Think twice before concluding some thing sounds better

There is a fine line between fascination and obsession.

Several months back, I was reminded of the importance of adequate warm up of each component when critically comparing amp/component A to amp/component B.
When I moved to an area with a somewhat unstable power grid that my Krell did not agree with, I put into service my standby Adcom that did better manage the power quirks. After moving to a new location with a stable power grid and into a bit larger home with a larger and better listening space, I decided it was time for some upgrades. My first new addition was a pair of Maggie 1.7s to help satisfy my old love for electrostats and ribbons. After doing some room treatments and, you know the drill - move speakers in, move them out, toe them in toe them out, until, suddenly, everything just comes together and sounds right. I later had the opportunity to use a friends Ayre, Evolution V-5xe power amp for a few wonderful weeks. During this time I decided to do an A/B between my Adcom and the Ayre. The first listen was a slaughter. The Ayre sounded wonderful - deep, wide, detailed and smooth. The Adcom, by comparison, sounded awful - a bit harsh, forward and edgy on female vocals. I thought - "Wow I don't remember the Adcom ever sounding that bad, maybe it's only that the Ayre sounds that much better". When I came back many hours later that evening (everything left on and warming) and gave another listen, the magic of the Adcom was back. Don't get me wrong, it still wasn't quit on par with that beautiful Ayre, but reasonably close. My conclusion was: The Ayre had been either in standby or full on for the past couple of weeks and the Adcom had been off and unplugged during that same period of time and then warmed up for only a couple of hours when put to the test. While a two hour warm up was substantial for my tubed pre-amp and cd player, it wasn't nearly enough for the Adcom. My point in all of this is that we sometimes ignore the importance of adequately warming of all equipment before critically comparing one to another and seldom, because of risk and cost factors, can a audio studio/shop leave rooms of equipment running, or even in standby, 24/7. How long a particular piece of equipment over another has been warming in a audio studio is sometimes arbitrary. Always best, when you can, to audition in your own environment and under your own control. If that is not an option, discuss your concerns with a trusted dealer and set an audition time when he/she and you can be sure criteria is met.
Happy listening,
Jim  

bharralson7740, I like your post dated 1/13/17 it is refreshing, apparently you must be fairly new to audiogon to make this much sense. Anyway you are correct, music is like a time machine taking one back to a time and place. On the other side of the coin coming home to a good sounding system is like finding the proverbial oasis in a vast desert.

tomcy6, I think you said a lot in regards to wanting recording engineers to try and get better sound. The difference in playing a high quality recording compared to that of poor quality is like day and night, at least on my system.  But also look at how this generation is listening to music, would not give recording engineers any incentive to improve sound quality and audiophiles represent a small segment of society.

phd, I am new to Audiogon with regard to posting, but I get the weekly review and read many threads and I finally needed to hopefully provide some perspective.

I do agree with you about a good sounding system, just don't obsess about making it perfect. Stay within a reasonable budget for your means. And whatever you do, don't feel bad when you listen.

tomcy6, when I was able to listen at very high volume, I would often have to RUN to my volume control when a song that I downloaded would pop up to make sure no damage came to my speakers because I could hear the distortion.  And there are some albums (or sometimes just single tracks on an album) that no matter what you are listening to them on, they sound bad.  Not sure why the artist or the record company let that happen, but it's just the way it is.  Poor engineering for sure.  And then there are other albums that are the exact opposite and sound perfect on everything. I guess it goes to professionalism.