I think this is a good thread for a first post. Howdy. The audiophile in me is fighting to get a word in edgewise.
This is for anyone who wants to keep going into the world of musical romance, which is my big affliction. I deeply love good music and hope to have some of my own soon. Let me say that electronics and cabling matter. If you want a good clean sound, Denon seems to be the defacto go-to company for good hi-fi/HT. Along with them, I'd add Onkyo, Yamaha, Pioneer, Technics, Nakamichi (hifi), Marantz and especially Harmon Kardon.
But any studio hound will tell you that electronics matter, and you get what you pay for. Pioneer Elite, NAD, Cambridge Audio, Nakamichi (the real stuff), B%K, ARCAM, Rotel... there's a whole world of "mid-fi" and high end gear out there that will open up anything you plug into it, and your music will come even more alive. And if money is no object and you can afford Pass Labs, Krell or Mark Levinson... well, would you adopt me?
And don't neglect cable. I'm not talking about Monster, which is a rip-off for anything less than $100, and then I'd still steer clear of it. Get Rocketfish cable for good budget stuff. Look into the Impact Acoustics SonicWaves I think it is. They have silver coated copper interconnects (between units like amp to CD) which is killer. So is Acoustic Research's Master Series, which compares to cable costing well over $100 a unit at a fraction of the cost. Other budget choices are the offerings at Parts Express, Outlaw or at Better Cable. Others which will ending up costing you but worth almost every penny are Audioquest (a fave of mine), Tara Labs, Kimber Kable, Cardas... there are dozens out there, but these guys do rock very well on any system, budget or high end. In fact, high quality cables are the cheapest and yet very effective upgrade to your music system.
I used to be a cable skeptic until the guys at a local audiophile place (Audioport in Overland Park KS for the curious) loaned me well over $1,000 worth of cable over a weekend! I'd been there enough they knew a sucker - uhh, potential customer when they saw one, and they were right. MAN, were they right! I'd bought some cheap Audioquest cable from them and was amazed just with that. But with the expensive stuff, up to $200 for interconnects and speaker cable, I was dumbfounded. I had an Arcam Delta 290 integrated amp with a Mission CD player and TDL Monitor Two speakers. A friend of mine listened to a CD with me when we got it all hooked up, which was quite an adventure, and we looked at each other while it was playing. It was a well recorded video game CD which we started with just for grins, but we were both suure there had to be a hidden remix track we'd stumbled across. My system was superb as it was, but we were hearing things that were still buried in the mix, even with my "medium end" electronics and studio monitor speakers previously. We played more, and more, until well after midnight, and each CD we played was a revelation. We were SO stunned at what we were hearing that we decided to get a few hours naptime in, and start all over again the next morning. And we played stuff until well into the next night!
In fact, the experience was so compelling that when I had to return the cables that tuesday, I was so disappointed, I left my stereo unhooked for days. All I did was mope and poke around online for cable deals which I couldn't afford. A relative had pity on me, astounded that my stereo was all undone for days, that he loaned me the money for a set of those pricey Audioquest interconnects and speaker cables. It ended up costing me almost $400, but back then it was money well spent. Today, the bargains are out there so you don't have to go expensive if you don't want to. I think the final tweaks are to get a line conditioner, NOT a simple filter strip, as it insures you get clean power, and in some cases you'd be surprised. Hum and hiss can completely disappear, and the music can open up even more.
I can't harp enough that whatever you have, get some Cables to Go or Acoustic Research Master Series cables, if just a pair of them to run to your CD and DVD/Blu-Ray player, as well as speakers. Or Rocketfish for your Playstation 3. Or heck, Audioquest if you feel like going for the lofty high end.
I don't have a set of Axioms yet, though I shot off a PM to a few of the auditioners here. Whether I go for a pair of M22s with a sub, or the M60s - or both! - I'm really looking forward to the day I get a pair hooked up to this Rotel.
