Ok guys, here's the report from two nights of critical listening. I've already reached my opinion on the "break-in" theories. When I first sit down and put on a cd, the music seems a tad sterile. Why? It's because I have a 30 minute drive home in which I have to listen to REALLY crappy car speakers with bloated bass and mids. At least that's what I blame for the "sterile" sound. However, after a couple of songs, my head gets use to the drastic change in detail and everything sounds great. At this point I still think that I'm warming up to hearing music in a way that I have never heard from speakers. So what I really have to "break-in" is my head and it will probably take a couple weeks before I get use to this. Even better is the fact that I'm moving into an apartment in early May and the M22's will have a MUCH better setting so I expect that the added space will help out.
Anyway, here's what I listened to last night. I started with OSI which is a blend of hard rock and electronica. (Craig, you would probably like this cd a lot) There's a large amount of upper detail in this cd that takes full advantage of stereo. The guitar sounds like I'm sitting in the studio beside the amp. It's so full and crunchy. Also, I hear all the cool vocal effects that are used, such as reverb and a touch of flanger. The best thing is that I can close my eyes and not hear the speakers, just music. The best moment was listening to the track Memory Daydreams Lapses. Especially the buzzing sound in the intro as it bounced from left channel to right channel. I closed my eyes and just smiled. After OSI I thought I'd listen to a live recording for a change so I put on Warszawa by Porcupine Tree. I can't say that I've ever heard a live recording sound so real and convincing. Especially the song Stop Swimming. The piano sounded right in front of me and the dynamics were very present. The best thing was the drums. Every little touch could be heard, which is great because the drums on Stop Swimming don't sound that difficult, but in fact, it's one of the most intricate arrangements I've heard. Next came V by Spock's Beard, a band that captures all the great things from the prog bands of the 70's and gives them the recording quality of today. The only word to desribe how great they sounded was "epic". You could imagine their stuff was recorded in a huge arena and not a small California studio. Truly amazing. Then came Gideon's Press an awesome band from Austin and finally I closed the night with some mellow Opeth. In conlusion, I really enjoy the T762, but I have still have to get use to hearing music in a totally different way. I always knew that the M22's sounded great but with the T762 they're a whole new creature. So the NAD's here to stay.
