I agree with those above who point out it's about your own taste. It's really important to learn what you like long term. Some things sound really good for the first few hours, but eventually cause listeners fatigue and reduces your listening time. Identify what you like in your friends systems. Select some recordings featuring sounds that you like, get real familiar with them, and then hear them on as many components as you can. Then when you find a new setup which on first hearing is special, you'll know from your audition music if anything important to you is missing.
Picking components -warm / bright which is righ?
When you choose components in a system how do you choose? Do you offset one type of component with the oppposite in another? For example, lively, bright speakers with a warm tube preamp? Or all components of the same type?
With the low cost of digital amps, I'm leaning towards mellow, forgiving speakers which will add some body to the lean, detailed sound of digital.
As recorded music gets to be better quality, the trend seems to be stereos designed to be less forgiving of any faults in the chain. Which is great for perefect recordings but renders a lot of music unlistenable.
With the low cost of digital amps, I'm leaning towards mellow, forgiving speakers which will add some body to the lean, detailed sound of digital.
As recorded music gets to be better quality, the trend seems to be stereos designed to be less forgiving of any faults in the chain. Which is great for perefect recordings but renders a lot of music unlistenable.