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"Vintage" high end gear vs new and upgrade path?

I'm pondering a couple issues that relate to each other.  Let's start with vintage vs new part.   The system is ripped straight from the 90's but was pretty much a Stereophile "A" class setup in its day.  Here it is: 

  • Rega P3 with numerous upgrades & Exact 2 cartridge (new)
  • Threshold FET10/pc phono preamp,
  • Sonic Frontiers SFT-1 => Assemblage D2D-1 ==> SFD-2 Mk3
  • Krell KBL preamp (recapped) ==> ML No. 332 amp  (recapped)
  • Maggie MGIIIa's (recent factory rebuild)
  • Music server (repurposed HP server) w/ Asus Xonar card feeding D2D-1
Issue 1:  Have >>analog<< electronics really improved much in the last 25 years?  My sense is that the lower and midrange gear is better, but does that translate to the high end?  This stuff sounds pretty damn good and I'm skeptical that I'd be able to make much improvement without spending vast sums of $$.  What would the weak link be here?

Issue 2:  Despite improvements in digital I'm also skeptical about how much real sonic improvement there has been in high end DACs, especially when it gets beyond 24b/96khz source material (system above is good up to 24/96).  I'm also skeptical about the claimed improvements from DSD over PCM, so I'm ignoring that for the time being.   Obviously connectivity, music servers, the digital audio chain and computer anything has improved greatly and is vastly cheaper than in 1995.  But how far does that actually extend to the sonics?  My sense is not so much.

At the end of the day I'm interested in any upgrade(s) that would create a real, hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck improvement without spending $10k.  But I've convinced myself that so much of what I read about would be only yield an incremental sonic improvement, and maybe even a downgrade.  I need a strategy - which might just be "leave it alone and just enjoy."  Any comments welcome, thanks.
raueda1

Showing 2 responses by tubegroover

tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
I agree with Spencer's comments. They are both thoughtful and certainly worth exploring based on my personal experiences as well.
tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
From reading your question and revealing your impressions it pretty much mirrors my experiences and biases for the most part. I believe your analog front end could certainly be improved upon but at what price and are you willing to pay it?

I am of the firm belief that electronics HAVE NOT improved that much over the past 25 years, at least I can’t hear it. Passive components that make up those electronics certainly have in many cases. I currently have two vintage era components and they are have both been upgraded with newer parts, including capacitors, resistors, diodes, wiring etc with dramatic improvements. Of course the key here is starting with components that were good to begin with in which case you certainly have. Digital on the other hand HAS improved and might be the biggest bang for the buck improvement you can make.

Sometimes "better" and "improved" are really synonyms for "preferred". In my particular case I definitely prefer my upgraded 25 year old preamp compared to 5 different newer ones I’ve listened to in my system 3 of which are current. The upgrades made a big improvement but I wouldn’t have sprung the cost if I didn’t really like what I was hearing to begin with. So that should be the first question you might ask in going forward, do you really like what you have but want to improve on it? In which case it is a lot easier than switching out things to "improve" with a less certain outcome.

The points BDP24 makes are valid as well, some products made in the past would be prohibitively expensive to manufacture today although might be preferred to current offerings. In your case I would focus on less expensive tweeking that could certainly improve on what you have without overspending and see what happens. The key thing I have come to realize is that what at first may seem an improvement may later be seen as an unwelcome intrusion! Things aren’t always what they seem as witnessed by the constant "improvements" that audiophiles strive to achieve. Sustained enjoyment of recorded music should be the end goal and is the only thing that matters in the long run.


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