North East Wisconsin Audio Society of Green Bay

Member:	Gene Hood	system

Gene's Profile

My biggest change is recent months has been with my power amp. For about 14 years I was the proud owner of a Mark Levinson No. 23, which I loved for many of those years. It was very transparent, extended, and ultra-fast. But over the last 12 months or so, I had come to believe that something was missing: a sense of body and “weight, “a lower midrange bloom, a sense of “flesh on the bones” of the music. The Levinson was certainly able to produce the deep bass of music, but it lacked some degree of fullness and weight. The best analogy is that of an electric bass guitar versus an acoustic bass. The Levinson made the bass very quick, but without weight and mass. It left me with a slightly cold, slightly sterile feeling, and seemed to flatten the soundstage a tad.

I did lots of research, and decided to try tubes. First I auditioned a Conrad Johnson MV-60 SE. It sounded better in most ways, but I was surprised how “unwarm” it was. I think CJ has been working hard lately to achieve a neutral sound with their products, and with Martin Logan electrostatics, neutrality is not always a good thing, in my opinion. They are lean, mean, transparent machines. The odd thing about this is that, when I was much younger, I loved the transparency, speed, and hyper-detail allowed by that transparency. Because of those, I ignored anything negative. Now at my present age, I am trying keep the transparency but also to tame it. Now I want detail AND warmth. Next I tried a Cary V12, and I fell in love with it. It gives me the body, some warmth, and deepens the soundstage. Plus I don’t feel that I have sacrificed any transparency or detail. Simply put, it gives me detail with body. To date I have found no negatives.

Prior to this change, I had bought a Martin-Logan Depth subwoofer, which necessitated an interconnect “search and screen.” At some later date, I shall go into the positives and negatives of the subwoofer and the joys of the interconnect hunt.

Gene

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