Stuff You Tried To Love


I know we talk a lot about confirmation bias- we buy something and then convince ourselves we like it. Or something like that. But did you ever buy something you wanted to love and just couldn’t make it work? For me, Esoteric X-05 SACD/CD player. Bought from a local who was upgrading to the X-03. Big, beautiful piece of gear, but I couldn’t get used to the sound after 6 months of trying. Sold it to another local- I insisted he listen before he bought and I believe he sold it soon after as well. Totem Forest and Hawk. I loved the whole concept. Slim, easy to live with. Couldn’t get them to work in my room. The Model Ones were much better. I had a couple of other pieces, but this is long enough. BTW, these were bought used without audition.

chayro

Showing 1 response by desktopguy

(uhmm, I think it's "Bach Partitas")

To get back to the regret-drenched topic of this thread: some years ago I went through a long period of researching passive volume controllers. I had been using a very nice sounding, transformer based PVC from NHT for years, but needed additional outputs, so went on a deep PVC dive. Ultimately it led me to a Goldpoint PVC that (with much difficulty) I had the mfr configure the way I wanted, not the way he wanted. Paid a lot, put it in system, and the sound was horrifying: thin, bright, lifeless.

In fairness to Goldpoint, which makes terrific stepped pots, PVCs that don't use transformers or autoformers often sound pretty bad, as they're wholly dependant on the impedance/capacitance of whatever is upstream & downstream.

In any case, I wasn't paying attention. The answer was to search for PVCs that use transformers or autoformers. There are some beauties of this kind out there. Unfortunately they're very expensive. Ah, well. Another day, another unfulfilled obsession...