If there is one thing you could change in your current system. What would it be?

Paying for the albums I play on it...

Yeah I'm happy with my systems...besides I'm 73 and don't hear as well as when I was 23...a lot of loud music since then...lol

@mihorn “Nothing can improve my system sound”

l think 🤔 the only way to improve your system would be to invest in a good pair of syringes. Both in the capable hands of a professional ear hearing physician technician.

After that and from experience, it’s as good as it gets.
 

Twin Syringes are the real deal for the best all round singing and dancing stereo sound.          
 

               ……🎶……..…....…....🎶……

@bigtwin them rels 212se got me covered 

I would invest in a more powerful power amp for my Maggie 3.7i speakers. Currently using Conrad Johnson solid state amp MM2275, 135 watts per channel.  It does a decent job in a room that is 26 feet by 14 feet.  However, I have read that more powerful amps really make Maggies sing.  Curious if others on here have traded up to more powerful amps for their Maggies and how it worked out.  

@deep_333 Yes, the Great Lake region of NY offers much better value.  Had a job opportunity at B&L Rochester in the late 90’s that I turned down and was amazed at the value.  I would have my room there, plus lake front and pool.   In-law family ties prevented the move.  I do not have fear of moving for retirement.  The same family ties are still the issue.  In my area, while not the most dear in the country, real property is over $650 per square foot, and probably average for large city US.  Taxes are an average of $11-12 a square foot and depending on the age and lot size.  Insanity.   The town offers a low cost country club and excellent educational system, but it’s still tax insanity.  It’s time to say arrivederci NY suburbs.  

@jsalerno277  I walked into a young lady's house in Buffalo sometime around 2020..., full blown house, you could crank it up to the clouds and not bother anyone..

i said, "how much?"..and she says, "80 thousand dollars!"

NYC is a .....well,. it becomes more of a psychological condition over time. Even the thought of moving a block can become very very scary.

However, living in the overpriced and overrated suburbs of NYC, with extraordinary real estate and education taxes, my listening room in my small home is the untreated living room, on a suspended floor system. If I move out of the area in retirement or otherwise hit the numbers big and stay, I would have at least have a dedicated treated trapezoidal listening room, possibly designed ground up with a solid foundation, no parallel surfaces, vaulted ceiling rising front to back, and four dedicated 20 amp lines from a separate breaker. Oh … to sleep, to sleep, per chance to dream (note I left out the die at my age).

Like the Stones with A Bigger Bang, a bigger room!

@pdreher That's been my experience also excited and hoping they work in my small room the woofer is a sealed cabinet and the bass doesn't go crazy low mid-30s. And the Japanese always seem to have huge horns jammed in tiny apartments!

@jond I bet you are going to love them.   I wish I had discovered horn speakers earlier... their dynamics and live sound can't be matched by box speakers in my experience.

@pdreher It's made by Deja Vu Audio my local dealer they usually make custom horns with vintage horns and drivers or a mix of modern and vintage. But they found some modern drivers they like and so they are doing a run of these it's either a 15 or 18 inch low excursion Italian driver, I went 15 inch with a horn loaded midrange and tweeter. They sounded amazing and were the first speaker of theirs I heard that I could remotely afford so I went for it. 

I just went through a bit of an upgrade cycle with new speakers amp and preamp. Very happy with what I have now, at least until I’m not, we all know how that goes.

the one thing I would change is the price

im very happy with my system, however, I heard my speakers with the burmester 909's in mono mode and I ordered a pair to replace my 218s which are stunning, the 909 is just a special amp, very excited

bump

@jond looking forward to finding out what horns you purchased!

@erik_squires Vandersteen make two amplifiers the hybrid 7 and all SS 5, both are monoblocks. Dream big !,,, Don’t miss the new SS control center either 

best to you in music

If there was something I wanted to change, I would have done it already. Never been shy about that. Taking a well deserved break now.

My room def.

But then id like to get a new DAC

Upgrade my Denafrips Pontus II DAC to the Denafrips Venus 15 DAC. 

The question has been posed many times before. I will respond as I have in the past.

I would change nothing with the component system.   However, living in the overpriced and overrated suburbs of NYC, with extraordinary real estate and education taxes, my listening room in my small home is the untreated living room, on a suspended floor system.  If I move out of the area in retirement or otherwise hit the numbers big and stay, I would have at least have a dedicated treated trapezoidal listening room, possibly designed ground up with a solid foundation, no parallel surfaces, vaulted ceiling rising front to back, and four dedicated 20 amp lines from a separate breaker.  Oh … to sleep, to sleep, per chance to dream (note I left out the die at my age).

Well I have to say a pair of horn speakers since I just bought them not sure exactly when I'll have them but very excited.

I sometimes think I can go a bigger speaker.  My infigo electronics and cables have me set there. My gato speakers are great I just think I would love to try another speaker one day. I’m happy but just curious. 

DAC/DDC/Clock

Besides better organization of my living room the only gear I have seriously heard that was just so spectacularly better than current is perhaps the CAT preamp and Vandersteen amp.  Yes, they make an amp. 

Besides that I’ve heard incremental differences in very expensive gear but these two are the only bits of gear I heard that actually made me wish I was part of the 1%. 

Everything else compared to my Luxman integrated was just a small improvement for tons  of cash or worse.  Those two bits of gear though are amazing. 

my knowledge of all things audio. That's by far the biggest obstacle in improving my system.

Nothing can improve my system sound. Everything (source, amp, cables, speakers) in my audio system are the best and most transparent sound in the world. Only way to improve my system’s sound will be modify (by me) the expensive (>$10k) SACD player (or streamer)

In 2nd thought, I don’t think that will improve my WT-95 sound because the new chip technology destroys the original musical data and the sound won’t be better. I've modded ESS 9038pro DAC and Chord Hugo2. Anyway, separate DACs can’t sound better than All-in-one WT-95. Every separate DACs always sound veiled and distorted. As long as audio companies don’t know what causes sound distortion, the separate DAC will always sound veiled and distorted. I know why separate DACs sound distorted but there is no way DACs to avoid it.

I won’t mod any $10k SACD player. The sound improvement will be noticeable but it won’t be worth extra $10k. Also, my mod is hard and needs many special replacement parts which are are hard to get for $10k players. Alex/Wavetouch audio

Small Core Audio Designs ceiling cloud. Arnold the proprietor has a fantastic music room and imo product.

Agree with @immatthewj in adding transducers of types. Maybe even immersive audio. 

Nothing... or everything. If I suddenly could afford to double my investment... then I would start research. 

I will change nothing right now because there is synergy between all the pieces of my small speakers system and i optimized everything (mechanical,electrical acoustical) to reach their peak working level together...(it takes many months to do that)..

I will change nothing now because the pieces cost : dac,amplifier,pre-amp tube equaliser, headphone amp, powered speakers, linear power supply,conditioner  are all at the same low price each pieces under 200 bucks each most around 150...

This is my secondary system for casual listening and non focussed listening...

I will change nothing in my main system: AKG K340, Sansui alpha, and Hidizs dac + file bank+equalizer... because this system is a TOP one already at peanuts cost (i tried to upgrade the amplifier and i failed the Sansui alpha is a TOP amp even for today and the K340 is very hard on most headphone amplifier...

But if budget is not a problem...

It is very easy to improve my secondary system with new  TOP speakers (driven now my my Sansui alpha instead of smaller powered one so good they are right now as modified and optimized, i will replace them with 1,000 bucks non amplified speakers probably...

i dont think i can replace the AKG K340 optimized with any headphone under 1,000 bucks and by most costlier headphones for reasons i will not repeat here...

My main improvement anyway in the last months was buying a better  non linear supply, a better purifier/conditioner at price lower even than the price of the pieces they replaced...

But my greatest impactful change was not buying gear ...

it was the specific grounding of ALL pieces of gear in my 2 system...(even the linear power supply, the computer, the conditioner were grounded separetely with all the other gear piece separately)

Epochal improvement...

As powerful as acoustics controls if i want to compared the change...Lower noise floor  impacting my 2 systems...

THe K340 is now a king among headphones...nothing i ever own even touch it...

Large separate room with dedicated AC lines instead of shared living space rooms.

Maybe a more efficient speaker.  The Ref 3A de Capos do well with a 4 watt Decware amp but every now and then a speaker with a 95db or above would be nice. lol 

No changes. Very happy with setup.

I can no longer think of a single thing, took me decades to get every t crossed and i dotted. I can think of a number of amps I'd like to add to the collection, specifically 2a3, 45 or 50 SET monoblocks.

@calvinj  are you sure you don't need more bass? 🤣   

Replace my Linn Komri speakers with Kudos Titan 808s.

. . . I would also put a TT in as the primary front end.  (Even though, all totaled, that is way more than one change I'd make.)  So if I was only allowed one change, it would be the room.

I would put it in a bigger room. I think I'd like to try a different style of speakers.  Meaning 3 way without a sub versus my two ways with a sub, soft dome tweeter versus hard dome, or even horns.  I also think I'd like to try out SET  versus my current push-pull, and I use to have monoblocks and I think I'd rather go back to those.