HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SYSTEM IN LESS THAN 30 SECONDS

yes +1 on The Ragpicker's Dream @jimintally also 'The Scaffolder's Wife'!

@katzenjammer27

I'll give it a listen.  Thanks for the recommendation.

I have a Gustard R26 dac.  I'm using it with an Innuos Zen Mk3 streamer.  I'm very happy with the dac.  I had read that the U18 adds a bit of improvement.  I thought that made more sense than upgrading to a more expensive dac. I go from the Innuos to the U18 with a usb cable and from the U18 to the dac with an I2S cable.  I'm not saying this is the End Game dac, but I'm very happy with it. 

I take the opposite approach. I want my system to sound good on "average," standard issue records, not audiophile "spectaculars." That isn’t to say I won’t search out a "best" pressing, but having accumulated a lot of LPs over the years, and culling them out, replacing some, buying others, I’ve found that the better a system is, the more it will reveal from "standard" issues- I collect a lot of small and private label post bop, have a ton of classic rock and a considerable amount of classical that I bought decades ago. Most of the "audiophile" stuff collects dust- simply too banal, musically.

If you dig down, you can find interesting music that sounds good. It used to be easier before record inflation (grading and price) kicked in. But there are a lot of gems out there that are not on the standard "Chad" or "MoFi" reissue list. I also like to challenge myself by listening to music that I once would have regarded as too cacophonous. There is a happy medium for every taste- from country to free jazz. Part of the quest, for me, is discovery of "new to me" music that may be "old." It’s astounding what you can pull from those grooves if you can land a copy that hasn’t been abused. There is also a considerable amount of "new" music that is worth exploring. Open the aperture wider--audiophiles tend to silo themselves into approved sonic wonders. I rarely go near that stuff, even though I have shelves of it in my secondary storage area.

If you are a Straits or Mark K fan or just like a good singer songwriter song with layers of guitar, but electric and acoustic, I strongly recommend Mark Knopfler's Shangri-La. It is one of my favorites.

Done in 2004 so I've only streamed it on Tidal, but it sounds great.

An acoustical recording of an orchestra, chamber group or vocalist/vocalists is the only way to hear the real thing.  Not that overly processed recordings aren't exciting with thumping bass, dazzling highs and dynamic range beyond imagination, but they are so far from reality that they enter a new dimension of media presentation. Acoustical reality is an honest thing but the twist of a knob, the use of an "app" and the panning of material all over the soundscape is a tool and should be recognized as such.  Kudos should go in equal parts to the performers and the engineers in such cases.  Great examples of both are the recording of Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Symphony performing the Carmen Suite of Bizet arranged by Schechedrin for string orchestra and 40 or so percussion instruments and the collaborations between Linda Ronstadt and George Massenburg as performer and recording engineer . The best of both acoustical beauty and engineered ingenuity ! YMMV !