Another veil has been lifted.
Two days ago, I unplugged the Sony 9000ES I was using as a preamp, and inserted a passive attenuator from Luminous Audio ($150). I think they call it the Axiom. Anyhow I modded it by adding Silver Nextgen female RCAs to it, plus my own interconnect wire. So it is a little different than the stock Axiom.
When I plugged it in (the RCA's, not the AC), I wasn't ready for that big of an improvement. Getting the preamp out of the way was huge. It was as big an improvement as the Bybees on the AC. The soundstage grew much more 3 dimensional, and the speed, Oh man... Before I would hear an instrument decay, like a violin and it was terrfic, but I did not realize how "opaque" that decay was. Now the decay is also transparent, revealing details underneath that I had never heard before. For instance, there is one violin piece, sorry can't remember the name right now, but there is a series of quick plucks from another viloin right after the lead violinist finishes playing. Those quick plucks were masked before by the decay of the notes played by the lead violinist. Now they are there, and add another level of realism to the music. I could only sit there, shaking my head, laughing at just how good my system sounds now.
Anyhow, you guys may want to try one of these attenuators, heck they are cheap enough. They are sold direct by
Luminous Audio Technology
It is also a testimony to the quality of the amps, revealing just how good they are.
