Something I thought I would mention, I didnt really "consciously" connect it, but I have realized an important "axiom" for sound changes, psycho-acoustics, and overall musical progression is ones system. Now this MAY be obvious, pardoner moi, if it is. -- Ok here it is. --- To test a mod or change in system, it is ESSENTIAL that one listens to said change at high volumes (whatever that may be, dependent on ones power availability, speaker power ratings etc.) IMHO = a high volume audition brings out the warts. These are not detectable at low volumes. Now, I put that in a general sense. I'm talking about SMALL differences.
Example: I usually sneak these "sessions" in when my wife is out, walking the dog, whatever. So, sometimes I have limited time. So, here is a summary of what I "learned" from a 45min session. -- 1st test - sub woofer - custom crossover to lower the fx's delivered to the amp. All is good. - except I needed to rotate the sub so that the port is closer to the floor - minor tweak. 2. Recent addition of Mundorf EVO alum/oil bypassed with silver/oil. At volume the EVO sounded better on its own. 3. Some digital "hash" that I wasnt happy with - solution - I had JRiver doing the upsample to 24/192. I did an A/B comparing it to file that was previously upsampled with SOX via Foobar/min/aliasing/dither etc. Winner - Foobar. Not by a little either. So, NOW, I have to clean out my hard drive of all the "extraneous" albums to make room for 24/192 upsamples - crap - they are about 4gb/album! --- anyway - all that in less than 45min.
Example: I usually sneak these "sessions" in when my wife is out, walking the dog, whatever. So, sometimes I have limited time. So, here is a summary of what I "learned" from a 45min session. -- 1st test - sub woofer - custom crossover to lower the fx's delivered to the amp. All is good. - except I needed to rotate the sub so that the port is closer to the floor - minor tweak. 2. Recent addition of Mundorf EVO alum/oil bypassed with silver/oil. At volume the EVO sounded better on its own. 3. Some digital "hash" that I wasnt happy with - solution - I had JRiver doing the upsample to 24/192. I did an A/B comparing it to file that was previously upsampled with SOX via Foobar/min/aliasing/dither etc. Winner - Foobar. Not by a little either. So, NOW, I have to clean out my hard drive of all the "extraneous" albums to make room for 24/192 upsamples - crap - they are about 4gb/album! --- anyway - all that in less than 45min.