I’m gob smacked. What were you’re aha moments?

lmnop-

@millercarbon. You’re a tweaker. That’s so not me. Not my skill set. I’m more a set it and forget guy. But gonna look into your anti-static advice. Static electricity is brutal where I live.

Wasn’t always like this. Was in fact very, extremely, unbelievably skeptical of all of this stuff! Once wrote a letter to the editor telling him to quit wasting space on such useless nonsense. Then I tried a few things. Cheap stuff. Cheap as in zero cost. Elevating speaker cables improves sound? I got wood. Paper cups. Plastic. Try it out. Nothing to lose. Damn, it does make a difference!

Not all tweaks work. An awful lot do change things, but not always in an unambiguously good direction. Lots of cones for example improve some aspects but not others or even make some things worse. Same goes for interconnects, speaker cables, power cords, conditioners, shelves, all of it. Same as amps, phono-stages, CD players. All of it.

Some of these we call components. Others we denigrate as tweaks. The epiphany is when you realize those distinctions are arbitrary. A fuse is as much a component as a CD player. Don't believe me? Try upgrading your fuse with a Blue Quantum fuse. Then try upgrading your CD player by $150. And tell me which made the bigger difference. I already know the answer. A fuse is just as much a component as an amp or a speaker.

That’s just a fact. That many, probably most, haven’t come around to understanding this does not in any way diminish the truth of it.

I sometimes take the easy way out and agree that yes I am a tweaker. Because I tweak. But the deeper more meaningful way of looking at it is that I am a value oriented audiophile. I do whatever gets me the most SQ for the money. Tweaks do that. In spades. To not tweak, its like leaving money on the table. Why would you do that?

Are you saying you doubled or trippled your bass by replacing your OPPO UDP-205 with a  Bryston BCD-3 CD player?  Is this even possible?  If so, could you please explain the electronics behind this?

Going from tubes to class D. I am never going back. 

First was AR3a speakers powered by a Dynaco Stereo 120.Most recent was PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium preamp and Dialogue Premium HP amp.

Magic Chicken’s Foot (MFT) beats ‘em all. 

MIT styrene capacitors. Opened up the whole modification trail. Then the DIY trail. Now everything practical is made of air gap or vacuum caps and nude Vishay or nichrome wire resistors.

It was setting up and listening to my Apogee Duetta Sigs in 1991. Still sound great today.

The first time I heard Maggies was a moment for me.  The end of box speakers in my home.

Interestingly, my wife was good with getting 20.7s, but room size ruled the day.  It was 14 years ago and we have not looked back.

Ironically it was when I replaced my vintage MC-240 amp with an Odysey Khartago Premium. I have severe restrictions on speaker size and placement in my old house so a highly efficient pair of Klipsch were simply not feasible to keep my venerable 40WPC Mc. The move to a larger modern amplifier (even though solid state) to drive my Davone Ray S speakers was nothing short of amazing in terms of bass I simply never had before. It didn’t hurt that my vintage C22 remained in the signal path.

Modified Sony Playstation PS1 SCPH-1000 after cheap CDPs

Reynaud Twin speakers and tube amp

Streaming Tidal with Modi Multibit using coax spdif input, Liquid Spark headphone amp and Nighthawk Carbon phones after cheap headphones directly from laptop using Spotify.

Good thread. What is GOB? Got over buying? 
PHT, ECT, HFT, RFI-WTF?

Having my ears syringed.... Seriously!

Makes me wonder how many bits of equipment I have let go that must have sounded real good!

Gob smacked. Has to be the most annoying expression in the history of audio. 

Hey tuberist, Which class d amp were you using. Just wondering, I've never used one except for with my sub, but they seem to be getting a lot of attention lately.

going back to tubed amplification from a Class D amp. I'm never going back to SS.

My very latest addition of SET mono’s from Audio Space Reference 3 (805). What a bargain, they were a blind buy and I didn’t expect them to be so crazy good! 

I swapped out the chinese stock tubes with some NOS and Sophia’s 300B tubes....wow!!!

Aloia power amp. This amp with its the separate induction power supply is absolutely wonderful. 

The first time I visited a high end audio store and heard what music reproduction was capable of as opposed to my dad's cheapo system at home,lol!I don't recall the brands on display.
The first time I listened to a Conrad Johnson tube amp transform the music when swapped in for a ss amp.

biggest surprises/improvements regardless of budget?

Many contenders!

1. Black Diamond Racing Cones. Still the best. Thank you, DJ. RIP.

2. Hexfred diodes

3. Synergistic Research- pretty much everything. First shock was replacing $2k AudioQuest Dragon speaker cable with I forget what SR but the shocker was they were only about $300!

3. SR Active Shielding. Jaw-dropping demo.

4. Cryo. Found a local cryo tank, tested a few things, and when I heard how good it worked pulled everything from the panel to the speakers- yes everything, house wiring, entire CD player, EVERYTHING and had it all cryo'd. (Not ripoff audiophile pricing either. Cryo One. Total bargain.)

5. Anti-static and Demagnetizing. First was the demagnetizing tracks on the XLO Test CD. Then the Radio Shack bulk tape eraser on CD's. Then on records, cables. Then Cable Elevators lifting cables up off the floor. Then plain old laundry anti-static spray. Do it all some night. You will be gobsmacked too!

6. RFI. Thought this was BS. Then one day discovered its not. Flip off all the other breakers late at night some time and have a listen.

7. PHT, ECT, HFT. Absolutely gobsmacked! 

8. White Hot Stamper. Records do not all sound the same. A precious few are so close to perfect you simply cannot believe it. Until you hear it. 

That’s great that it was tubes for both of you. I’m still plotting/planning my way there. Hopefully another aha moment to look forward to 😎

That day in 1985 when I dragged home an ARC SP10 II pre-amp. My first tube product. WOW! I kept it for about 25 years.

Enjoy your Harbeth’s. I have a pair of SHL5+ in backup to my Monti’s. I get to switch back and forth between a boxed and unboxed sound. They complement each other very well. 

Well I just got new Harbeth M30.1's so I'm having an aha moment about every other song...Before these speakers it was the first time I tried a tube amplifier...