and sound, are all different. Being that as it is, even one single person, has a fairly wide scope of music and sounds, that appeal to the ear. Mood alone, can set the taste of the day in my house.

Over the last 35 years, I've come to the conclusion that I'm pretty much a dipole speaker type of guy. I've owned just about every type of speaker over the many years, and formed my opinion from those experiences.

Even at that, the dipole speaker choices are many...each sounding different, in one way or another. For the last few years, I've been 100% happy with my choice of speakers.

Other components are always a work in progress....although, by going to mostly tubed components, a few years back...I'm much more stable there too. I have found it to be a lot more cost effective, to switch tubes for the day/week/month, than to switch components.

And I think ((Wireless200) gave a pretty good reason why...my system fills the largest percentage of my everyday needs, and thats about all you can get away with, under "normal" listening confinements.

I would define my systems sound as, hi-fi....with a dash of my-fi.

Dave
Sure, I think after some experience in this hobby, each of us would like to have 3 or 4 systems and 3 or 4 listening rooms, one optimized for each type of music - classical, vocal, rock, acoustic, etc. Some do but impractical for most of us. If you can make one system cover 80% of your listening needs I think that's success.