Love the sound - why?

[glynnw]

As a newbie to XXHighEnd (but with over 30 years of highend audio experience) I find myself both bemused and confused.  First off, I love the sound.  When I first set it up and heard it from the corner where my computer is, back to speakers and way out of the sweet spot, I was startled at how "right" this sounded.  Recently I did some AB comparisons with my CD player (Stereophile A+) and could detect no differences, yet when I just sit down and listen to XXHighEnd  I am hesitant to end the listening session, because the musical enjoyment is so high.  What is happening here?  By the way, I am listening on a Sony VAIO laptop, which is connected to the Internet all the time, using Vista Ultimate and a Scott Nixon NOS USB DAC, through Bottlehead 2A3 Paramounts (currently passive - preamp off for repair) and modified Bottlehead Straight 8 speakers  Now I am thinking of selling the CD player and getting a dedicated computer.

[PeterSt]

Haha, not much strange to that !
First of all one has to learn what to listen for. And, if that didn't happen yet it is exactly your experience what happend (only the "tapping feet" decides).

Ok, there are so may things one can explicitly listen for, there's hardly a beginning.  One of them thoug, and this equals your experience more or less, is listen from even e.g. the right from the right speaker. The more the left speaker is heard (or even the left of that) the better it is. Judging like this is much more easy than sitting on the sweat spot !

This is all related to "phase linearity".
It works for depth too, altough some rules apply for the angle you're listening to then. Just try it : when all is right there is a diaoginal line where all sounds as good. The further you are away, the less critical this gets, but the more fuzzy the stage becomes. All kind of "normal" btw.

Might you be interested : I hardly ever listen on the sweet spot to listen or judge;  Just because much more is possible.
Whereever you are, the instruments should play on the same position ...

[pedal]

As a newbie to XXHighEnd (but with over 30 years of highend audio experience) I find myself both bemused and confused.  First off, I love the sound.  When I first set it up and heard it from the corner where my computer is, back to speakers and way out of the sweet spot, I was startled at how "right" this sounded.  Recently I did some AB comparisons with my CD player (Stereophile A+) and could detect no differences, yet when I just sit down and listen to XXHighEnd  I am hesitant to end the listening session, because the musical enjoyment is so high.  What is happening here?  By the way, I am listening on a Sony VAIO laptop, which is connected to the Internet all the time, using Vista Ultimate and a Scott Nixon NOS USB DAC, through Bottlehead 2A3 Paramounts (currently passive - preamp off for repair) and modified Bottlehead Straight 8 speakers  Now I am thinking of selling the CD player and getting a dedicated computer.

Welcome to the "club", glynnw. XX is simply better than anything else. If you tweak you media-PC a little bit (e.i. avoiding USB interface) then you will get a sound closer to the mastertapes than any CD-player at any price. That is my experience and opinion.

PC-audio is still like shooting on a moving target. Not all the stones have been turned yet. You will find lots of tips and hints here on the forum.