This brings up an interesting experiment we tried some time ago. I didn't really think anything of it at the time, but since we're discussing it.

We tried an A/B test between the empeg MkI and an obscenely expensive Krell CD player. The rest of the system was high-end stuff as well: Balanced Audio Labs preamp, some Glow-FET amplifier (eight 6550s, this was not a single ended triode ;), and Thiel speakers.

The test track was Mummer's Dance by Lorenna McKinnett, and the empeg was playing a file encoded by AudioCatalyst (Mac) at either 160kbps or Normal/High VBR, I don't remember.

Aside from the expected loss of clarity at the high end, we noticed something truly bizarre with the soundstage.

From CD, Lorenna's voice was nearly centered left/right, and seemed to be emanating from a point about 2 feet above the floor. From the empeg, it was about 4 feet higher.

Being engineer types, we spent a little while trying to figure out what could possibly change in the audio signal that could cause a change in the apparent _height_ of a voice. Can any of you audiophiles shed some light on this one?

-Zandr, Mk.II order confirmation in hand....and I'm keeping my Mk. I. ;)

-Zandr
Mk.I #150