Marcus wrote:Looking forward to hearing your update. I hope you enjoy the Classe amps, they certainly get glowing reports with the 802s.dhyantyke wrote:Otherwise, thanks for all the feedback.
I am still in experimental mode, having also quarintined the room for one day and restricted listening time over the week: deprivation in this case being good for the stress levels.
I think I am on the way to a solution and will post details when deals are done!!
So, deal done with Cloneys for the Classe Monos.
For me there was no doubt that they matched incredibly well with the 802's. I really liked the Lavardin and thought my next upgrade would be to the new Anniversary version of the IT. However over the last few months I could not listen without hearing the 'muddiness' /mixing/ distortion/ ,struggling for a word here, in the lower frequencies. In the end, that was the thing I was hearing most and it was spoiling the listening experience.
Not to critical of the Lavardin, maybe the synergy of my player/room/listening level..
I think what also started happening here was that I started to play music louder and louder as time went on, : this maybe cleaned up the muddiness a bit but added to the 'boom in the room'.
It was getting to the point that I was listening less and less....associating ear popping boom or frustrating lack of clarity/separation in the lower frequencies.
When I (Ivan from cloney) connected the Classes I noticed an immediate change. A definite improvement in the bass. I played a bunch of previously identified bass 'villains' and the improvement was significant.
But it still didn't seem like THE solution.
I had a minor aha! moment (interestingly on a day when I was away from the house/NO listening !!) when I thought that while I was looking at player/amp/speaker/room qualities and interactions, I was leaving out a major variable, which is my self as 'the receiver'.
This brought me back to first principles.
While I was beginning to wonder over the last week or so if I was 'overspeakered', first principles reminded me that I had chosen a pretty beefy floor stander because I like to listen at what to many would seem ridiculously low volume levels. Some of my bass/general discomfort was that somewhere along the line I had increased volume by up to 50% (even at that ,still way below the level Paul (?) suggested of Wadia at 75 and Lavardin at 12 o clock.) In trying to solve one problem or perceived limitation I had created another.
By going back to my original volume level and then playing the villains, I found the true benefit of the Classe's, i.e. the detail and depth of the lower registers was unmistakably there to be heard clearly. No muddiness, no sense of detail being missed or clouded over: sounds in silence.
The full relief of getting through a listening session where the music is the full experience and not simply the framework to focus a 'problem' can be known only to fellow visitors to HIFI purgatory.
So, even though HIFI heaven is not in sight, (there are some questions about the player still,and tweaks to speaker position/mounting,etc), it feels like a big step forward for now.
