Just like oddiofyl, 2021 was also a major revamp for me.
Things I kept:
1. Music Hall mmf5 table from the early 2000s, along with original Goldring MM cartridge
2. Vandersteen 2ce floor demos purchased in 1994 with stands
Replaced several pieces of equipment and bought a few new ones:
1. Audiolab 6000a for preamp
2. Audiolab 6000cdt for CD transport
3. 2-Audiolab DC Blocks (one for the preamp and one for the CD transport)
3. Music Hall PA15.3 phono preamp
4. Cambridge Audio DACMagic 200M
5. Blue Jeans coax interconnects and analog RCA interconnects
6. Sony BDP-S6700 blu-ray player (used as a poor man's flac server - currently digitizing my CDs)
7. 2-AudioSource Amp100VS amps for monoblocks
8. A bunch of Suwimut Acoustic Sound Diffuser Panels
9. A bunch of Hudson Hi-Fi 1.25" platinum silicone isolation feet
10. Hudson Hi-Fi 13 oz. BigBen table weight
11. Runsheng Disc Demagnetizer (from alibaba)
12. Southwire 12 awg solid thhn shielded copper wire for speakers (from Lowes)
13. Inexpensive banana plugs (from Lowes)
14. 4-Quiet-Line MkIII Power Filters
15. Several Shakti Air Stones and several Shakti On-Lines
Also purchased a Pioneer TX-530 am/fm tuner for $20 at a flea market. No great expectations here - it works.
Currently waiting on the following:
1. Viborg MBU1501 Power Cable, 16pcs Multiplex Copper IEC320 C13 Mains Cord with VM502+VF502 (1.5M)
2. iFi Low Noise DC power supply 9V
3. Wyred 4 Sound Remedy Reclocker (the 9V iFi power supply is for this)
4. Blue Jeans Toslink interconnect (could only afford one of the Remedy's, so the Toslink is needed for the transport and a coax will be used for the Sony blu-ray flac server (manually switch inputs as needed))
5. 2-C13 to C14 14/3 awg power cords (for the 2 DC Blocks)
Definitely a lot of (relatively) inexpensive purchases over a period of several months. (I haven't won the Lotto yet, and I'm on a fixed income now.)
If the Viborg cable helps the Audiolab DC Block for the preamp, then I'll get another one for the CD transport DC Block.
The DIY tweaks seem to have made an improvement, as far as I can hear. The shielded, solid copper wire sounds a lot better to me than the shielded, copper stranded wire. And the banana plugs seem to work out fine.
The Quiet-Line MkIIIs definitely made things sound better, too.
I realize that products from Shakti (and probably some of the other stuff that I bought) are like the red state/blue state stuff of audio forums, but I don't give a sh*t. They helped my low-fi system a lot, and that's all that I care about. Things will change for the better once I win the Lotto.