OK. lets see.....listening impressions when we changed gear. I know that the first thing that was done was that Cheeseboy (Steve) changed the position on the internal crossover of the LS-9's to a "larger" setting and we pulled out a disc that had the Yuri Honing Trio performing Walking on the Moon, a piece I am familiar with, so that I could hear the stock setup and get a base reference before we changed things around.
First change was to put the Melody tube pre into the system and Steves's Cherry Digital amp.
Wow - err......WOW!
What a HUGE change - everything became much warmer in the good way. Instruments and vocals both took on more realistic characteristics. This wasn't subtle and everybody in the room used the same words to describe the changes.
I wish we had taken a bit more time and done this more systematically (one thing at a time), but we seemed to be getting into a slightly different frame of mind and were somewhat distracted.....
We listened a bit, nibbled on cheese & crackers, and sampled some of the regions fine products (although some of them may have been from further away).
Then came the next change. Michael hed brought his Joules to the GTG and was anxious to see how these worked in addition to his NAD DAC (wait, no - the NAD DAC went in earlier - more positive changes), and this is where things got challenging. A ground humm reared it's ugly head and we spent a whole bunch of time trying to resolve this problem. By the time it was (mostly) resolved, I had to head out to catch my return flight (I made it, but just barely -traffic in the East Bay was a nightmare - kept trying to figure out what I was going to do if I missed my flight
)
My impressions of the session are that the LS-9's are an incredible speaker. They had power and finesse and clearly revealed each and every change that we made - I think you could spend so much time and effort trying different combinations, each different (not necessarily better), that you would go nuts.
OK, that seems obvious (and therefore stupid), but it was just amazing how different each component sounded, such is the resolution of these speakers. It was easier to hear these difference on the 9's than it is on my 6's.
I hope that after I left, they continued to try the other gear in various combos and were able to give Sunil some ideas as to which direction to go in taking these speakers in the direction he desires. I believe that he could vastly improve his soundstage, depth, and tone over his existing setup by swapping in some of the other equipment brought in if that is the sound that he likes. (hope that's not stepping on your toes Sunil
)
You have a good room and good equipment that can be taken to new heights with a few changes IMHO.
Thanks agan Sunil for your hospitality! Very generous of you and your family to open your home to a group of audio nuts.
PS - Hugh: Thanks for sharing your insights and wisdom. I look forward to seeing you at RMAF in a couple of weeks (geesh, time starts flying this time of year - it's coming quick!)
