Just a quick post to update anyone who is interested (which I seriously doubt) about the progress of the Decware HDT writeup and any new stuff.

What happened was the new HDT speakers sound absolutely stunning, without wanting to give too much away, but there’s been an ongoing problem with thinness of sound which I’ve had ever since my Parker Audio speakers.

I’ve spent the last few years trying to rectify the problem whilst also improving the system as a whole—in fact building the Decware HDTs was supposed to alleviate the problem, with their single driver which should have produced a lovely smooth midband. I also purchased a new phono stage which was supposed to address the problem, too, but it did not.

Becoming suspicious of where the problem now actually lay I decided to measure the frequency sweep output from the phono stage, the amp and the speakers. On doing this I discovered a potential problem with the amplifier which really surprised me—I had assumed it was giving a flat response, as you would. Instead it seems to give a big increase above 2KHz forming a “hill” all the way up to 15-20 KHz.

So the HDT speaker writeup is on hold until I get the amp problem sorted. Obviously I don’t want to continue writing any reviews with a potentially flawed component at the heart of the sound.

By the way, the phono stage I bought is the Lehmann Black Cube, a really well reviewed phono amplifier with some useful loadings you can set with DIP switches on the bottom, plus an upgrade path with a new power supply. I’ll do a write up of this, of course, once the amp is sorted.

On another note, I’ve swapped my freedom for financial security and it is really depressing. No longer can I decide how to use my time, we can’t go out for any spur-of-the-moment trips to places. I have to be in my office each day working with the same brand. I’ve sunk to a new low but, hey, at least we can pay the mortgage.