I had a quick listen last night, it sounded a tiny bit better, a quick listen this morning and it sounded better again, listening now I think there's an improvement over this morning, so there certainly might be merit to the Wadia warm-up explanation. It's interesting that a few people have discovered this, and I've heard Ivan say similar before. It's hard for me to believe that it might take a WEEK for a piece of electronic equipment to warm up, but it's also hard for me to believe that my 20s are behind me, so sometimes you can't argue with the facts whether you like them or not. For whatever reason I've always felt in my glue that the CD player is the issue, so maybe it really is this simple.
The most obvious changes in the last few sessions have been in the bass, it seems to be filling out as time goes on. The midrange still sounds tight, not as liquid as when it's at its best. I have a couple of test tracks that I know well (not least the original forum demo disc from Maurice) and I'm trying to use these as some kind of objective benchmark. I don't have the means to do any kind of decent recording here, so that's going to be difficult in the short-term. I wonder would I be able to capture the effect, though? It's an interesting prospect...
Claus, I don't think we have anything obviously noisy on a timer, although given the way the house is wired I'd be *very* surprised if I have a decent constant signal. For all I know the neighbours are out whenever it sounds good! Certainly the state of my hearing at any given moment is a definite factor, not to mention other auditory distractions, and it's absolutely the case that music sounds better late at night. Some of that is mood of course, but I think some of it is noise floor and the fact that my ears are generally a bit more receptive at that time of the day. Still, I can't use that as an explanation here as most of my listening sessions have been done at night, and being on my own or with others in the house hasn't changed the effect.
Dave, your comment:
could generate a long discussion all of its own. (I'll ignore your TT suggestion for now, though!) One definite factor here is that my attitude to the hifi changed drastically when my old firm was going down the tubes and when I ended up out of work for a while. This was partly because I got stranded mid-upgrade cycle (no suitable amp, basically) and the system was very unbalanced. However a deeper problem was that the whole high-end hifi thing just seemed and continues to seem ridiculous. Looking at it now, I can't help but see crazy amounts of real money spent on something that, all told, just doesn't bring me much enjoyment any more. When I turn it on and don't enjoy the sound, it really seems like the stupidest thing in the world. It was suggested to me via PM that sometimes it's easier to enjoy more basic systems rather than high end, and at this point I'd agree with that completely. My second system always sounds the same to me, always good, never spectacular, solid, dependable, enjoyable. It's no coincidence that it's just cobbled together stuff that shouldn't even really sound that great.Simon, I'll admit that I find it odd that despite the great system you have, you dont seem to listen to music often or for extended periods or at least not like you used to. Perhaps you just need to find your music mojo again....... or is it pointing to something more fundamentally 'wrong' with your system?
It's also absolutely true to say that I've lost my music mojo, but I can't decide at this stage whether that's cause or effect. Coupled with the temperamental sonics is the fact that I'm playing the same old CDs I've been playing for years, and while I'm bored with them, I've no particular desire to explore new music. Is there something fundamentally wrong with the system? Well, the room is the single biggest problem, but that's a whole other story. Simply put, every component that enters this room sounds worse than it does everywhere else. It's been quite the struggle to get it sounding good, but I have moments of genuinely MASSIVE enjoyment, like that 4 or 5 day run 2 weeks ago. If it sounded like that all the time (real or imagined) I'd listen to an awful lot more music, 100% guaranteed. Even over those days I found myself listening to and enjoying tracks and discs I hadn't played before. It was great. I just want to have that all the time, dammit!!!!!
I'm going to leave everything on for the next while and try to make sure the system gets lots of use. I'll see if it continues to improve, or if not, whether I can link the performance to anything else that's going on.
Thanks for reading. I feel I should be lying on a couch paying €150 an hour while I tell you all this.
