will
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Yes, I agree this is a cool idea. And "trial and error" was not a clear way to put what was in my mind, that being the end phase. Before that, for me, the only way to best guess how a certain slug will work in a certain component, is to know both the slug and component qualities well. Having to go through slug burnin, that is a lot of listening time to identify the slug's basic sonic qualities and balances. And even if I were listening to give it a value grade for all, or some aspects of the sound, once more-or-less burned in, I then know all of that slug's fundamental resolution and balance tendencies as revealed by my system. Same for all the other slug choices...Each slug having notably different sound qualities and balances, to be able to make the best decisions for me, the burnin process is needed for each, revealing and teaching me the sonic qualities of each.
At that point, knowing my overall room sound, and each component, and each slug, as far as I can tell, the information needed to set up a Taguchi Array, and what it might reveal, is already done without the array. Then, optimizing with certain slugs based on the system balances first, and equally, within individual components, a given slug helping, and others not, is pretty easy to predict for me.
Reminding me of another important variable I have talked about earlier.... the overall original balances with fuses as the starting point. Already having carefully optimized balances in this room, I had to tune my system to be more open, less balanced toward bass, and faster. This compensated for how the slugs increase weight, density, fullness... and with these, not exclusively, but especially with my tube gear, leaning more toward bass in the balances... just by replacing fuses with SDFBs and slugs. Since I gradually got that sorted out, I can now use a number of slugs without overwhelming the sonic traits they bring to the system, and have not experienced unpredictable results like Highstream... where, adding a given slug in one component to warm and increase engagement for the whole system worked, and adding another of the same in another component canceled that.
Really hard to guess with so many variables, but I wonder if this was in part what I first experienced, that a slug added to a system already having been optimized with the beneficial qualities the slugs can add, more slugs were too concentrating, too dense and full here. Also, here, direction can be a pretty big deal, one way more open, resolving and balanced, and the other less resolved, more concentrated, dull and homogeneous. Makes me wonder a bit if part of this might have been the direction or the slug in the Lampi being "right" for the desired sound, and wrong in the Pre???
Anyway, my results seem pretty predictable now, each slug having characteristic values that convey into adjusting a component sound. But also, my components, cables, power, and all, are intentionally sort of consistent in sound qualities and balances, chosen and tuned to have pretty similar and complimentary sonic signatures, and avoiding more notable compensations that can confuse the whole for me. So though each piece of gear uses the same slug sound qualities based on its individual makeup, a certain set of sonic influences from a given slug can be expected, no matter the piece of gear, making the various slugs nice tuning devices.
This is not luck, it is applied perception, discernment, and knowledge. And knowing the components and the slugs individually makes it pretty easy to put them together optimally here. But in system tuning, all else pretty optimal, I can stumble on some special qualities with a given slug in a given component (or tube, cable... whatever), or alternately, find that another slug with variations of similar sound balances might be more musically complete in that application.
All the slugs having different balances and revelation signatures, seems those who have explored more fully find many can work well in a lot of systems in general. But this can be refined, leading to more specific choices overall for a given system/room, and then within that, finding the better choices for a given component as part of the whole. And finally, for me, especially as a "fine"-tuning device, trial in a given component (including verifying the direction of the slug) is the only way to get the most refined and complete results.
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