I just watched a review posted about 9 months ago by Steve Guttengerg. He was reviewing the NAD M23 which is a class d amp based on the Purifi Eigentakt module. It caught my attention because a year or two ago I built an amp from a kit that uses the Purifi Eigentakt evaluation modules. My experience with my kit, compared to the McIntosh amp it replaced was very similar to what Steve found in his review - that it is very transparent and just passes the source through without alteration (other than making it larger) and with negligible regard for the load (speakers) being driven. Based on my own experience and Steve’s comments, I’m at a loss for what more to ask of an amplifier- other than more power, whether I need it or not.
According to Steve, the amp being reviewed exceeded the others he compared it to in clarity, transparency, detail, speaker control and probably some other things. This got me to wondering - is this what everyone wants?
My goal has always been to have a system that will reproduce what the microphone heard or what the producer intended me to hear when a recording was made. With such a system, I can use dsp, tone controls or an equalizer to color the sound any way I want but I always want to start from the baseline of being able to hear what was recorded.
Listening to some of Steve’s comments in his review, I’m led to think that some people are seeking a system that colors the original in a particular way suited to their taste so I thought I’d ask you guys. What are you looking for in a system?
Steve himself has mentioned he tends to focus more on subjectively enjoyable experiences than utterly faithful music reproduction. I thought I was in that camp as I dove into vinyl and some headphone sets with extremely shaped frequency curves. Somehow I wound up preferring neutrality and high fidelity, and went hard into digital, preferring my new CD transport as a source as right now it’s my most transparent form of digital audio. My transducer setups are also moving as close to flat and transparent as I can. So I guess I’ve come full circle.
That being said, I’m listening to either digital sourced material, or analog recordings that were digitally remastered very, very well. If someone is listening to a lot of music that predates hifi recordings, I can see transparency as perhaps being a downside. And ultimately I appreciate anything that gets people closer to their music, as long as it is capable of reproducing the details even if it selectively exagerrates some and suppresses others.