1. Home
  2. speakers
  3. 176877-166623

everything sounded great until the upgrade

In short: I loved the sound of my modest system, until I upgraded my amp. Now it  sounds pretty horrible. It went from a warm sweet embracing easy-to-listen sound to knives and forks trying to escape from a bathtub.

So...

1. I can just unplug this new amp (used) and sell it

Any other options? I could upgrade my speakers but I have no budget for that.

2. I could sell the speakers and use money to buy used ones that go with the amp. 

3. Lastly I could change the source, but was it the culprit - to begin with?

btw - the sound of the "new" amp is decent with my turntable, and terrible with my CD player.

(If I wrote brands and models it would throw the discussion into "A sucks, B is great")

grislybutter
jetter
3,160 posts
 

Also, you don't mention how long ago you added the newer integrated.  If not that long ago why not give it a month to see if your ears acclimate to the new sound.  You might be surprised and change your mind once you are used to the new presentation.

grislybutter OP
3,627 posts
 

@jetter

46 hours ago

" once you are used to the new presentation " that's fair but what's wrong with wanting to be wowed the moment I press play?

@mlsstl

I still have the old amp. I bought a new amp because my local vintage audio repair guy has gone mad. And there are not many of them around so mid and long term, I would not have support. My brother (who is the nerd behind my audio decisions) told me to buy it.

I was honestly hoping for a magic boost.

With old amp half the music sounded OK (speaker: Dynaudio Evoke 20s) such as rock, heavily instrumental music, classical, Jazz, the other half: vocal, folk, 70s rock sounds great, It kind of flipped with the new amp. The magic of the vocals is gone

russ69's avatar
russ69
3,579 posts
 

I am going to research what goes best with Musical Fidelity integrated amps.

MF amps sound best with many loudspeakers. I'm going to guess but you had a solid state amp of perhaps not the best quality. I think you just need a little time to acquire the taste for the new amp and maybe a little break-in time? I'm just guessing but nobody dislikes the sound of a well matched MF integrated that I know. So let the cat out of the bag, what MF is it and what was your old amp? 

grislybutter OP
3,627 posts
 

meow.... I mean new:

used (in great shape visibly) A3.2

old:

2252B 

russ69's avatar
russ69
3,579 posts
 

2252B

OK, this is easy. The top end of the A3.2 is going to be a little softer than the 2252. Give yourself some time to adjust to the new presentation. Also work on your speaker placement. If you can make your room a little brighter with more reflection that will pick up the top end a bit. And just to throw this out there a cable change might help but work with what you have for now. 

More to discover