Since the "Do all amps sound the same?" thread stopped being about amps a long time ago. I thought it might be interesting for us to discuss how we each made our purchasing decisions. Let's keep price out of the discussion, I think it is a given that all of us have either budget restrictions or restraints.
I had cobbled together music systems for many years, decades really. Mostly because I never took the reproduction of music all that serious, just liked having a audio system to listen to.
Once I became serious about it (and giving up HT). But, not as serious as some, since it comes last in regards to my hobbies. I started visiting audio dealers all over the U.S. Since my work meant traveling, I was able to hear a lot of equipment in a lot of showrooms. My first quest was speakers. I found that I was consistantly drawn to 3 brands regardless of what electronics were in the front end and regardless of room acoustics. They were very different in how they sounded. Two were very dynamic, audiophile type speakers, one is considered sorta on the plain vanillia side by many. I ended up likeing the plain vanillia the best. It took a lot of listening to make a decision. In the end I choose Vandersteen.
The front end was more difficult. I tried to find one brand that could do it all, in the end I came back to a mix and match system. All the components were chosen using ABX testing. First in a showroom then a long trial at home. I would bring home one brand and spend some time with it and then overlap that with another. The big surprise to me was that I changed amps. I was very convinced that my Theta Dreadnaught was as good as a amp needed to be. I had demoed many amps against it over the years and always had kept it. Unfortunately for my wallet, a pair of tube mono blocks knocked it off its throne.
I had cobbled together music systems for many years, decades really. Mostly because I never took the reproduction of music all that serious, just liked having a audio system to listen to.
Once I became serious about it (and giving up HT). But, not as serious as some, since it comes last in regards to my hobbies. I started visiting audio dealers all over the U.S. Since my work meant traveling, I was able to hear a lot of equipment in a lot of showrooms. My first quest was speakers. I found that I was consistantly drawn to 3 brands regardless of what electronics were in the front end and regardless of room acoustics. They were very different in how they sounded. Two were very dynamic, audiophile type speakers, one is considered sorta on the plain vanillia side by many. I ended up likeing the plain vanillia the best. It took a lot of listening to make a decision. In the end I choose Vandersteen.
The front end was more difficult. I tried to find one brand that could do it all, in the end I came back to a mix and match system. All the components were chosen using ABX testing. First in a showroom then a long trial at home. I would bring home one brand and spend some time with it and then overlap that with another. The big surprise to me was that I changed amps. I was very convinced that my Theta Dreadnaught was as good as a amp needed to be. I had demoed many amps against it over the years and always had kept it. Unfortunately for my wallet, a pair of tube mono blocks knocked it off its throne.
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