Best bang-for-buck investment I ever made... if you haven't already done so...
$3 at Home Depot for sand to fill your stands. Also mount speakers on stands with spikes and stand-to-floor with spikes also. Whoa! These things, all done at once, made a *major* improvement in bass. It got much tighter and a little louder. Made more of a difference than adding a 1K+ DAC setup to my multiplayer. In fact, made as much difference as going from a cheap Yamaha receiver to a Classe integrated (or more). |
Stop now before its too late and you impoverish yourself. If you are happy with the sound leave it alone. If you plan on spending a lot more money keep searching for the elusive perfect sound. Minor tweaks may make you feel better, but even better inexpensive ICs cost money. You might want to look at previous threads on cheap ICs. You may want to try vibration control under your source, lots of prices for that. Good Luck in being happy with what you have. |
This is what makes the hobby so much fun for me. Trying to find the right components for as little money as possible without sacrificing much if any in performance.There are so many goodies out there for cheap. It's just finding them and knowing what to look for.
Concentrate on the front end as much as you possibly can.Think power power power.Before going with a tubed cd player. I would consider a Dac with a good power supply.I know you don't want to spend more money but even a $135 Dac Ah would be a substantial upgrade for the front end.A cheap Dac like this has much better power supplies than a player remotely close in price.I'm willing to bet most players retailing for $1000 wouldn't have the power supplies of that Dac. Save your money on the little magic boxes and put it in something real.
Good luck |
1)Find speakers you want to keep for a long time (they dictate everything else).
2)Find pre/power amp (integrated) that compliments the speakers.
3)Find source that works well with 1&2.
4)Buy some new CD's.
5)Move speakers all around creation to find where they sound the best in your home.
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72)Visit Europe.
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152)Retire.
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397)Buy really expensive wire to connect your 1/4 million dollar system together.
Good luck! |
Buy used, old, McIntosh tube components and Vandersteen 3a Signatures and be done with it.
I now sit back and simply enjoy the music..... |
If I read this right, you've gone through 4 amps, 3 pre-amps, and 3 sets of speakers in 8 months. When do you have time to listen and figure out what you like and don't like? |
The first thing to do is to learn the most important tweak of all: Speaker Position. This is free and can make a very large difference in the sound of your system, more than an amp, preamp or cd player usually. Try different distances from sidewalls and the rear wall. Also try toeing in to the point of crossfiring in front of you a couple of feet. Find the best compromise.
Read up on room acoustics. This will affect the quality of the sound more than different electronics and can make a very large improvement in your sound. The cost per quality of sound unit is excellent.
Most of us here did it backwards in my opinion. We should have concentrated on knowing how to get the most out of our systems as they were before buying better gear. This will get you the best sound on the least amount of money. After thirty plus years in this hobby I feel that this is the most intelligent path and if I were to do it again I'd learn about room acoustics first, not after 20+ years. |
12-10-05: Maineiac
If I read this right, you've gone through 4 amps, 3 pre-amps, and 3 sets of speakers in 8 months. When do you have time to listen and figure out what you like and don't like?
I guess I need to reread the thread. I started out with a system that included the polk audio ls 50 for at least 6 years. I wanted to upgrade and started buying parts that others suggested. I bought some of the sfuff, and ran out of money so I never had a full set up. I never had a chance to listen to much of the gear and the Adcom was a 3 channel home theater amp. I got fed up with it all and sold everything and bought the Odyssey stuff. The cd player that I started with was free, but the Pioneer sacd sounds better in my rig.
I sold the Polk and the vandersteens to get some cash. The DCM TF-400 was $125 and finally got me listening to music. They do not match my room at all and the Chapmans will be in the rig by the end of the month. |
I would like to find a DAC, I have been watching for Ack, Nixon, or Sonic frontiers Dacs, but will add the Dac Ah to the list.
The suggestion with spikes will be headed as will, I have no stands to put sand in.
Any suggestion about were to learn about room accoustics? |
I'll second the previous ideas of playing around with speaker placement and looking into DIY room treatments. But if you're still looking for a good, cheap DAC, I'd heartily recommend looking at MSB line of dacs. The older ones should start at under 200. |
I want to second Warner's post, above. Room acoustics for some reason doesn't seem as sexy as equipment, but IMO it makes a bigger difference for the $. Here's one more thing to try...
get your rack out from between your speakers. As I see the pic on your system thread, your speakers are no taller than your rack, and it's directly between them. When I took my tv, and then my rack, out from between the speakers, I got a huge improvement in imaging. (I went so far as to remove everything from center except my amp.)
you could just try pulling the speakers forward, and maybe also mounting them on top of some blocks to get the tweeters to ear-level. |
I am taking the advice. I am staying put with gear for now and will begin to play with room dynamics. When I move in a month or two I will have a room set up for this, I will give it all a few months and then see what I need to do next.
Thanks again
Andy |
