musical sub

Maneiac your statement of: "artifacts of not only lean bass but also harshness, brightness, and bland midrange",
must come from your opinions of the components. What are your specific concerns and what would you suggest to correct it / them?

Maybe I should explain my unique and probably not common version of "musical". I completely appreciate the tube versus digital sound distinctions. With all due respect for that issue, I may be looking for something that is somewhat halfway between both worlds.

I and my sons are guitar players. As such, I want the details and clarity and the nuances for each instrument that digital gives, but I also love and appreciate the warmth that often makes the performance and voicing more musical and avoids the listener fatigue problems. We watch a lot of music DVD's (some Blu Ray) and get to carefully watch the musicians in action and pick up tecniques and licks. I have heard musical tube systems that are warm but muddy without the detail, and digital systems with details galore but a shrill sound without soul; so neither of those fits me personally.

We have quite a few tube and non tube guitar amps, and each one is fine for their own purposes. I love my favorite tube guitar amp and it is my primary amp, but the digital ones are quite good also and I use them too. I know more about those components than I do about the high end audio equipment that many of you have obviously mastered.

I appreciate all of the advice here and am looking to learn from those who know more and have already gone through this. It is also nice to see this without the blogging wars some sites have.

Thanks and any advice is appreciated. You can see by my name here how I view myself in this arena.

When I started I may have bought some components I would not have chosen now. Time can correct that.

still_learning

Afc

Interesting post, thanks.

You have quite a system and obviously put a lot of thought and experience into it. One item on my system that you mentioned was the B&W's. That brand seems to have strong fans and equally strong detractors, I am not completely sure on them myself as time goes on. I'm not sure as sometimes they seem too bright, but other times quite nice and enjoyable.

Afc

Interesting post, you got me to realize a couple things. I have not properly considered the room dimensions. It is 13 feet wide by 36 feet long and is a family room evolving into a kitchen at the other end. There is lots of floor stone and flat ceilings and furniture. That probably does need the high quality sub to help out with. I also need to rethink the room correction Arc measurements in the Anthem D2.

Then, I always thought that monitors would outperform bookshelf speakers (ie. my 804's vs 805's). But you seem to say that may not be the case. Why would that be? I know if my 804's are compared to top end bookshelves of the highest quality from priemere makers that is obviously the case. But maybe you have more ideas on this chemestry?

Again, thanks

ps, yes, some recordings are bright and that is the problem with good equipment. It shows what a good and a poor recording do to music.