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From: mat@hou5e.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: How my ears are built  (and a question)
Message-ID: <618@hou5e.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 2-Jul-83 19:27:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: hou5e.618
Posted: Sat Jul  2 19:27:38 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 4-Jul-83 15:44:12 EDT
References: <1211@tektronix.UUCP>
Lines: 40

``And the illusion is far from perfect, there is room for improvment
in the technology.  AND UNTIL THAT'S TRUE, QUIT TELLING ME THAT IT'S BETTER
THAN I CAN HEAR, BECAUSE IT'S NOT!!''

Hear, hear!  True, if an amplifier has .0003 %  distortion of sine waves
or 2 mixed sine waves it probably is good enough at doing that.  But
before I bought my preamp, I listened to several ... ALL top-notch,
high-endy units.  I had the benefit of a patient salesman who had a
VERY good pair of speakers on hand, as well as a very good turntable/
tonearm/cartridge and power amp.  Very good means considerably better
than I own right now, but maybe not much better than I will have six or
seven years from now.

None of these expensive preamps sounded the same ... none was clearly
``better'' in the basic preamp functions.  One had slightly better imaging,
one has slightly better response on huge (test-and-demo record) transients.
Why?

Every year I hear new speakers that sound better than I ever thought
possible ... or better than I thought possible at the price.  Per dollar,
speakers today are far better than they have ever been.  Yet the continuing
improvement suggests that they are nowhere good enough.

I heard a pair of Rogers speakers demo'd with two different cartridges --
one a good brand, and the other a ``carriage trade'' brand.  The imaging
of these speakers with the first cartridge was spectacular.  With the
second it was no better than I get with my low-end Yamaha turntable
through a set of $150-the-pair Boston A40's.

Yes, there is a LONG way to go.  And the best gains can always be made by
finding and fixing/repacling the weakest link.

BTW, anyone have recommendations on tuners or equalizers?  I am especially
interested in (as I have said before) the new NAD and Carver tuners, since
they have enhanced capabilities for dealing with poor signals.


						hou5e!mat
						Mark Terribile
						Duke of deNet (sigh)