ML3 – Day Two

The amps are continuing to improve as they fully warm up and settle in.

I have not seen such a smile on Neli’s face for years and years. She is spending all her time cleaning and playing records [while I slave away in my office around the corner ;-)]. She was even talking about putting up a new post about them on this blog. I think this is the first time ever for my blog-shy wifey that she even TALKED about posting.

They seem to be perfectly balanced and really do excel equally in of the aspects of sound reproduction that audiophiles usually look for: Sophisticated, Natural, Real, Emotional, Impressive. They are very much like the Coltrane Supremes in this way: not showy – just perfect un-heard-of-before-this-what-were-we-all-thinking competence.

We are waiting to do any critical listening until the Lamm L2 linestage arrives – which should add another leap in improvement just based on the synergy between the two Lamm pieces if nothing else [and, face it, the L2 is just mo better than the linestage inside the DCC2 DAC].

The speakers also should be moved if we are to optimize the listening experience. It is funny how both the Audio Note Kegon Balanced and the Lamm ML3 Signature both had strong enough personalities to make us want to move the speakers to different locations – that they are both so different from the other amps we had here – and so different from each other. [Personally, I am trying to put off the speaker moving thing until the show in a week or so – at which time I will get our fill of moving things, let me tell you] .

I proposed that we move everything up front by the amps (9 boxes on their HRS M3 platforms: 4 amp + crossover + 2 L2 and TSD1 and DAC2) so that we can hear the system with just Nordost ODIN and Jorma PRIME cables – at least for the digital… but noooooooo, Neli doesn’t want me to be contributing any more to the electronic component sprawl [already at 5 boxes, what is a few more boxes? 🙂 And so what if we have to push back the front row of chairs a little to make room for all of the boxes? ;-)] in the front of the room at the show. Sucks.