How does it sound?

[drgnfly]

Please excuse the rookie here

Question about receivers/amps ...

I've been reading and also testing out some speakers as mentioned above but have seen some people mentioned about amps/receivers being warm and soft sounding? so basically the same for speakers whether they are bright/crisp or warm/soft or scrambled/over-easy (j/k), receivers/amps would also be categorized in the same way?

Would you please provide with the different categories of this as well as some of the brands that will fall into these categories?

Thanks...

[JoeE SP9]

I can't comment on receivers as I've never owned one. A lot of listeners say that tube gear is soft and warm because of rolloffs at the frequency extremes. I have not found this to be so with current gear. I do think tubes sound smoother. Thats the best way I can describe it. Kind of like the difference a higher butterfat content makes in Ice Cream. There is just more there there. The last is not a typo.

[accastil]

drgnfly, basically, bookshelf speakers would sound brighter than floor standers. as for receivers, give each brand and listen and you will know. to start with, marantz is bright together with denon. yamaha is dull together with harman kardon. rotel on the other hand is well balanced.

[Mr Peabody]

I think you will find that posters can't agree on the meaning of "warm" or "bright", much less, what equipment meet their definition. I mean, to some "warm" is nice and what they desire, where others take it as a negative, meaning rolled off or dull or lacking detail. As an example, I consider Rotel "warm" and found it made my music sound sluggish in comparison to brands such as Arcam which is a different perspective of the former poster speaking of Rotel.

I feel the reason for different perceptions has many reasons, some of which might be hearing the equipment with a different mix of other equipment that might have given us a differing impression of gear, another is simply that what may be bright to my ears may be appealing to yours, some people unfortunately carry tales of equipment and spout it out without ever having heard said equipment, and using adjectives to describe sound is difficult and many of us differ on our interpretation of what said adjective meant in it's context.

In my mind I have a sliding scale with "warm" on one end and "bright" on the other and I look for that perfect balance. I don't think anyone wants equipment that actually sounds dull or bright to the point the music can be fatigueing. This is a very subjective hobby and the problem with the sliding scale is most of us would vary in where we would put a piece of equipment on that scale.

[drgnfly]

Mr. Peabody,

I think you are absolutely right. As I read more and more, I've been noticing that people do have different interpretations and more importantly different tastes when it comes to their gear and musical tastes. The more I go out and audition different equipments it also leaves me to think that the conditions in the listening rooms at the dealers will vary drastically since there are many variables that will affect the sound, it is also hard to really get the right experience that will help in the selection process.

I think i've also started to rate equipment in terms of ... "does it give me chills?" (meaning does it sound so good that makes the hair on my body stand?) I think from there I start to see if the sound sounds dull or too bright to me.

Thanks again for your guidance.