I love exploring music of all genres. Roon/Qobuz changed my life in this regard. I guess you sometimes can teach a dog new tricks.
List your breakthrough products that you’ve discovered on this audiophile Journey.
1. Add Powr sorcerer X2/4
Get this guy with a Nordost QB base and chuck your high $$$ power conditioning units for sale on the ‘Gon.
2. Hemingway Zcore cables. The beginning line of Zcore called the Alpha will outrun 90% of the super high end cables on the market 😱. They’ve been tested by those who run the big name brands and the Alpha comes out on top. Why? One word, realism. The next line up called the Beta is where the breakthrough Technology comes into play. Install a few of these and you will be a believer in this design. Sigma and Omega are next in line and although big $$$ you don’t suffer the law of diminishing returns.
3. Theoretica Applied Physics Bacch-SP Adio 3D Sound Processer. One box does it all. The future in one box. Bottom feeders will choke on this one.
4. Quantum Science Audio fuses. These guys work! Go Red! Unleashing your equipments full Glory.
This tread is only for your listed breakthrough products and not open to the haters and Eeyore type folks. I am sure they will leak in here to try and mock and distract this main purpose.
Dear Eeyore,
Please name your favorite, Positive, breakthrough product.
Get this guy with a Nordost QB base and chuck your high $$$ power conditioning units for sale on the ‘Gon.
2. Hemingway Zcore cables. The beginning line of Zcore called the Alpha will outrun 90% of the super high end cables on the market 😱. They’ve been tested by those who run the big name brands and the Alpha comes out on top. Why? One word, realism. The next line up called the Beta is where the breakthrough Technology comes into play. Install a few of these and you will be a believer in this design. Sigma and Omega are next in line and although big $$$ you don’t suffer the law of diminishing returns.
3. Theoretica Applied Physics Bacch-SP Adio 3D Sound Processer. One box does it all. The future in one box. Bottom feeders will choke on this one.
4. Quantum Science Audio fuses. These guys work! Go Red! Unleashing your equipments full Glory.
This tread is only for your listed breakthrough products and not open to the haters and Eeyore type folks. I am sure they will leak in here to try and mock and distract this main purpose.
Dear Eeyore,
Please name your favorite, Positive, breakthrough product.
126 responses Add your response
Impressive, aren't they? Saturday we were at Brandon's, put them under his Pendragon XL, transformed his whole system and room. When speakers are decoupled from the floor it not only improves the speakers, it removes a huge amount of vibration feeding into floor and walls causing them to vibrate, producing sound that muddies and colors and makes you hear the room instead of the music. On Podiums we hear the music floating in the room much more clearly, almost as if the room itself is no longer even there. Remarkable stuff. |
bander- millercarbon You are very much welcome- and thank you for saying so. Of course it drives the haters heads to explode. (I know, rent free!) Which makes it all the more gratifying. I can’t try everything that’s out there- no one can!- but I go to a lot of trouble to find what I think is the best, and then when I can to learn how it does in fact work, by listening. The more you do this the more you will find yourself outside the monkey see monkey do norm. So be prepared. But also the more you will find yourself with an uncommonly satisfying system. So totally worth the effort. btw we did Podiums under Brandon's Pendragon XL yesterday, similar huge improvement in bass, removed so much overhang/resonance you would think would require many huge tube traps. |
bander- Townshend F1 interconnects. I'm awaiting their speaker podiums and would love to be able to afford their Fractal F1 speaker cables.These are genuine breakthrough products. You will be shocked, surprised and impressed how many resonance problems were coloring your sound unawares, only realized when putting your speakers on Podiums and poof they are gone! You probably heard this with your F1 interconnects, only the effect was maybe not as obvious owing to all the other colored gear still being used. That's what happened with me. In my case I did Pods on one thing after another until finally doing Podiums with the Moabs. Wow. Huge. This gave me confidence to try the F1 cables. These are all very similar in that they are so perfectly devoid of any sound of their own. The sorts of resonances they eliminate are so prevalent across so many components they are like RFI on the AC, you can't hear it till it's gone! My room a year ago was so boomy that coming home after a visit to Mike Lavigne's place, hearing his exceptionally flat room and system, it was like a sore thumb. Now though, Chuxpona Sunday, not at all. Huge difference, without even so much as a single room treatment. Breakthrough, indeed! |
@dougeyjones The speaker connections for my sub's I had no idea what they were there for, along with XLR connections for amps/preamps and such. It was just a moment where I'm like "I know nothing about HiFi". That's all I meant, but now I just need to listen more and read less. I feel the sound is better, but nothing objectively to base it off of. |
Taught to use audiolab 3.0 by my eldest friend (rip Asit) record my records to. A 99$ computer bought for 99$ when tiger direct went out of business. clean them, boost specific stuff, record to taiyo Yuden cdrs’ Audioquest cable warranty. - sending in my cables,.... balanced cables , one of the wires was broke from use, sent in,....fixed,, tested returned to me like new., best warranty in audio. now if some of their products were not so darn expensive, I would have more. Still, a great company!! finding a pair of Energy rc-70’s for 317$ Out the door' shipped...at frys! Finding extra styli for my Ortofon headshells ARKIV and NIGHTCLUB II, THE SMALL add ons From kab us for my SL-1200s’mkIIs’ blue jeans cables, which erased the radio station feedback in my tweeters. Amplifier covers, other covers (VCR) for other components. |
About eight months ago I purchased an Astell & Kern SE100 portable player. That together with the Campfire Audio Ara earphones and Campfire's pure silver litz cable sounds great. What made it a breakthrough for me was that it is portable. It will do FLAC and Qobuz offline. I can take it with me on trips, sitting on the dock, watching soccer and baseball practice, wherever. It really sounds excellent and I do not have to be in front of my main system in order to hear great sounding music. |
First the ESS TranStatic, then the Infinity Servo-Static, then the Magneplanar Tympani, and finally the QUAD ESL. Yes, all loudspeakers. Close behind the Decca pickups, now in improved construction under the London name. Can't leave out the Sheffield Direct-To-Disc LP's, d-2-d being the highest fidelity means of recording yet devised by man. Other companies started making and offering them as well, but Sheffield was the pioneer. |
The single greatest bang for
the buck audio device I ever bought is my DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core room
correction unit plus digital equalization. I have used it to take my audio
system to a level that did not exist before. And I don’t trust my ears to guess. I use tones and a microphone to get flat sound 25-16k or so. The difference with the room bass correction and minor equalization is night and day. No one would argue, and the best money I ever spent on audio in 40+ years.
|
For me, it was 3 major things: 1. CDs. When they first came out, my friend called to his house, threw one against the wall and said, “look, their digital and they don’t break.” We spent so much money on CrO2 tapes seeking the perfect recording and looking for ultimate vinyl before then. 2. HDMI - yes, even in the early days, it created simplicity. 3. Hsu Tubes: I still have my original pair from none other than Dr. Hsu himself who I talked to directly about them when he invented them together with the outboard amp that is still going strong. They are nearly 5’ tall, have no WAF and sound unbelievable. I think they go down to 16-17HZ. Came with multiple spikes, a box of crossovers and circuit pullers. Just fabulous. Before the tubes, subs were just not that good to me. Now two big SVSs or whatever you like are great, but much more money and not any better than the tubes, in fact none blend as well to thins day IMHO. |
My feeling is in line with Tunehead. Streaming and a good streamer transformed my appreciation for music and my system. I get so much more out of my dac with my lumin sbooster setup with Roon than I ever could with some really good or great transports over the years. And my music library is nearly limitless. Through this developed a more nuanced appreciation of more aspects of the sound and music, I’ve been able to change a few components and really find what I enjoy most now, no real breakthrough. Just access to a more vast and for me better quality source of music. |
I have tried upgraded power cords, cables, fuses, tube swapping, PPT products, isolation platforms, power conditioners and noting changed my musical experience until I added a Lucas Audio LDMS Music Server to my Lampi Pacific. I would put this Music Server against the Taiko Extreme half the cost and unbelievable customer service. It just took my Music to another level. Next up is QSA yellow fuses and room acoustics. |
Streaming and streamers. Period. Discovered (for me) in 2021 after being away from HIFI since the early 90’s. This is the only thing I see as something that did not exist only a couple of decades ago yet has become as important and diverse as those core components I already knew about like power amp's, pre amp's, speakers, cables, turntables, CD players, R2R, tape decks etc. Ya, I’d say breakthrough technology. |
Trinnov Altitude 16 It doesn’t go as far as the Theoretica regarding stereo separation in that it doesn’t do cross-talk elimination, but uses the same idea of adding digital filters to the output to correct for measured problems caused by walls and speakers, it doesn’t need a camera to track you and it works for multiple listeners. This has a startlingly large effect on the immersive effect of the audio - like spooky holographic cohesive sound field, most pronounced on well-recorded material. It was such a large upgrade to my system, I can’t even remember why I used to care about cables, etc. I might be curious to hear the Theoretica one day just for kicks, but I don't want one because I think its focus on a 3D soundstage (and my need to stay within it) would reverse all the progress I made with the Trinnov in terms of being able to relax and forget about the equipment and just enjoy listening to the music. |
In sell my stuff threads like this I never see what I think is the most amazing single device for sound quality which is a Xilica XP 4080 or equivalent. To take control of all the variables and bring your components up to the highest level they are capable of and correct for room problems too. Of course it requires time to learn and program and software to use with your calibrated mike so you can assess what is really going on. Beats the heck out of try this and try that expensive gizmo until you stumble on something you really like. I see Mr OP that your listed personal system reflects all that nice tasty expensive gear you are loving on heh heh. |
ROXY54 You think that ad is badly translated? My first motorcycle, a 1968 350 Yamaha Big Bear had an amusing section in the owner's manual: When describing what rpm to maintain to keep from fouling the two stroke plugs, it claimed that following the recommendation "...would keep the sparking plugs happy". |
@Glory I am curious about your definition of a "bottom feeder". Is it anyone without the financial ability to buy the very pretentious sounding Theoretica Applied Physics Bacch-SP Adio 3D Sound Processer or is it merely everyone that doesn't share your opinion? Or maybe you were referring to catfish or the very tasty, halibut. |
Wide-rand Real-time Transmission Cable. It will subvert your perception of audio cables. http://www.chenaudiolab.com/id48.html |