Like Mark, I found the magic. If you spent any time in my cabin at 'TheFest' you heard it. Bob heard it. Bob loved it. After all this time and more than a little $$ I've found my elusive 'IT'.
Jesse suggests that there is a place in the ranks of audio gear you get to where the money matters. There are no corners cut, no build to a price point mentality....just build to a goal. My V20 is one of those pieces. I got lucky when I stumbled across it on the 'Gon. It's a 30 tube, 24 watt 64 lb exquisite beauty to both the eye and ears. I can listen further into a recording with this amplifier than I could with anything I've had in my livingroom to this point. I see no reason look further. But therein lies my problem...well did.
My Fosgate Signature, like the V20 is a destination piece. Whenever I get to an audio salon I spend time listening to other amps/phono pres and such to see how my stuff shakes out in comparison and until very recently occasionally I wasn't sure. Then Mark mentioned the PureAudioProject and Clayton Shaw's Spatial Audio in an OB thread. I knew I was speakers short if I really wanted to get 'IT' into my livingroom. Doing my due diligence and a whole lot o' reading I decided to take a shot on the Hologram M3s. All of the chatter around the web says these are the best thing next to slided bread. Reading the follow-ups from guys who opined similar to me I felt I could trust what I was reading and took the leap. Man did it pay off in spades! The M3s ROCK!!!!
The Spatials want for nothing. Dynamics...they got it. Imaging and soundstage...got that too. Slamm...yeah baby. Overall, they are as fine a fit for my system as anything I've ever heard. The only real bitch I've heard made is they might be a little shy in the depth of the soundfield. While I personally haven't found that to be true yet, it had been mentioned elsewhere.
Yggdrasil....what can I say. I've heard it in the same room with some REALLY EXPENSIVE DACS....and the others were left wanting. Or, should I say my ears were left wanting. It was like some of the music was left on the cuttingroom floor. MIA. Sad really. Who wants to purchse seriously expensive gear and give up a healthy part of the recording? Not me. I want it all. And that is exactly what I hear from Yggdrasil. The real Schiit. Seriously. Listening to certain recordings it sounds like there is less 'air' and less decay. Lately I did some listening of live bands of the rock and big jazz band variety.I paid close attention to the attack and decay of the live sound and tried to compare it to what I hear at home through the Yggdrasil. To me, though my rig and my ears Yggdrasil recovers the music in a much more natural and pleasing way than other methods I've heard to date.
I keep rehashing Jesse's word 'Synergy' in my mind. The selection of these 2 pieces was calculated based on my assumption that I needed a bit finer edge to the presentation to 'offset' all of the tubeage in my rig. Luckily patience and perseverance paid off and the final product is one I'm very proud of. We spend alot of time now just listening. Just listening. What a concept. No picking it apart. Just digging the tunes.
2kewl!
ray
