Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site

As I play the old-but-new-to-me ML2s more, and as I slowly replace tubes, performance has changed a lot, and all for the better.  Understand that I am not really talking about the ML2s, but about the sound I am getting, which is so different and so much “better” that I think it warrants discussion here (or nowhere), and I envision (or sense) a possible 2nd wave of hi-fi stemming from the possibilities exposed and highlighted by this amp (and its ilk).  Although it looks like it will be a while before I digest and process the effects of the ML2s in my system, I already have plenty to think about.  Lots of lights are going on, like flying over the countryside as night falls.

Romy already disabused me of the notion that the ML2’s effects are similar to the L1/L2 “X-Factor”; yet reading and re-reading his pieces on the L1/L2 preamps I am still left with the sense that I understand some of what he’s talking about from my time with the ML2s.  Specifically, I cited earlier and I still hear some sort of active re-tooling of the signal that “puts things (back?) in their places”.  Which sounds like a “fault”, but it isn’t at all in this case, at least not taken alone.  Also, there is so far an odd quality that could easily be mistaken for compression but is not that so much as an * almost *  SS quality of keeping a handle on the signal, compared to the SET “let it rip” approach.  The SS winds up being able to “push” the signal a lot farther than the SET, although the signal is always more or less compressed, while the SET gives the signal the freedom to “be itself”, and it dissipates and gives up way too soon.  So far, with no analog and the few CDs I have, the ML2s have not obviously “limited” the signal, per se, the situation being rather more like well-educated older parents showcasing their perfectly-behaved, well-traveled, beautiful children for other older, well-educated people who are not easily impressed with this sort of nonsense.  And the generally held opinion that good genes will out is certainly vindicated here.

Meanwhile, there are two things that just get stronger, that I want to talk about.  One is space, as opposed to soundstage or “stereo”, and the other is a certain hardness that makes on-axis listening too rough (at least with CDs), but makes off-axis listening phenomenal.

Previously, with my little SETs, the best results were generally on-axis, with a voluminous soundstage that really filled my large listening room pretty well, although there was limited musical energy forward of the speakers.  Now I am experimenting with the speakers pulled well into the room, much closer, sitting almost between them, and the musical energy just charges the air/space around me in a much more lifelike manner.  I assure you that this more than just 3-D sound effects, and in any case it has not been anything I have cared much about or looked for in the past.  But it is something I plan to pursue in the context of a certain necessary hardness that may or may not wind up being viable both on and off axis with the same program.

My phono is down and out with hum since I moved, and now I am wondering more about the “X-Factor” and whether it is desirable or too-something in the context of the already-factoring ML2s.  For sure, I have for some time gone back and forth on the old “straight wire with gain” ideal.  But I have had reservations about the AI M3A since I bought it, and despite some serious modifications I am not sure it will ever be pitched right to continue here.  I know Romy eschews parts swapping, but I will try some more coupling caps and grid resistors and get the phono going before I give up on the AIM3A, since changing that requires new phono and line stage auditions, and I just don’t have the time right now.  But if the bass, at least, doesn’t get into line, then, adios.

I will close this by saying that I don’t get around like I used to, mainly because I have become so cynical about the relationship between audio and music.  So I have no idea what is “out there” that may do what the ML2s do with an audio signal.  But whatever it is, I believe it is significant in a generic sense, and for me it is a harbinger of a 2nd wave that I now await with renewed interest in hi-fi.

Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site