I had that aural revelation about four months ago. I was a long time Krell fan with my ‘97 vintage KSA 300s and KRC-HR that needed recapping again. My dealer brought a pre-owned Burmester 032 integrated amp as a loaner while my Krells were in for service. The improved in speed, clarity, detail, timbre, holographic imaging and soundstage width and depth without any loss in micro dynamics, macro dynamics or bass impact even though the change was from 300WPC TO 105WPC had me telling my dealer he was not getting the Burmester back. I worked out a trade-deal and gained approval from my wife. Leverage was it was my retirement present.
When you can't unhear !
So about two weeks ago I brought a dac home from my favourite dealer to evaluate over the holidays.
I have done this a couple of times but never been really impressed . This was different.
The DAC is soulnote d-2 and it's not going anywhere soon !
Had it in my system for about 5 days when a friend came over and we had a listen, he thought it sounded really good and asked if I had compared it to my old? I haven't. So I plugged in the other and started the same track . It was not subtle, it was saddening how big the difference was. Switching back to the soulnote and wondering about how to unhear that, but I couldn't so I sold one kidney and one of the children and I'm much happier now 😁
Jokes aside, anybody else had that " can't unhear this " experience and what did you do about it?
My former dac was the Matrix audio X-Sabre Pro MQA.
Have a good 2024 everyone !