Now that all of my equipment is here and I’ve had an opportunity to listen to it, albeit in 2 channel only, I thought I’d share the experience. What I’m listening to is ML Ascent I’s being driven by McIntosh MC207 amp, MX119 pre/pro, and a Denon 3910.
My first surprise was when I went to unpack the amp and realized that it was brand new and not the store demo, which was a pleasant surprise.
My second surprise was how awful the system sounded. It was late when I got everything working and my daughter gave me an Aerosmith CD and wow it sounded awful. It was bright, harsh, and not what I was expecting and my first thoughts were oh my god did I just make a huge mistake! Then the next day I listened to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue SACD and it sounded pretty good, not great but pretty good. I then listened to U2 and it was just okay and then I listened to Diana Krall and it was pretty good. The Jazz was still a bit bright but certainly better than the Rock. Now last night things started sounding pretty good. I listened to an old Renaissance CD and the Best of Berlin both of which sounded quite nice.
It appears that my amp is beginning to break-in losing some of that initial harshness. Some of it could also be my cables since they didn’t send me enough interconnects to do comparative testing. They only sent me two RCA’s of each manufacture and I needed at a minimum 4 – two for the source and two to connect the pre/pro to the amp. As a result, I’m currently running a mix of Wire World and Audio Analysis not what I would consider as optimal. Therefore, because I’m not the most patient person, I’m getting pressure get this stuff installed, and the good things I’ve heard about Audioquest I opted to buy their King Cobra interconnects and their Circular Array CV-8 speaker wires. Hopefully they’ll sound great and I can get everything installed and be able to give a real review.
The improvements I’ve heard just with time leave me encouraged and I do like looking at those blue meters!
More to follow!
My first surprise was when I went to unpack the amp and realized that it was brand new and not the store demo, which was a pleasant surprise.
My second surprise was how awful the system sounded. It was late when I got everything working and my daughter gave me an Aerosmith CD and wow it sounded awful. It was bright, harsh, and not what I was expecting and my first thoughts were oh my god did I just make a huge mistake! Then the next day I listened to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue SACD and it sounded pretty good, not great but pretty good. I then listened to U2 and it was just okay and then I listened to Diana Krall and it was pretty good. The Jazz was still a bit bright but certainly better than the Rock. Now last night things started sounding pretty good. I listened to an old Renaissance CD and the Best of Berlin both of which sounded quite nice. It appears that my amp is beginning to break-in losing some of that initial harshness. Some of it could also be my cables since they didn’t send me enough interconnects to do comparative testing. They only sent me two RCA’s of each manufacture and I needed at a minimum 4 – two for the source and two to connect the pre/pro to the amp. As a result, I’m currently running a mix of Wire World and Audio Analysis not what I would consider as optimal. Therefore, because I’m not the most patient person, I’m getting pressure get this stuff installed, and the good things I’ve heard about Audioquest I opted to buy their King Cobra interconnects and their Circular Array CV-8 speaker wires. Hopefully they’ll sound great and I can get everything installed and be able to give a real review.
The improvements I’ve heard just with time leave me encouraged and I do like looking at those blue meters!
More to follow!
