Had a productive couple of weeks on the used gear market and today has been digital demo day (Analog arrives next week). Added a Bryston BCD-3 and original Tara Labs Prime I/C’s to my system at very good prices.
I don’t have “golden ears” by any stretch but I’m gob smacked at the results.
The BCD-3 is replacing an Oppo UDP-205 w/ DHL BL-1 I/C’s. Rest of gear is an Anthem STR integrated and ML Monti’s. My bass has easily doubled, maybe tripled. I can feel the pressurization in my room and it’s tight not bloated.
I think this has been the biggest jump up in SQ I’ve experienced. What were your biggest surprises/improvements regardless of budget?
There certainly have been several really excellent milestones. Like going from a Khartago to I Kismet Reference from Odyssey. But sometimes it’s a small change, usually inexpensive, that makes an unexpectedly great change in SQ. ... Herbies decoupling sliders under the spikes of my Aria 936s. Improvement in clarity and presence is stunning.
First time listening to my roommates Quad 57s in 1973 or thereabouts, in college. He built his own solid state amp which was a state-of the art design in 1972. The thing got extremely hot playing the Rite of Spring, but it kept going. Those 57s were unforgettable, but I did not get my own Quads (2905s) until 8 years ago. They are keepers.
Listening to Vandersteen 2ci powered by Jeff Rowland electronics circa 1989 at advanced audio systems in Tacoma Wa. Just sold them last year. Song was Bob Dylan's " man with the long black coat".
(great thread) I'll keep it in the last 5 yrs, since all my really big 2-channel moments were 35+ yrs ago.
I have a pretty robust desktop system. For years I got along with less than audiophile 2.1 speakers/sub. Pretty good, but not as good as possible. Last year I bit the bullet and bought a pair of ATC SCM 12 Pro's. DAMN! Not only are they the best 2-ways I ever heard, but they manage an extreme tightrope-walk of great accuracy w/o sounding edgy/tiresome. Great monitors.
The other big moment was finally getting a non-oversampling (NOS) multibit DAC and replacing my pretty good delta-sigma DAC on the desktop. For the first time in all these years listening to digital, I'm able to totally relax and not hear music files as "digital," just as music. That's kind of priceless...
This past year I replaced my entire system a component at a time. Consequently, many a smack. What made the largest change for the better was my recent XD upgrade to the Krell 575 Solo. Amazing.
1969----There I was, a High School Senior listening to KLH-9's.I knew I had to get a pair. 1973----At a yard sale I picked up a Magnavox 175 chassis for $5. When I realized that it was better than my Marantz 8b I started building.
Two gobsmackments: (1) wires. Never knew what they could do for a system. Most cost effective money you can spend on system upgrade. (2) the difference a preamp can make in a system. Jim Heckman
Like others, my “gobsmacked” moment has been with going from SS to tubes. I’m more on the “starving artist” end of the audiophile spectrum, but managed to snag a pair of speakers very early on (JBL L65s) that have quieted any serious upgrade-itis for over 40 years and a refoam. Over the years, these speakers have been fed with a procession of source components too lengthy to list. They’ve been powered with (in order) a Pioneer SX-1250 receiver, a Denon PMA 700V integrated (a somewhat lesser gobsmack moment relative to the SX-1250), and a “brief” foray into the realm of multi-channel, audio/video receiverdom (a Sony GA7 ES, bought in 1997 which is still going strong and will see service in another room). All these have been severely upstaged, however, by the PrimaLuna Prologue Classic tube integrated I brought home last weekend! I am left simultaneously smiling from ear to ear and grieving for all the years I lost not switching to tubes.....of course everyone’s ears/preferences are different but I seem to have stumbled upon another genuine audio-related keeper-for-the-long-haul. My ‘65s are now being fed by a Music Hall MMF-5 turntable & pa1.2 phono stage > the Prologue Classic.
40+ years of getting closer. New house in 2000...lights dimmed when major appliances kicked in...Central Maine Power Company comes, tests, following Sunday at 10am a crew installs a new transformer (WITH NEW GROUND) outside house. Most recent, Furutech products to 10amp dedicated line, outlet/cover & male end to line conditioner and Nano Fluid to EVERY metal to metal contact. When it comes back from my friend, driver connects to Salks & Blue fuse contacts...I describe the changes to audio pals, "imagine upgrading all pc's, interconnects and speaker cables...at one time!" Happy tunes and may all your harmonics be even, Lads. Pin
8 kilo bronze platter for Garrard 301. Amazing detail and soundstage . Vcap coppers in Cary 300sei.. took 20 minutes max to install. smoooth midrange with bass extension I never thought possible with 300 b tubes
1980's. Infinity QA speakers with emit ribbon tweeters. Playing Pink Floyd The Wall LP, on a Rabco st-7 turntable, yamaha "natural sound" receiver switch set to class A. I got up out of my chair to look out my window to see who's kids were laughing and playing outside in my front yard. There was no one out there. It was side 1, cut 3 on the Pink Floyd album creating a beautiful illusion of a virtual reality in my living room.
Took advantage of a recent listing on Agon and picked up a pair of High Fidelity Ultimate Reference Helix Power Cables. The first one I ran from the wall to my power distributor. The second one I ran from the power distributor to my CDP. Even though they are still breaking my system has never sounded better!!!
Millercarbon I know this is more expensive, but the Walker Talisman for CDs and LPs is much easier and faster to use than a demagnitizer. $200 but saves so much time and effort. Time is both money and there's too little of it.
Spending my university scholarship money in 1970 on an all-AR system: turntable, integrated amp and AR-3A’s. Blew me away and was the best system in my dorm, by far. Helped inspire further crazy spending by friends over the next few years leading to a great setup loved by us all: Thorens turntable, Crown preamp, Crown DC-300’s and bi-amped RTR speakers: many memorable parties in ‘73 - ‘75! Then, while living in the UK, Musical Fidelity class-A amp and speakers in late 80’s. Purchasing an Ohm Acoustics MicroWalsh home theater setup in 2004 and then enjoying the “Concert for George” DVD - knocked out everyone who saw and heard it. Now, using a Crown Audio XLS 1502 to power my Ohm’s (instead of the Denon AVR) - a revelation in openness, effortlessness and bass taughtness and extension.
mg16"Infinity QA speakers with emit ribbon tweeters."
You are confused, disoriented, and distracted or ignorant, misinformed, and incompetent because the EMIT transducer as designed, manufactured, and applied by Infinity Systems is not a ribbon transducer by any standard, definition, or reference.
First musical gobsmacked moment was hearing Pink Floyd live. WOW! I'd no idea music could sound like that.
Second we hearing a true audiophile system at a shop in Apeldoorn. They had a Musical Fidelity separates with something from B&W. They had to kick me out of the shop cause I wouldn't stop listening.
Just switched from Tidal to Qobuz and set up Roon - I've been in an constant state of gobsmacked-ness over all of it. Like a kid in a candy shop. :)
I'm also gobsmacked that autocorrect is correcting this correctly :)
First time I heard ATC in 1994. I thought the demo pair I heard must be a one off freak or unicorn of exceptional performance (never having heard a speaker sound so realistic before) - so I immediately bought the demo pair from the store owner and stuck them in the car. Since then I discovered that all ATC and especially larger active models share the same magic.
geoffkait I meant that the Walker Talisman which is a demagnitizer is easier to use than a bulk tape demagnitizer that millercarbon suggested. You know that I know the difference but didn't spell it our precisely.
Overall the bulk tape eraser would be my choice but I got a deal as an insider on the Talisman when they first came out. I could make a Talisman for twenty bucks. Give me a break.
I know the Talisman has a 1000% mark-up but it is worth the $200 I paid for it. It is more consistent (100%) than my AudioDesk CD lathe/trimmer which I bought used for $200 as well. I stopped using it because I don't know that it is 100% safe to trim CDs and doesn't consistently improve CD sound. Plus the AudioDesk is now priced at $1,100 at Music Direct. How much do you think other tweaks cost versus their value? Perfect Path, Synergistic Research tweaks probably have huge mark-ups, especially the fuses.
Price can be determined many ways. Having a monopoly on something or another certainly helps. Or maybe run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes. By the way I got my Talisman for $100. 🤗
Moving to a D-Sonic amplifier for my Magnepan .7. I am running an Aric Audio preamp, the combination is amazing. Effortless, open, present and holographic. Maggies need power and more power, current is everything. They sing now and do what they are so great at.
Hooking up my Lepai amp to my Magneplanars. Absolutely gobsmaked. The heavens parted and the entire symphony was transported to my living room. Other than the fact that it was a little crowded with so many folks there it was just amazing!
Great question. My first such experience was in 1973 hearing the JBL Paragon speakers with Macintosh tube amplification. Then a couple of years later hearing a pair of Magnepan speakers. Then 40 years later, Spatial Audio M4 Triode Master speakers.
Then even more recently: Don Sachs 6SN7 preamp, Don Sachs KT88 amp
If you search long enough, you will find audio nirvana!
1) My first pair of Stax headphones, er I mean earspeakers. 2) when I moved my system from a small crowded family room to a spacious basement. My wife misses me.
Most of the times, except for drastic and very costly changes, few changes or upgrading of gear in my experience rivals the astounding results I had obtain by cleaning the audio grid and the electrical grid of my house with my own cabled batteries connected stones grid......By the way most people, some professionnals included, underestimated totally the higher noise level that percolate in their audio system unbeknownst to them … That is my own important discovery pertaining to audio and gobsmack moment ...
This is easy. My aha moment was coming around a corner in a Sam Goody store in the seventies. They were playing music through JBL L100s. I remember thinking, "WHAT THE HELL!" I’ve been chasing the dragon ever since, but I have finally caught him: Upgraded Tekton Double Impacts-Vincent SV-237MK-Bluesound Node 2. I am content.
L100s! I could only dream of L100s! Best I could do with my newspaper route money was the L26. When they went on sale. Was always a bit jealous of my friend who somehow managed to save up for the L36.
Thanks Elisabeth I will try the magnetic sheet also...In my batteries+ stones and crystals cabled grid I added magnets to the batteries with success, then I dont doubt the results with this sheet magnet under the gear...I will try it for sure...
I tried the thickest of 4 thicknesses of kitchen magnet mats and it (as well as stacked 6 of them) had no effect on the sound under equipment or on a power panel. I would have liked them to. I purchased a dozen Perfect Path Omega E-Mats. Instant improvement with one, superb sound from a dozen.
Only one Perfect Path Omega E-Mats cost more than the total sums paid for all my gear,including 2 headphones AKG K 701 and K 340, 200 bucks for the 2) ,an amp,(Sansui AU 7700, 100 bucks ) and a dac (starting point systems nos, paid 24 bucks new on a bid), and my speakers (Mission Cyrus 781 paid 50 bucks) then I cannot invest in one of these mats that sells 600 bucks with a system cost around 400 us bucks...
But my system is already cleaned by my stones grid and the electrical house grid is also already cleaned by my own design grid and I hope the cheap solutions of Elisabeth will makes a sensible difference in my system, a perceptible one because of my lower noise treshold... I just paid 20 bucks for 2 magnetics fridge mats...I will report later...
Magnets and magnetic fields for the most part are something to be avoided. That’s why mu metal should be wrapped around large transformers and why a degausser is of great value for removing magnetic fields from CDs, LPs, cables and cords. And why audiophiles generally avoid ferrous chassis connectors, The willy nilly application of magnets is probably best avoided. Some audio products employ magnetism in their design, even some of mine. But there probably aren’t any audio products that work solely by applying a magnetic field. Yes, I realize that one cable operates by “magnetic conduction.” So, please, no angry emails. Plus there are some very specific applications for small colored ceramic magnets courtesy PWB Electronics. Yet, I remain open minded, so keep experimenting.
Yes 2 cheap mats will be used here nevermind where ...But I hope and I am confident to notice an improvement like the one you note...My systems with stones and crystals cabled connected grid +batteries+magnets is very musical and the noise threshold is lowest after all that I did....Thanks for the idea,nevermind the results...
Geoff I am with you for the magnets...But mine are only on the batteries not in contact with the gear, and they are only fridge magnets, and they make a very sensible difference on the small batteries I use... My stones cabled and crystals audio grid is not connected to the gear and exist near the amp ,near the dac and speakers, no magnets is directly in contact with a piece of equipment, it is not good and I am perfecty ok with your advice...My house electrical grid is also cleaned with stones...And I use aluminum sheets to isolate piece of gear from one another...
By the way it is you who speaks to me of the Stein Harmonizer that included in his design crystals and batteries if I remember correctly...I was pleased because that confirm the effectiveness of my own design by an another road...I only added some magnets to the batteries because the effect was more effective...
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