@Saskia
The point I'm making is, to my mind, you need to ignore the SA etc and plonk yourself into your ideal listening position, blindfolded and then have lots of equipment demonstrated to you through the medium of just sound, and then decide which was the most pleasing to you. By the appliance of science and SA's etc, you may be doing yourself and your finances a disservice by appealing to any OCD's you may have about faithful reproduction.
The point here is that yes that it is possible to attain near to perfect reproduction of the original sound when you can see it represented to you visually on a screen, BUT are your ears truly capable of detecting the differences? People may be convincing themselves that they can when in reality its not true, I know I used to think that, but after having a hearing test a few years back, I was amazed to discover that my hearing was as not good as I thought it was at the higher end of the audible spectrum.
Also of course, if you have perfect hearing, to really enjoy music to that degree, one needs the time to sit in the optimum position, and I for one, don't have that time anyway.
I called in the SA when I found that the reproduction I was hearing was missing something that should have been there. And lo and behold, room acoustings were cancelling out some of the lower frequencies. So we took the SA and devised a proper programming of an active crossover to actually correct the room acoustics which lead to the reproduction to be back on par.
So I see your point, but it was just the other way around. And I am doing those blindfold comparisons, however they are at a stoopeed equipment level.
And what I find is that I like what I have most. And the only improvement that I could still *justify* would be to go for a pair of Quadral Titan Mk 3 (which I don't have any room for). Plus a Nakamichi Dragon CT turntable (which is so over the top expensive that I respectfully decline). As for my current setup:
the big stereo system is a Threshold FET 9 -> Threshold T-200 -> Quadral Vulkan Mk 3; a Nakamichi OMS 5 Mk 2 or OMS 7 Mk2 (they are about identical) plus my custom built audio streamer plus a Denon DP 47 turntable providing input. There may be better stuff around, but not for the price tag that I am willing to pay.
The small system is similar. The Sony TA-E (soon to be 88, currently 86) -> Nakamichi PA 5E Mk2 (which is a Threshold knockoff) -> Quadral Montan Mk 3 (same line as the Vulkan) with the Nakamichi CD player (as soon as I verify that it has been repaired properly) and one of my audio streamers.
You might argue that the Sony preamp is not a Threshold preamp (true), that one has better build quality than the other (debatable) or that they have different characteristics (true). However both of them feature fantastic build quality and a minimalistic design that is meant to keep the signal path uncluttered and as clean as possible.
In fact while there are subtle differences in music / sound reproduction between those preamps they (and the rest of the system) are at a level at which I don't care about the fractions of percentage of improvement theoretically possible by the introduction of huge piles of green paper (read monetary units). Tuner ? Don't need, public broadcasting quality is down the drain anyway. Tape decks ? The only real contender was Nakamichi, and prices for those are thru the roof. Plus, I have 2 Nakamichi tape decks of sufficient quality and a Revox Reel to Reel. CD ? see audio streamer or the Nakamichis. Turntables: there is indeed room for improvement. However the DP47 is a nice player, I have a Revox B790, a DP37 and a Pro-Ject as spares. Any improvement would set me back 3000+ quid. Worth it ? Don't know. If I saw a DP 80 with an SME 3012 and an Ortofon SPU GM for 2k I would probably take it because that was the kit I had to sell in my younger days. I did see a few Dragon CTs, however at 10000 for a turntable, that's a no thank you.
"You're talking about memories"
I do get pressed that I could improve my system this or that way. I am not taking any of this. Because I have thought hard about what I want and how I want it and I am building this stuff exactly that way. I have a very clear preconception of how it should sound. This is what I am trying to realize. I have arrived at that point with the large stereo set. I am working on it with the secondary. Once this is attained, I will focus on other stuff.
And yes, we will use an SA to analyze if my hearing, perception, room acoustics and everything match up with my expectations. This serves as a baseline to actually verify that I still have the hearing required to appreciate what I build and that I am on the right track. right meaning: meeting my expectations. Don't care what other people think.
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