I wouldn’t say that I ’threw’ different brands together. Since my budget is limited, I did a lot of homework before purchasing. The components are made by various manufacturers - some mainstream, some boutique. Each component is quite capable of contributing highly resolving SQ.
I attend T.H.E. Show every year. In comparison to some of the higher-end systems, my modest rig has nothing to be embarrassed about. It punches far above its weight. There’s a reason.
It is the cabling that brought everything together in a very organic way. Synergistic Research - Atmosphere series - upper tiers. The tuning modules and ground leads offer the capability to tweak the SQ. It’s fascinating how these modules work - for analog & digital. Tuning is exactly what they do. After 20+ years of cable-swapping, these finally allowed my system to reproduce a piano as it should sound. Well, pretty close to it.*
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* This is in conjunction with much attention to clean AC power.
I live nearby Steinway and Yamaha piano stores that I visit often.