Tympanic Membrane

enter the sound

so i’ve spent some time, here and there, listening to music on my budget audiophile system: onix a-2150 dual mono amp, nad 314 integrated amp (as a preamp), harman kardon hd7500 cd, rega p1 tt and my pride, a pair of magnepan mmg’s. sounds great with most music, which includes everything i listen to, but i was always wanting to upgrade somewhere. the first thing i did was change the stock cartridge on the turn table (ortofone om-5 to rega bias 2). nice upgrade on the turn table, but i still felt i was lacking the complete full sound i like. don’t get me wrong, the little “budget” maggies were great, as was the onix (though i thought it lacked punch) and the cd player is a hold over from the 80’s and still kicks much butt. but, i just wasn’t hearing all i wanted to hear. i decided i was gonna take the plunge and get a new power amp, no a new integrated amp and lose the onix and nad. then i thought, what about upgrading the speakers? i love the sound of magnepan magneplaners, so i looked at the mg 12’s and considered the mg 1.6qr’s. they were a grand and two grand respectively. so back to considering an amp, or an integrated.after a couple of weeks of waffling this way and that, i committed to the speakers. no, the amp. well, the integrated… you get the picture. then the stars aligned. i made my first ebay purchase with the help of nuprin boy. (i’m afraid to by things through ebay, audiogon and worse, craig’s list.) but, together we closed the deal and i’m now the proud owner of…a great pair of magnepan mg 1.6 qr’s.turns out the onix amp has plenty of punch. i’ve found the sound i was chasing. but, now i have a new problem. i’m addicted to listening to music again. other than bathroom breaks, and work today, i’ve been listening to everything! at this point, i’m just grabbing cd’s and records off the shelf and putting them on and enjoying the hell out of it! (note the dust on the speaker feet. i haven’t even cleaned them up yet.) i just can’t stop listening and enjoying the sound of the music.