Have I found Audiophile sound?

hoosier21

I have had a few different amps in my life, listened to many others. Mostly I have had NAD amps, I won an auction from Ubid a few months back for the 200x5 amp. I didn't really even give it time to break in 5 hour at most, but I sold it because I wanted my money back and thought is was a little light on the bass. Well I just bought an Acurus A200 2ch amp. On some CD's it has very tight and controled bass, but then on others I feel it is lacking bass again, now the mids and highs are incredible, wider soundfield and imaging is hands down a winner. But I am wondering is this how bass is suppose to sound? have the NAD's had a little boomyness in the bass that I thought was right and now that it is gone I "THINK" the Acurus is a light weight?? Any opinions are welcome. Before you suggest checking the phaseing I have done this 4 times. All this happens with the same speakers and equipment.

dean/klipschead

how well the bass is controlled is related to the damping factor

the higher the better is what they say

my Bryston has a damping factor of 300

my AE-25 tube amp has one of 14

how bass is supposed to sound is purely subjective

there are times i think the bass on the Bryston is too tight - it doesn't always sound natural - but it varies depending on program material

i don't focus on bass or any single part of the spectrum anymore - what's important is the overall presentation

The Acurus is a good piece - i take imaging and clean highs over fat bass anytime

madmax

Russ,
My system often sounds different to me. Sometimes it sounds great and sometimes it sucks. Once in a while it is as good as sound gets. In the car I have the same problem. After playing around with it enough I have found the problem to be me.
madmax

DarqueKnight

Russ,

One of the "disadvantages" to using accurate amps and accurate speakers is that sonic variations among recordings become so much more obvious. Truth is, many recording "engineers" have cement in their ears. Higher resolution is wasted on most modern recordings because they are not made with the audiophile listener in mind.

But I am wondering is this how bass is suppose to sound?

My absolute reference is the sound of live music. To me, jazz recordings from the 1950's come closest to the live experience. I always use discs from that era, and my own memories of what live music sounds like, when evaluating systems.

I am glad to see higher resolution digital formats like SACD and DVD-Audio gaining more acceptance. Hopefully, well-recorded music will become the norm rather than the exception.