My advise is buy a bottle of “Kontak” cleaner ( it’s the only cleaner that I know of that leaves No Residue) Turn every thing off unplug the mains and clean all the contacts, speaker plugs speaker posts everything give your self 2 hours… don’t forget
OF COURSE NOT THE WALL AC OUTLET
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Well most things have sounded meh today not just the Atom. Just eaten a nice meal and had a glass or two and evey thing is sounding much better. Discuss the merits of alcohol and food in regards to sq. Now should I drink in the pre meal stages , during the meal , after the meal or any time when I am listening to music say a gulp in-between each track. This seems to have more effect than any ethernet cable or switch switching.
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I don’t think Dylan ever sounds better than in miserable winter. Nothing better than some cow pie, ale and Blonde on Blonde. Music is wonderful as it can suit any occasion and any mood; good or bad. Feelings are transient and music can be great company on that journey.
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I felt exactly the same a few years back I sold everything apart from my speakers LP12, Chord 2Qute, ND5XS, 282/SC/300 and bought a 102/180 but then ended up with an LP12, 82/SC/250.
Which again all got sold for similar reasons I’ve now got an upgraded Rega P2 an upgraded Technics 1210 a hand built passive pre and a Quad Elite QSP and I still have the Dynaudios. I’ve tuned my system to my room if that makes sense something I couldn’t do with Naim. All my Naim systems had the ability to sound fantastic and bland in equal measures .
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I am not very melancholic in my music tastes. I very rarely listen to sad music.
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Some of the best music in the world is inherently sad, at least in my experience. Music can be fun, but huge amounts of music is not intended to be fun, and enjoyment comes from engaging with the music, not from the rhythm and beat (hence my objection to systems that allegedly “make music fun”, often by distorting some aspect of musical balance,
Sad music can be very enthralling - to me there is no greater emotion than a tragic opera performed live - sad but wonderfully uplifting. Sad music can also be cathartic if you are feeling sad.
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except if opted for a LP like Pornography, from The Cure:
If I felt like throwing myself off the bridge, after hearing them, I would.
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The word “can” does allow for exceptions!
Indeed. 
Well there goes the genre known as Blues! Sad doesn’t have to be melancholic and vice versa. Some of the most profoundly tragic songs can be uplifting. I was listening to Johnny Was by Bob Marley last week, case in point. If you divorce yourself from the melancholic or sad you’re essentially wiping 90% of art (through the human condition) off your agenda. After all, all this fuss fiddling with our systems should be a lot more than clinically analysing. I love Naim cos’ the noises do something to me.
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Some of my most rewarding music brings a tear to my eye.
Just listening to The Leaving Song off Cara Dillon’s Wanderer album. Sad, beautiful, heart-wrenching and just wonderful.
Whatever happened to French morosite?
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Or Janet Baker singing Dido’s lament from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. One of the truly great moments in the history of sound recording. Or, come to think of it, Kathleen Ferrier in Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, recorded not long before her tragically early death. Or Jaqueline du Pré, or …
Roger
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@Alley_Cat, sorry to read this. Yours is a stonking set. When was the last time it thrilled you? What’s changed since that time and now?
Chris
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I don’t agree with that. Most jazz is not sad , lot of rock is not sad, even a lot of classical music is not sad ( Vivaldi, Mozart…). Soul, funk, gospel is not sad.
I listen mostly to modern jazz, and it’s not sad, not really fun, just inspired music. I listen also to blues, but blues is not always sad, as Albert King, Albert Collins, Luther Alisson…
Soul funk from the 70’s: Aretha Franklin, J Brown, Temptations, Funkadelic…
Rock as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin… Dire Straits, JJ Cale…
Vocal jazz as Al Jarreau, Cassandra Wilson, Tania Maria…
So 90% of my music is not sad.
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Dire straits!
FR, I’m shocked…
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Not sure what you don’t agree with in my post? I didn’t suggest all music s sad, or even most music! But I find sad music is often the best music - but again that is often, and I certainly listen to music that is not sad, however I cannot listen to some of the genres you list, so can’t comment on any sad content.
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Was thinking the same at the weekend.
Perhaps it is mood perhaps it like when at 1 am when nobody is using power, it always sounds better.