markkpa
Responses from markkpa
| How you know your system is improving? Two guidelines have served me well over the years - both are good indicators that my system is improving: 1) I find myself turning up the volume. Generally, as distortion goes down, I’ll be inclined to listen at louder levels. When I turn down t... | |
| Is soundstage DEPTH a myth? I have "depth" throughout the soundstage - up to the left edge of the left speaker and the right edge of the right speaker. I have width beyond the speakers but there doesn't appear to be much depth beyond the edge of the speakers. | |
| Qobuz dropping rights to my favorites. A pox on their house (resubmit) I've seen the same thing. Often I can search immediately and find the replacement - searching the track title seems to work better. | |
| Preamps can color sound considerably. Surprising? At times impedance matching between the DAC and Amp has an impact. For years I used a passive attenuator between a Mark Levinson 360S DAC and a Pass Aleph 5 amplifier - it worked well. Since, updating my amp (loosely based on an older Accuphase ... | |
| What speakers have you mistakenly let go and then later repurchased? I have a pair of Spendor SP9/1's that I'm afraid to let go of for this reason - they don't do anything seriously wrong. I've owned them for over twenty years. | |
| Power cords or power conditioner Power cables YES. Power conditioner NO | |
| Did you notice.... I'm getting better results streaming directly from Qobuz compared to playing CD's on a Mark Levinson 37 transport / 360S DAC; but I have put a great deal of effort into optimizing my digital front end. | |
| What Digital to Digital Converter Do You Use? Why? Wow! So I’m not the only one!! I have conducted several A/B tests between my Gustard U18 & PS Audio Directstream DAC with updated firmware - every time the AES/EBU wins hands down. | |
| Volume Control Too Sensitive Consider yourself lucky. I found adding an attenuator between the preamp and amp improved my overall system (it worked better here than in between the DAC and preamp). I was able to find just the right gain between the preamp and amp where the o... | |
| Is a cheaper DAC + Reclocker better than just an expensive DAC? Well...I would have given you the same advice 6 months ago - buy the best single dac unit you can afford. But, now that I've completed my own digital front-end upgrade, I would recommend buying the best DAC you can afford AND add a reclocker. In... | |
| Inexpensive speaker cables: any experience? Yes, the spelling does inspire confidence - for sure! I'm just happy they're not counterfeit name-brand cables - yikes. I bought a preamp and later an amp from Queenway - both sound great; better than expected. He seems to know what he's doing.... | |
| Inexpensive speaker cables: any experience? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002006654011.html?spm=a2g0o.9042311.0.0.2eeb4c4dx8gKCY They claim these are hand woven - appearance & sound quality are much better than those customized by machine. Teflon covered, 16 strand core silver-p... | |
| Your single most significant purchase mistake? Paying a professional to create a digital room correction filter for me. I figured out later that I needed to swap the position of my couch and my speakers (never have your listening chair in the center of the room if your speakers are against a ... | |
| Inexpensive speaker cables: any experience? I was thinking about upgrading my Transparent Super Bi-cables; but, yesterday I grabbed a tool and re-torqued. On a few of the binding posts I heard an audible "crunch". And when I resumed listening - wow! They sound like new speaker cables. I... |