the real connection

audiophiles have various ways to describe how moved they are by the music emanating from their hifi systems at their peak. words such as "goosebumps", "moved to tears", "awe-inspiring" are common to describe the experience. but seriously how many of you have experienced sublime sound reproduction?

I personally have experienced it close to 3 times when my system is/was really sublime. it takes a combination of good electricity, perfect tubes and perfect system synergy to achieve that sort of sound. good electricity is a random thing in my house, depends largely on luck. whereas perfect tubes does not need luck - you need to find the best tubes (e.g. svetlana 6550 winged-C for audio research amps) for your amp and you need to run-in at least 500-1,000 hours before it sounds heavenly. system synergy is the hardest to achieve among the 3 ingredient of heavenly sound aforementioned. it takes years of mix and match, trial and error, and good room acoustics before one finds/assembles a system which is perfectly synergised.

here's how my system sounded when it was at its best: vocalist seems to emerge from a cloud of dense and thick air (a very magical experience no less); and when she opens her mouth, you could feel the movement of her mouth (well, this requires a very very capable cd player! most system only manage to create a fixed spot for vocalist's mouth, never the movement), her articulation, her breathing (inhaling and exhaling) and the gymnastics of her vocal cord - all these minute details will become very very prominent in a very transparent system.

there are other attributes, of course, that make a sublime system, such as tonal beauty, mids density, sparkling highs, tactile basslines, superb layering, 3-D soundstage but we will leave them for another post another time.

can share with us your best experience?