Does an upgrade make sense?


I may be coming down with the upgrade bug, and I’m open to suggestions. I’m quite happy with what I have—excellent imaging, musicality, dynamics. Maybe I could use a little more depth (left right is fine and speakers truly disappear), and maybe a touch more dynamics.

Almost everything I listen to is Qobuz streaming or hi res and flac files from a NAS (hard drive). My system:

Cambridge 851 Streamer/DAC

Bel Canto Pre5

Bel Canto Ref 500 monoblocks

Dali Mentor 6 floorstanders

Everything sits on maple plinths, Gaia iiis, or pucks.

Cabling is mid range Morrows. I previously had Kimber KS1116s but sold them as the Morrows sounded just as good, on the current set up.

What do I need to get more of everything? Speakers? DAC, Streamer? Amp?

tomaswv

Showing 5 responses by mahgister

Never...

First i am not a practicing acoustician doing it each week as a job...

Second i do it ONLY one time, tuning mechanically a room for the speakers and not just equalizing the speakers for the room , takes me one year 7 day on 7 ... I did it for fun after retirement and because i could not invest money in audio anyway... Then TUNING a room is like a piano tuner tuning a piano tone chord after tone chord; but in a room i did it with a grid of resonators ( 100 resonators) ...And a balance between diffusion/absorption and reflection as in classical material treatment... I also use foldable screen to focus the waves in the right way to my listening position... The end results was no headphones could compare to my room acoustic not even my actual AKG K340 ...

How can i do it for someone else ?😁

Each room dimensions, geometry,topology, various material acoustic content, influenced the resonators grid distributions and tuning... all this must be tamed and understood by the ears for the tuning process... There is no easy recipe i can apply in one week even a month as people selling and marketing acoustics panels or electronic equalization ... i must seat, listen, tune a bit , listen retune a bit , etc and this is done for my EARS not for other ears ( each inner ears filters are different ) .... 😊

A dedicated acoustically tuned room will cost, designed professionnally, around 100,000 bucks...

No one can do that in few days...Not even a pro acoustician... Few months yes... And for me 1 year...I did not do it by habit for decade as some acousticians do...

It is not putting panels onwalls , along with a ready made computed recipe...Balancing a room reflections is not enough , tuning ask for changing the zone pressures distribution...

My room was resembling to an array of organ pipes, all around me, and beside the speakers, like a serpent with a head (right speakers) and a tail (left speakers) and i use pipes of different size, some big bottles too which are anyway natural Helmholtz resonators... We cannot do that in a living room...😁

Having experienced that, it is the reason i smile at people bragging about costly upgrades in a living room... Sound experience come with acoustic first and last not with cables and gear...

But we dont have the time all of us , knowledge and the free room to do it... It is one of the main reasons why people always unsatisfied upgrade endlessly...

They seriously think that cables can do miracles or dac at 15,000 bucks, instead of a 1000 bucks one, can do it but acoustic is anyway secondary for them , after buying panels at best all acoustic can do is done... Such is the audio marketing world...

Which gear designer anyway could spell the acoustic beans TRUTH and saying so, putting his design in the secondary seat as a mere servant of the most important thing to do ? And which audio magazine can write: forget about costly upgrade, do your room ... And even if they say so, with what ?  Acoustic panels ? Acoustic panels  are very good and effective when well done but it is not enough to create a dedicated tuned  room with a soundfield immersive enough to beat any headphone and with spatial holography ....

The best scientific way to do it now exist  if someone own an already well done acoustic , not a tuned room , only a well done acoustic is enough if he buy the BACCH filters of Dr. Choueiri... The greatest acoustic revolution in audio... Read about it... Forget any other upgrades...

Acoustic is the sleeping princess, the kissing prince is your brain/ears, and the gear pieces are the 7 working dwarves...

 

 

 

@mahgister It would be interesting to see what you could do fine-tuning this listening (or any listening) room. Ever consider hiring out your services?

It is the reason why i never go on with sub after one trial to do so...

It is way more complex that it is presented by sellers and costly if we want to do it right...

I use another road...

I improved my small active box speakers with a rear porthole with a bundle of TUNED (different lenght and diameter) of straws put inside it...

I go from 80 hertz in specs to 50... With no downside and a very clear punch bass.. No boominess..

Each speakers is an Helmholtz resonators then we can take advantage of this...No sellers of speakers will sell them with this advice or with tubes going outside of them like a decapitated bouquet of flowers ... 😊

He said that he is happy first...and he called it the upgrade BUG...😁

I may be coming down with the upgrade bug, and I’m open to suggestions. I’m quite happy with what I have—excellent imaging, musicality, dynamics.

Then he added MAYBE...

Maybe I could use a little more depth (left right is fine and speakers truly disappear), and maybe a touch more dynamics.

The word choice "Maybe" reflected an uncertainty from someone who throw a fishline dreaming an upgrade from a satisfying situation anyway...

That explain my advices of caution and my advice about SYNERGY and the triple EMBEDDINGS controls as more fundamental that any unnecessary or marginal upgrade because they must be investigated BEFORE any upgrade race when the customer does not even know about the necessity of an upgrade himself ...

Upgrade is if not a disease symptom an error which come to the detriment of learning about these acoustical, mechanical and electrical embeddings BEFORE upgrading ... especially when it seems not so necessary for the person to begin with as his choice of words indicate clearly..

@mahgister @mahler123 These are a couple specific things the OP said he’s looking to improve.

 

Exactly... Well said in one sentence...

It helps to know the end point.  You sound content but bored with your present system.  It is ok to want to make a change, but have an idea of why before you leap

It is useless and illusory to make an upgrade if we dont know exactly why and how...

And even in this case we must learn how to minimally embed our system before...

 

I may be coming down with the upgrade bug, and I’m open to suggestions. I’m quite happy with what I have—excellent imaging, musicality, dynamics.

Listen to yourself first....😊

 

I recommend no upgrading before optimizing mechanical and electrical and especially acoustical embeddings...

Dac upgrade if you are happy with your actual dac will be a marginal upgrade compared to what i suggested...

Audiophile experience is more about the embeddings controls than about upgrading a component if you are happy with your actual synergy...

Dont upgrade by changing a piece ; improve all the system/room ... Electrical noise floor decrease controls, vibrations controls for components and acoustical better controls of the speakers room relation ..

Instead of nourishing the upgrading virus disease and the gear purchase spree i will encourage learning about mechanical electrical and acoustical control FIRST and LAST ... 😊

There will be always someone after the enumeration of your piece component to point to some lack that can be compensate by buying a new gear component, preferably the gear the adviser like 😁... If you are happy it is an error to go after an upgrade advice... learn about acoustics, vibration controls and electrical noise floor... Dont buy anything BEFORE ...

Why?

Because you will end with more upgrading tentations and less taste for the hard  knowledge to gain  about the fundamentals which are not in the manual user of a new piece of gear at all... 😁😊

It is my advice for all...