Open a bottle of a fine red wine and the taste can sometimes be a bit harsh. A little too upfront; astringent, lacking body and air. We are then told to let it 'open up' to sit and 'break in' if you will, until that mellowness you're looking for gets unmasked from the slightly forward taste.
Sure sounds a lot like high end audio equipment. Turn it on and it's a bit forward, perhaps brash. Let it break in and it mellows out. In fact, one of the terms we use to describe this behavior is 'opening up'.
And if the wine is still too forward, lacking body and roundness after it 'breathes', we can decant it getting even more oxygen to settle it.
And if your high end audio source sounds a bit too forward, lacking body and roundness after it breaks in, we can run it through a tube preamp or amplifier, opening the sound up, rounding out the instruments.
Now here's my recommendation. Grab a glass of fine wine, turn the lights low and crank up your high end audio system. It's a double whammy!
