Nice thread @knownothing! Thanks for starting...
2017 brought in quite a few major changes in my system, like some others here, and I can narrow it down to my most significant changes..... 1st, going back to 300b based SET amplification (Coincident Frank mkIIs), secondly, adding an amazing and fantastic sounding preamp to the mix (the Backert Rhumba 1.2), and finally cabling that tied it all together (Cerious Tech Graphene Extreme speaker and power cables, Teo and HFC ICs).
2018 will be a year of “enjoying and discovering more music”. Not that previous years weren’t, but I don’t anticipate any major changes for the foreseeable future.
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Wow, great posts! What prompted the OP was finally finding the right cartridge for my vintage Thorens TD 150mkII. I installed just this week an Audio-Techinca AT 150Sa which is an evolution from the AT 150MLX no longer available. Right out of the box clearly better match than other similarly priced cartridges I have tried. Can now play with B&W digital sub with zero or at least unnoticeable single digit Hz rumble. 45 rpm recordings were especially challenging before, not now. New AT cartridge has excellent tracking and bass, ruler flat frequency response. According to only review I could find, this cartridge is supposed to have more fully fleshed out midrange compared with the 150MLX but reserving judgement on overall sound till broken in. Grado in system previously was champ in that department, but rumble was awful. |
Doing major upgrades to my Naim system. I replaced my Naim NAP 250 amp with the NAP 500, I replaced my Naim CDS-3 CD player with the Naim 555 CD player with 2 power supplies, I replaced my Naim 252 pre-amp with the awesome Naim 552 pre-amp, and I just ordered a pair of Grandinote Mach 36's to replace my classic Linn Isobariks.
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@inna
ill try those out. Should be able to source those via Craigslist easy enough.
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Built speakers, TMW config. Crossovers are modified from Icon Parsecs. Drivers from Seas, ScanSpeak and Audax. Stunned at the results. IMHO they compete with factory towers @$10k.
(Unavoidable pride/bias I suppose, but verrry gratifying project).
Timbre and detail..can’t get any work done cause I can’t walk away. |
Iwal22, can relate. How did you solve potential cabinet issues? Biggest challenge in my experience. Pictures online somewhere? |
Change from 20 yr Spectral owner to Pass Lab.
Added a Tru-lift tonearm lifter to TT. Makes playing vinyl almost as easy as CD. No adverse effect on SQ. |
Added a Schiit Audio Freya Tube Preamp and a Primaluna Prologue 5 Tube Amp.I use the all tube ckt for music and have even left it in the mix on some Movies after I had played some Dvd or Bluray concerts.Pretty sweet but,for Metal I go back to the SS Ckt. |
+1 the single repeated most satisfying change: ROON |
Knownothing.
Use online calcs for cabinets and brace brace brace. Also all mdf. 1 in for front baffle of woofer cab. All drivers have their own cabs and are isolated from one another w sorb Otha next, which improved detail tremendously.
Ill get some images up ASAP. |
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Upgraded from Sonos Connect to the Aurender N100H streamer with Tidal, then added the level 3 Holo Audio Spring dac.........oh yeah!
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fourwnds,
Just make sure they are MK II, they are claimed to be a big improvement over the original. |
Geoffkait
ite against spellcheck and I caved. |
Ha. It’s me against typing too. |
Tidal + Bluesound Node 2/Powernode 2. Changed the way I listen to and purchase music. The only music I buy now is vinyl. |
I purchased a pair of Daedalus "Argos" speakers, they took eight months to to get, but the wait was well worth it. They are very sweet sounding set and the craftsmanship is first class. |
@Iwal22,
Sorbothane? Going in the wrong direction dude.
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Adding High Fidelity Power cords and MC O5s to my system |
Limiting the transmission of vibration from the bass driver to the midrange enclosure. The results speak for themselves. Don’t know what you though I was doing with the sorbothane but it works incredibly in this application. Maybe it wasn’t clear that each driver is in an entirely seperate enclosure. A stack of boxes so to speak.
The bass driver cab vibration either cancels, blurs or reinforces frequencies in the crossover range, best to keep it out of the midrange cab. Bit like keeping your subs from touching your monitors.
i did try solidly coupling the cabinets together, it was good, but not even close to this good.
Btw there are quite a few designs in the market that apply the same principle in various ways. .
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Iwal22 - thanks. Reason I ask about cabinets is because that is what makes or breaks home built (and commercialy built) speakers. Great drivers and well-designed crossovers in a crappy box can sound worse than modest drivers and crossovers in really good box(es). Not wanting to hijack own thread, but this gets me going.
@shadorne yes, so far its Roon by a mile. |
Benchmark DAC1 -> Benchmark DAC3 HGC.
Shadorne review helped me to decide. DAC3 is not only more refined but also fuller sounding in the lower midrange. DAC1 in comparison now seems a little "thin" sounding. Imaging is also better. I enjoy remote with source selection, volume control, mute, dim (lower volume), polarity and power on/off. The only negative, I found in reviews, is signaling the "state" (polarity, source, signal res/rate, mute, dim, power) by LED lights while other DACs use graphical LCD displays. I disagree. LEDs not only allow for low physical size, but also are better visible from the distance. LCD display would have to be pretty large to be readable from about 13 feet, while LED pattern, once familiar with, I can read from any distance. I don't have analog sources yet, but getting linestage for about 10% more was investment for the future. I also like volume control. It is of high quality and is "hybrid" meaning, that it adjusts digital sources in digital domain, while analog sources stay analog. |
I'm extremely pleased with the Duelund tinned copper in cotton, oil impregnated speaker cables I made, 12 and 16 gauge.
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Knownothing
ill launch a diy speaker thread. Hardly the 1st, but why not. Like to hear about others experiences— good and bad.
Happy New Year all.
Lou |
At the start of the year, I swapped out an ADCOM 5400 for a Jolida JD 1501P. This softened the brightness, and made my B&W`s listenable. In 2016, I discovered, that, tubes can make a difference. Teamed a multi-bit Bifrost, with a NAD 515 CDP, which made a great improvement. |
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Along with the Cerious Technologies Matrix Cables I have already mentioned, I recently brought home a Linear Tube Audio 20 watt UltraLinear amp. This is a new product and I don’t think it’s even on their web site yet but it is transformative in my system.
i have owned David Berning’s ZH230 and LTA’s ZOTL40. This is superior to those fine amps top to bottom. I have never heard Berning’s 75K 211 / 845 Monoblock Amplifiers but the UltraLinear must be close.
Lance |
No "satisfying" changes this year. One Seriously Questionable change: Naim CDS3 got packed and went into storage, Wadia 781i became my only spinner for both SACDs and CDs. Nakamichi LX-3 cassette deck took the place of CDS3, to make cassettes for my "barbeque boombox - Philips "The Elephant""
My BestBuy of 2017: AudioDesk CD lathe. This is a MUST for all of us who still spin silver discs instead of streaming/downloading. Shall post my "hard-core" results that Lathe/CD balancing is NOT a snake oil... in a few days... hopefully... the results are so strange that I keep double-triple-checking them "ad nauseum".
Happy 2018, my friends!!! Be kind to each other :-) |
Man! I just realized that the only things in my system that were not changed are my speakers and universal disc player.
The most satisfying award is a tie between a Primare I32 upgrade and a $35 CD that guided me to position my speakers in a manner I would never have dreamed of. Huge improvement in sound quality! |
made multiple, and highly significant upgrades this year. Ordered Soundsmith 'The voice' cartridge, same time I ordered tubes4hifi SP14 line stage. Received cart 1st-big step up from Clearaudio Maestro. Had some bad luck in other areas of life, which delayed getting t4hf St120 amp. Had time to evaluate between changes. These gave me a pretty nice system. Even at this point, instrument voices on symphonic instruments poorly discriminated, i.e. hard to tell different brass instruments apart, etc. Phono stage thru this period was Moon 5.3.; spent lot of effort researching, bought a B-stock Whest 30RDT Special Edition. 2nd disc I played was Sibelius; blew me away. James told me 30RDT would suffice with my turntable, but I bought "My Last Phono Stage'. This took me to, for me, Audio nirvana. Not the last word, but have no smearing, is smooth and even, gorgeous tone, timing, (Avid tt) the Whest shows the drive. Every album has at least improved clarity and more air/space. Some things night/day difference. Classical now enjoyable--didn't listen to much before cause it didn't sound right. Ready to just enjoy listening to it. Took all of them to get it there, but got what I wanted for sound. |
Installed Primacoustic room treatment purchased from Sweetwater in my dedicated room. Biggest improvement in sound quality I’ve ever experienced in 40+ years in this hobby.
Tom |
PS Audio Directstream DAC and DirectStream Memory Player |
Subtracted two bass traps/back...done (yeah right!) |
Changing from a Krell processor to a Lexicon processor
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Picked up a pair of Klipsch Heresy IIIs..... very much a 180 from my last speakers but very dynamic and fun to listen to....especially with live recordings / concert blurays. Amazing how great they sound with 40 watts of EL34 power..... hope to build a SET kit soon. |
I picked up a very low hour First Watt F5. To my ears,a very,very great amp. |
Legacy Audio Whispers w/ Wavelaunch. Love em. |
My PS Audio DirectStream memory player. Paired with my PS Audio DirectStream DAC, the best digital sound I've experienced. |
swapping out a Hafler dh100 pre for a Modwright 9.0 swl
solid state rectified........this has been a tube revelation for me.
Very happy with it.
Also my wife got me Dragonfly Red for Christmas.
Originally to use through a Dell laptop but had some issues there
so tried on my wife's ipad to very good results.
Listen to youtube music mostly at night especially NPR tiny desk
studio which are often excellent and lets me hear many musicians
I would otherwise probably not find. Dragonfly good enough to
keep me coming back for more.
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Upgrading to all High Fidelity Ultimate Reference power cords for my system |
PS Audio Directstream DAC and Player, sounded so close to my anolog rig I upgraded that next to a VPI Prime, did not like the 3D arm so got the Technics SL1200G awesome sound and ease of use, then tried 3 different phono stages and settled on the Parasound JC3 Jr has to be one of the best buys in phono stages |
I upgraded every single piece of my system in 2017, though it bled into this year. The most satisfying plays, in descending order of impact, were: - Phono stage upgrade from Rogue Ares Magnum to VAC Renaissance SE. This was the last major change I made, and it was HUGE. There is a chance that all my other upgrades were somewhat bottlenecked previously, and then unleashed at once with this last piece.
- Speakers upgrade from Tannoy Canterbury SE to Canterbury GR. This was the 1st upgrade I did. Speakers are always critical!
- From a crappy Lovan rack and maple Platform to a Critical Mass Systems Maxxum! It holds my turntable, Phono, and preamp. No more worries about tipping over if leaned on or bumped against, and some significant feedback issues to the turntable have been completely mitigated. I think it’s also helped very much with noise floor and 3D soundstage. Turntable was upgraded at same time so maybe these are intertwined. It’s so satisfying to look at my rack, too, and know it’s taking great care of my gear.
- All the other upgrades together have combined for great effect. But I can’t say I noticed a huge leap forward as they each went in individually. Amp, preamp, power conditioner, cables, etc.
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My upgrades were also extensive over the last half year, bleeding into this year. 1. Replaced Cary tube preamp with Linear Tube Audio MZ2. I already had the LTA ZOTL40 amp and the two LTA units together really is the way to go if the amp clicks with your speakers. 2. After selling the Cary, I needed a new phono preamp. Contracted Don Sachs to build me his PH16 phono stage. Couldn't be happier, again a major upgrade in sound, maybe two. 3. Upgraded a number of cables to Cerious Technologies. Just recently upgraded just the speaker cables to the new Graphene Matrix line. Wow, these were a big price jump but no regrets. Worth every penny. 4. Gave my Lyra Delos cartridge a new bother, adding the Audio Technica ART 9 cartridge to the cart stable. The ART 9 at half the Delos cost is eye opening. I've put the Delos to the side for now. 5. Six Vicousic DC2 diffusor panels between the speakers on the listening wall. It was bare before. Much better focus/imaging and they look really cool. 6. Latest purchase, the Technics SL-1200G turntable. This was another maybe two step upgrade over my prior Marantz table. |
Many upgrades from September 2017 to the Present: System 1: Replaced GE Triton 1 speakers with GE Triton References speakers, Replaced Rogue RP-5 preamp with McIntosh C2500 tube preamp, Replaced Magnum Dynalab MD100 FM Tuner with McIntosh MR88 Tuner, Replaced Conrad Johnson MF2550 amp with a McIntosh MC152 amp. Replaced old audio rack with new Solid Steel 6 shelf rack. System2: Replaced Parasound Halo Integrated amp with McIntosh MA6600 integrated amp, replaced Cambridge Audio CXC CD Transport with McIntosh MCD301 SACD player, replaced Magnum Dynalab MD90 Tuner with McIntosh MR85 tuner, replaced GE Triton 2 speakers with GE Triton 1 speakers, replaced Pangea audio rack with a Solid Steel 5 shelf rack, Added platform for integrated amp. I think I'm done and broke now. |
@stereo5 That accounts for the abrupt jump in McIntosh stock!😉 |
Added two vintage tube amps: - VAC 30/30 MKIII Signature (VAC converted my 30/70 monoblocks into two stereo amps... so I've kept one and will sell the 2nd one)
- Music Reference RM9 MKII
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A significant investment which made dramatic differences include the following in 2017:
Bricasti M28 Monoblock Power Amplifiers
Wilson Benesch Torus Infrasonic Generators/Crossovers/Amplifiers (Pair)
Akiko Corelli Passive Power Conditioner
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polk432
Legacy Audio Whispers w/ Wavelaunch. Love em.
Old thread, but just had my Whispers / Wavelet delivered Saturday. |
