Hifi+ 140 Pro review

[Confused]

This topic fascinates me at the moment.  This is my subjective opinion, but I believe the following:

1. The Pro and the "old" Expert are totally identical.  
2. With some recordings / music Pro can sound harsher, or to use Pim's term more "in your face" than the old Expert.

Well, I won’t argue with that, but thereafter, and having read your very extended message, I ended up feeling, hmm, what can I do to contribute? To be honest, I was at a loss on what to say.’

I’ll give you MHO. You may not accept it but I’ll say it anyway. 


Your input section/components are/is way too complicated and as a result you are losing what your simple Divialets can realistically process. The more circuits in the signal path, the woolyer to sound will be. Basic networking is absolutely fine. Have a try and cut out all the other units you have.

They may be your pride and joy, but personally, I have absolutely no time for Kef Blades. Your description of harsh sound IMHO can be directly attributed to these speakers. 
Sorry, I don’t want to offend you. I am simple telling you what my ears tell me. I appreciate you are likely to reject my opinion, but of course, unless you try something else, you’ll never know.

Regarding my way too complicated input section, I basically agree with Antoine's words above.  Furthermore, I do periodically revert back to using AIR.  I have been making a few changes to my "front end", and I like to go back to AIR occasionally as a kind of base line check.  Maybe I was not clear in my overlong post, but I find that the issues discussed in this thread are in part mitigated by the SOtM / Mutec gear, for me it is a great improvement.  Furthermore, I sometimes play vinyl.  The thing is though, my post above has very little to do with my "front end.  The comments would stand based on my experience with just using AIR on the Pro or Expert.  Plus, I have used my old Expert with a microRendu / Mutec etc. 

You have mentioned before that you dislike the Blades, and I have politely responded to this.  However, for the purposes of keeping this thread on topic, lets say that I am happy to agree that the Blades are harsh.  My post was picking up on earlier comments in this thread and making the a point about a certain harshness in some recordings being more apparent with the Pro versus the Expert.  This observation is based on the Expert with the Blades and the Pro with the Blades, so the Blades are a constant, the difference is with the amp, so whatever speakers I am using is not actually relevant to the point I was making.

Off topic here, but I do actually have some other speakers, LS50's and some big JBL's.  If I ever get some free time, I might give the JBL's a try with the Pro, just for fun, and it might be interesting.  Why not?

Back on topic - I actually tried that new Sparks CD in my car this morning (see my previous post) - most tracks sounded very bright, and a couple a touch harsh. - so no surprise it sounded a touch "in your face" back on the big rig.