What should I change

Hello everyone,

I currently have a 2 channel setup consisting of all Audia electronics (Audia Flight Pre, 100 AMP, CD-One), peak consult empress speakers, 2 stereo subs (audio data soutien 2s). ICs and PCs are made by my consultant.

While I can't complain about any aspect of the sound (soundstage, timber, impact etc is all good) I am stuck with the most intangible problem. Lack of or low on emotion. I can't seem to be able to get drawn into music.

I changed from all ARC an year back and although its been a long time I don't recall having this problem so consistently. Sure I had my bad days due to stress etc where music was not enjoyable but I don't remember this being a long streak.

Maybe I am just tired as it took me a year to get to my present system and it has been a long and hard journey. Or maybe its the tubes that I am still missing.

My consultant has a view (similar to many others I have read on the forums) that these days a well set up system sounds more or less the same as during the last 5 years or so SS and tubes have become very close if not the same. However tube maintenance is a pain. Therefore he is now a pure SS camper. However one twist is that he himself has a tube amp :-)

One question I have is that if I decide to try tube gear which one makes most difference in your experience. This will help as I can't test it with all tube gear to begin with but if one component would take me in the right direction I will move back into tube territory gradually again.

I also heard once that low damping factor (12) of ARC Ref110 was the part that gave it the distinct sound I seemed to enjoy so much. Any comments on that?

Personally I am not an expert and does not have decades of fideling experience with either tubes or SS but I know what I like.

In this thread I hope that people with more experience/knowledge will share some with me.

Thanks,
-Rayden