need advise, which is the weakest link in my audio chain

i did it .. thanks imhifiman 😁

thank you for your reply sir.

1. room acoustics 

- 2'x4' absorption panel at front wall (behind of each speaker)

- 2'x4' diffuser of each side wall

- ceiling corner bass trap

- some acoustic panel at rear wall

- room size is rather small .. 10'x10'

- speaker pull out 1.5' from front wall and side wall, slight toe in

2. no power conditioner

3. bass is enough without sub

i have heco sub, but seldom use coz some song low freq may overblown in my small room

4. cables

- speaker cable use cardas quadlink 5c

- pre to power - interconnect nordost flatline black knight

- cd player to preamp - use chord clearway

- rega dac idling not in use 

Charles,

seems like i should borrow any power amp from friends to try out

anyone ever listen to quad power amp ?

Hi soix..

glad to hear you have bp6 as well, yes it does very neutral and silent preamp

in my country (Malaysia) seems almost non exist to find the McCormack amp

bp6 with 3bst i found a bit bright

for the dac, yes the rega i think time to be replaced

cause it did not give me improvement when marantz cdp connected to rega dac

Dear Christian

i have a 40 inches tv screen at front wall

ok i will give it a try to throw a blanket cover it 😉

when connected marantz to rega dac - sound slight organic but top end a bit loss

yes, i agree with most of you .. room issue limited the potential of my current setup

i was so desperate to find the weakest link on my equipment until forgot my super small square box room is the one degrade the overall sound😅

btw, i am non I.T savvy guy, how to upload picture here ?

my room photo was in my computer hardisk.

thank you everybody to give so many good suggestions.

1. yes, my listening room is given me lot of trouble when initial setup

beside too small, worst it is in square. but that the only room i have at this moment.

i have tried many acoustics placement.

my experience if absorption panel at side wall result the top end roll off and it sound lifeless too.

so long term plan renovate house, i have an option to extend the room from 10'x10'  to 10'x18'

2. any idea which combination may give more positive impact ?

- solid state preamp (keep my bp6) + tube power amp

- tube preamp + lexicon nt-212 (keep my current amp)

- Sugden A21SE class A integrated amplifier 

3. does chinese dac any good for my upgrade ?

dear imhififan

i just did what you informed

but then next how to upload into this chat post ?

i just upload room photo in picture profile

but still not able to put picture in the forum due to below link was failed to access

(i think it was blocked at my working office) 😅

Create your virtual systems page and upload the photos.

  How Do I Create and Edit My Virtual System?

based on all helpful advise from you all

the priority more seems like :-

1. room issue

- bad shape and too small, probably better to keep current setup till i really have budget to renovate extend the room dimension

2. when no.1 done, then only i can review again my setup correctly, who knows i may love the sound later

recent years, i keep on trial and error changing amp, speaker, interconnect and power cable. adding dac and acoustic treatment too

urfortunately found that my friends setup at their home sound more spacious, lively and nice top end compare to mine. 

some of them spend not even half of my cost.

yes, they put the system at hall, a lot bigger space than my tiny square room.

this is 1st time i post forum ask about my gears, i feel really grateful to get good response useful advise and suggestions from u all.

atleast now i have clear direction which i should take first

Room.. room... room... my most weakest link here😁

btw in hifi world, upgrade gears and trying other brand sound signature is very additive and system synergy is important too.

my future target will be dac and adding new source streaming device

cheers guys 😎