Adventures in amplification

[Diapason]

And there's always tube rolling...

[DaveF]

Dave,
have you tried altering the bias on the ATM's valves? Quite fiddly on the ATM2 but you could soften the sound of the amp itself that way. Fran might be able to advise if this notion has any merit at all.

I have them turned down a bit alright. They are actually just outside of the bubble on the lower end of the scale. No difference that I could tell.

[DaveF]

And there's always tube rolling...

too lazy to post the Worf pic.

[Ivor]

And there's always tube rolling...

a quick road to madness.

[Diapason]

too lazy to post the Worf pic.

LOL! We'll take it as read.

[jaybee]

I take it the 550D has been abandoned in favor of that short window of hifi listening.....

new pics please!!

[Fran]

Part of the problem here is internet lore and how to read between the lines of what reviews/impressions are posted. Yes, the airtights are very neutral compared to other valve amps - but KT88s will always sound that little bit cleaner than EL34s for example.

There are 2 situations with members here at the moment who have very nice power amps and have introduced new preamps. In both cases they now have noise and hiss in their system. Both preamps and power amps are fine individually but together the gain is sky high. Noise and hiss that wouldn't be noticed in a normal gain system is now a problem. So a bit of synergy comes into play.

Whats my point? Well, the wadia is likewise a very neutral, clean sound. Ideal for a situation where you have a warmish sounding amp, or maybe speakers that are a little warm round the edges. But partner that clean sounding source with a neutral amp and very neutral speakers you better have good warm sounding material to play on it!!

And that I think is your situation DaveF. You probably can change any one of those components in the chain to bring the balance back into the system. The reason why I suggest changing the CDP is that you have already tried a meridian and you liked the sound. There's your ready made solution. Having said that, the volume control on the wadia is very handy. The vinyl is another factor that you need to fix. Is the harsh sound/resonance that you hear with it due to some setup issue, or is the rest of the system now so unforgiving that you will have to upgrade that too? Maybe the correct decision is to pick which one will cost you least to change.

The JKDac solution is only a solution if you are willing to use it. If its not for you then thats really game over. I would still suggest you try it out, maybe as part of John's "taste of computer audio" offer elsewhere on the forum just for the craic. But a bargain/deal/solution is only good if you are genuinely going to use it.


Fran

[Ivor]

Whats my point? Well, the wadia is likewise a very neutral, clean sound. Ideal for a situation where you have a warmish sounding amp, or maybe speakers that are a little warm round the edges. But partner that clean sounding source with a neutral amp and very neutral speakers you better have good warm sounding material to play on it!!

Nail. Head.

I can still drop over with the Lector Dave... if you're curious.

[dhyantyke]

Just my tuppence worth from a seriously amateur place: I have a Wadia 861i with Lavardin IT amp into B&W 802D speakers...............what I hear seems to bear out what Fran is saying above i.e I don't find myself listening with gritted teeth...the Lavardin being the 'softener'? It sounds good to me at any rate and I think I'm more into 'musicality' rather than detail. I hope to audition the Meridian 808.3 at some point and see what that does to the overall..

[cybot]

Fran does hit the nail the head but I genuinely thought that would have been blindingly obvious to you hi fi people. That, in fact, is what synergy is all about. You never ever match 'bright' with 'bright or 'transparent' with transparent'' or even 'warmth' with 'warmth' unless that is exactly what you are looking for, to suit your (limited ie one genre) taste in music. Wood. Trees.