To answer this thread's primary question, what is the best PLC under $1k? For a passive filtering device, if the lower-priced Audio Magic Stealth is anything like the Eclipse model I run with, this could very well be the ticket to entry level PLC greatness. A friend has the Hydra8 and swears by it so the Hydra4 would be my other choice to consider. The PS Audio regenerating units may be worthy of audition, but these generate heat and so I prefer to stay with the passive filtering devices.
The above issue could dramatically change the clarity and resolution of the system. You may very well hear more silence between the notes. Sounds will be as if they are the results of musicians and not just sounds. But a PLC is not going to do much to bring on "warmth" or simulate an analog-like presentation. If you're after analog "qualities" like portrayal of space, long decays, harmonic textures especially in the mids, no PLC nor room treatments are the answer here. In the context of your system's components, this is simply not going to happen.
Room treatments are not likely to bring on "warmth" either. When I added ASC tube traps around the room, they brought on even greater clarity to the mids and highs. But this was not so much a tonality change in the mids that is often associated with the term, warmth. The ASC's removed a fatiguing edge that was very evident when I took them back out of the room. And the result here made for more greater decays and ambience because of the clarity.
You want warmth....you need one of a handful of tube preamps out there. It is not likely going to happen any other way. You want analog sound from CD playback, you're looking at a top-notch tube DAC.
John
The above issue could dramatically change the clarity and resolution of the system. You may very well hear more silence between the notes. Sounds will be as if they are the results of musicians and not just sounds. But a PLC is not going to do much to bring on "warmth" or simulate an analog-like presentation. If you're after analog "qualities" like portrayal of space, long decays, harmonic textures especially in the mids, no PLC nor room treatments are the answer here. In the context of your system's components, this is simply not going to happen.
Room treatments are not likely to bring on "warmth" either. When I added ASC tube traps around the room, they brought on even greater clarity to the mids and highs. But this was not so much a tonality change in the mids that is often associated with the term, warmth. The ASC's removed a fatiguing edge that was very evident when I took them back out of the room. And the result here made for more greater decays and ambience because of the clarity.
You want warmth....you need one of a handful of tube preamps out there. It is not likely going to happen any other way. You want analog sound from CD playback, you're looking at a top-notch tube DAC.
John