LoFi


My sound system is down for repairs (I don’t know for how long). I’m now reduced to listening to music on Alexa’s transmission of WQXR, New York’s classical music station, in LoFi. Surprisingly, I’m getting into the music more easily. Without the distraction of sonic values, I’m able to totally concentrate on the music itself. I don’t need Hifi and soundstaging to “get” the musical message. it brings me back to my youth when I listened on a table radio and first fell in love with music. I find that I now can follow a piece of music from beginning to end more easily.

Not that I’m ready to give up the hobby. Just an interesting observation.

rvpiano

At one point in this string the OP said:  "I’m trying to find the problem.
The best guess is that I have a tube that went bad in my preamp
"   

I have the same problem, but since my audiologist says it is not my hammer, anvil or stirrup I may have to look into getting my interconnects upgraded...

Get a pair of Sony's 360 reality headphones. It is more enjoyable than all this hifi crap somedays.

Or Temu sells some in-ears for 20 bucks that are kinda jawdropping (shop like a billionaire....i always knew there was a billionaire in ya).

 

No subwoofers yet.
But listening to the radio I realize this a classic case of missing the forest for the trees.
Too much sonic detail to hear a composition as a whole.
This is true especially for classical music (bigger forest) which tends to be more complex than other types of music

I strongly suggest that you stick with lo-fi to avoid any dissatisfaction when switching back to hi-fi. Like my son (no kidding), who enjoys lofi much better and care less about hifi. My best half also enjoys WQXR better than anything else. I am the minority who can not live without hifi.