"Air, Extension, Resolution" Music or Hi Fi?

Also one more thing, if you have an itch to try something a little radical but inexpensive. A pair of Visaton B200s in a open baffle should give you what your looking for. From communicating with a friend that also owned maggies.This speaker mated with a subwoofer, digital crossover and tubed amplifier is extremely musical and satisfying. Here's his post on the subject. WARNING this man knows how to write.LOL Visaton B200’s.

I suspect there is nothing wrong with your system. The ribbon tweeter is very revealing of source material and there are a good number of recordings out there that have tipped up treble and upper midrange responses. Your system could just be reporting the facts on the record. If this is the type of fatigue you are experiencing, then you should experiment with a high quality parametric equalizer with shelf controls. A broad 1 or 2 dB dip centered anywhere from 7 to 12.5kHz can do wonders for those overly hot sounding records.

You do hint at a broader question about music vs. audiophile effects. It's not always clear cut, but I've come to the conclusion that some of the qualities audiophiles strive for are not that musically important. I'd put much of soundstaging and imaging into that category.

Enjoying music and high fidelity reproduction can be, but are not necessarily the same thing. For instance, I used to like driving around in my dad's 67 Comet because I enjoyed the heck out of listening to his AM radio: it was a blast, though certainly not high fidelity. I enjoyed the music and songs themselves because of what they did for me mentally and emotionally. I got into them in my head, and my mind made them sound, not like they did on the radio, but the way they had to sound to be what I needed them to be. My mind completed what the radio could not. I guess it worked that way for the music I wanted to hear when I wanted to hear it.

However, I surely did enjoy live performances too, and of different kinds of music: rock, religious, classical, jazz. But not all live performances were good or particularly inspiring. In these instances though, I only heard what was actually there, which was usually mediocre. But when it was good, it was like nothing else. Man, I could listen to that stuff all day. That's what drew me into high-end audio: trying to create that magic anytime I wanted.

Of course, as when live, not all recorded performances are particularly good or inspiring. Then too we have some terrible recording sound quality. And when our electronics get better and more resolving, we hear the mediocrity, noise, and distortions all the better. But I also think that some high-end equipment is designed to sound a certain way, or create a false illusion of reality. I have heard sources, electronics, speakers and cables that, IMO, colored the sound unacceptably. And when the sound is so influenced, it is covering up the actual recorded performance, regardless of how live, pretty, or clear and extended it may seem.

But if we are going to enjoy music reproduction, it has to be about the music. If it isn't, then we became audiophiles by accident: we all want to have something good, and maybe we wandered into a highfi shop instead of a camera shop or computer store. Of course there is more and I could go on, but I won't.

The fact that it can sound very, very good late at night makes me think that you may have noisy power. If you don't have power conditioning in your system, you may want to try it and see if it helps. :o)

Slv

Good point where I didnt make the immediate connection, DUH?!?! Yes, I should examine the AC angle in more detail.

But I still wonder if I might be happier selling my Tympani IVa's and going back to the Tympani 1-Ds.

Gmood1, you hit the nail on the head with:

"Honestly when I think about it, I enjoyed the older model sooo much better. "

So I stand by my epiphany when I think that "resolution, air, inner detail, resolution, extension blah blah blah blah blah' live in the domain of "hi fi", not music.

Imaging, I would agree, is not critical to whether or not a system sounds "musical".

However, I would suggest good imaging is FUN and certainly doesnt DETRACT from the experience.

Overly hot or revealing highs, however, despite air, extension etc etc can ruin the whole thing.

Look forward to more of your thoughts and opinions.