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A "Downgrade" that proved to be a spectacular "Upgrade" -------

Has anyone here, out of necessity, installed a piece of gear into your system that should have been an obvious "Downgrade" but actually turned out to be an "Upgrade" ?  I know this sounds topsy-turvy, but I recently removed two highend amplifiers from my system for regular maintenance and substituted a multi-channel amp that had previously been assigned the job of handling just the bass frequencies.  I was positively stunned at how alive the system sounded !  Even my wife, who is typically uninterested in most things audio, instantly remarked on the improvement ! The tweeters and woofers were now on the multi-channel amp and the mids still assigned to a McIntosh 2105 amp. The multi-channel amp in question is a 7 channel Outlaw amp, the highend amps that were removed were Burmester 878s and the loudspeakers are Linkwitz "Orion"s.  All-in-all it has been a terrific sounding system but I couldn't believe this incredible improvement in every respect when I made the changes.   Ever happen to you ----- anybody ?

128x128terraplane8bob
avanti1960
1,406 posts
 

Yes in subwoofers.  The SVS SB 3000 sounds better than a more expensive JL Audio and REL subwoofer that I had.  

avanti1960
1,406 posts
 

Also I much preferred the sound of the Pass Labs XA25 over the Pass XA 30.8 amplifier.  

The Audio Technica ART9 cartridge blows away the Soundsmith Zephyr mimc star es.  

 

mahler123
3,056 posts
 

Outlaw bests Burmeister wow.  I had a pair of Outlaw amps about a decade back.  I put them on the par with a Bose table radio

asvjerry's avatar
asvjerry
4,308 posts
 

@waytoomuchstuff ....As for the 2nd spouse 'issue'....I'm sure the 'work-around' has proved to be the least of the mystery...😏

As for multi-channel amps....I've more ways to 'skin that critter than the critter worries about' in that department of redundancy department. *s*

The sub has it's own amp, and if any item or pair needs more, it's available.

All 'clean & dark' enough for this immoral mortal.... ;)

elliottbnewcombjr
5,190 posts
 

I’ve been thinking, there is NO WAY the cable swap could/should have made such a huge difference. His existing cables sounded great previously.

I suspect, somewhere in the ’new chain’ (used tube preamp, used tube phono stage), a connection is iffy, somehow the last cable change moved something, somewhere that made the big difference.

I suggested taking the covers off of both units, inspecting jacks, socket wires, dip switches contacts (biggest suspects), .....

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