Upgrading to Phantom Gold?

[njaiswal]

Man, I just sold my two Phantom Silver for a danish price for 21.000 kroner. They cost 30.000 kroner for two new Phantom Silver here in Denmark and my new Phantom Gold are coming tomorrow. Hope I made the right choice and I won't be disappointment.

IMHO the chance to be disappointed is inversely proportional to the quality of the support and source you commonly use. Higher is their quality, greater could be the difference heard between Gold and Silver. There will be no difference if you listen to lossy format (mp3) of basic quality recorded music, and using bluetooth. On the contrary listening to an audiophile quality recording on a material media (CD, vinyl)  with optical connection can make big difference, since higher performances are requested only to restitute high quality. Any in-between situation will provide you with in-between satisfaction/disappointment.

And don't forget the genre of music that is being played.  Some genres will benefit more than other genres with respect to the component improvements that come with the Golds.  In my case I listen to a lot of 80's, Pop, and Rock.  When I auditioned the Golds at the NYC store they played Adele's Hello for me via Tidal.  I don't know how they setup their Tital stream, so I'm not sure if it was set to its highest resolution.  Needless to say it sounded really good.  But I wasn't blown away...  Now the space they had the speakers in was awful with respect to sound quality (hard walls, tall ceiling, background noise, etc.), so the Golds were at a disadvantage.  When I heard this same song via Tidal at a high end audio store on a pair of crazy expensive Focal's I was blown away (and the Focals were powered by a wonderful integrated amp and "tuned" for the room).  My expectation was that the Golds would give me the same sensation I had when I heard it on the Focals, and it didn't... hence my concerns...