Mmm . . . :? woke up with my cynical hat on this morning, sitting having my cornflakes . . . the question came to me 'why'. Ti's true, one will work hard to get the best out of the kit to hand. But once that has been achieved, why go any further??? I go back to the era that chebby sites, then into the 80's and early 90's. One went the separates route, to good effect I believe.
However I remember thinking around the late 90's when my Father was in to his 'music', that he was enjoying it via a very simple integrated Rotel amp, with base, treble and L-R balance. I also enjoyed listening with him, although my own hifi interests had long gone by then.
Dad passed away, his hifi was put in the loft, re discovered at the beginning of 2011. Since then I have been through a healing and re kindling experience. I wanted to re visit my 80's sound, valve separates, fancy TT/cartridge, preamp etc., big bucks. I look at 'now', having achieved the musical satisfaction of my 80's period, may be even better? . . . which I put down to better appreciation of the musical performance, a bit of maturity and no peer pressure.
However, having matched SQ, I look at 'what with'; an entry level integrated valve amp, fairly average TT/arm, a cartridge which is probably on a pare with my original SPU gold and speakers that are leftovers from my original system. Re starting my interest with Dads old Rotel 820 amp, I appreciated the base/treble control. The system has morphed into a modern but simple arrangement, that is every bit as good as the Audiophile setup of yesteryear.
Then I took this thinking a step further, modern SS can sound very good, recordings back into the 70's and before were always engineered, and tweaked. However, present day recording are IMHO over engineered? In fact, one would pose the question that; 'it is these modern recordings and some re releases that are poor, not so much the equipment they are applied to'?
So why cant things be simple, a one box answer plus a graphic equaliser or at worst base/treble control. Lets be fair, the true 1980's purist is a rare beast, as is a dodo? . . . I go along with simple, music is important, thats the problem, is modern music, 'music' . . . or so much engineered noise . . . ?
That is another question along the line, 'does the modern music warrant quality hifi'? We know it is so often manufactured . . . ?
. . . open ended . . . CJSF