What has produced the greatest sound improvement for you?

[sphinxsix]

4 hours ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

In your audio system, what has produced the greatest improvement impacting on sound quality or better musical experience? Not just 'maybe a bit different' but in your opinion clearly better.

 

It could be software, hardware, room treatments, tweaks whatever. What single thing or things stands out that you would definitely recommend to others?

 

Are you joking.? The things with the round, yellow elements!

 

[sphinxsix]

2 hours ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

 

Ah yes,

 

 

I know you were joking but to make things absolutely clear - these closed enclosure floorstanders' crossovers cut off their bass at 60Hz, they were designed to work with the subs and were sold as a set.

 

[sphinxsix]

4 hours ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

Okay cool. What is the name of the speaker/subwoofer set?

 

I don't think anyone here has heard of the brand although its creator took part in e.g. Las Vegas..

and Frankfurt audio shows. 

 

(please don't believe he was only interested in home cinema, quite the opposite, as for being an audio anarchist - in the very best sense - I would absolutely agree with that! ) 

The full name of the set is quite long - Manfred Zoller HiFi Design Metropolis Solution 2003. 

The serial numbers seem to suggest this was his 4th set like this:

and I don't think he had made more than a dozen of them.

I actually know of two audio journalist who AFAIK still use his loudspeakers but in both cases these are cheaper models from 2000. One of them 2 or 3 years ago had mentioned for the very first time that two Wilson Audio $30-50k models he was reviewing, while having very similar balance to his Zollers were slightly better in some areas. 

Not bad for a much (!) cheaper 2000 speaker!  

As for me - no upgrade plans, I just love them!

 

[sphinxsix]

8 minutes ago, DuckToller said:

http://www.home-cinema.de/startseite.html

 

Here you can find the concepts of Mr. Zoller.
 

👍

I'm quite surprised, although I know the site (but not the language ) but Zoller had and still has a kind of almost 'cult' following in some European countries - first of all in Germany of course.

You've heard about him before, I guess..(?)

 

 

[sphinxsix]

2 hours ago, DuckToller said:

No, not that I remember however I stopped following closely German audio media about 20 years ago ....

 

He was already in the business in the 90's but although I remember his early Solution (traditionally his commercial flagships were named like that), BTW looking exactly like these ones (quite original finish, isn't it, mine OTOH are finished in a more traditional way, he used a Mercedes lacquer in their case):

reaching some 'Spitzenklasse' in one of German audio magazines he wasn't that willing to let his speakers be reviewed. His opinion on German magazines was quite similar to mine and he  siply wasn't willing to pay for ads to get good reviews, actually he wasn't willing to pay for ads at all . His dealers were poor in a way (not necessarily in a financial sense ) - he simply attempted to get some market position (I personally don't think he was that much interested in money, really..) based mainly on the quality on his speakers (and to some degree on the cult following he had in some circles but IMO the two are interconnected). And they sounded fabulous indeed already back then in the 90's. Most who had a chance to compare his Solution '96 or '98 with the flagship Wilson Audio or JMLab transducers did agree that they were better in every regard (faster, with more detail, air) with the exception of bass quantity (but not its quality, Zoller used to play bass guitar back then and as for bass speed and precision his speakers IMO are still among the very best) while costing nowhere near their prices. His used Focal drivers (he had been their distributor in Germany and started with his Focal kits but he soon realized people began simply to steal his designs to built speakers so he stopped selling kits), very complicated, steep filtering crossovers which time/phase coherence has always been among the very best on the market and he used a term 'point source' (in the sense of time/phase coherence) even in relation to his 4-way constructions(!). All of his loudspeakers were highly efficient, mine reach 95db and easy to drive. One of the journalists whom I mentioned told me that tried my model with a SET and he could reach satisfying volume levels with rock (and I know he likes to listen to Bad Brains really loud ). The amazing thing about his speakers was also the fact that even his two biggest models with big double woofers - Evolution and Solution (looked usually like that):

used in much too small rooms made the bass boomy in a really surprisingly small degree. I guess this was the question of both bass drivers speed and bass reflexes tuning. They can play very loud without distortion and they start to sound good at very low levels which is quite rare with big loudspeakers which often need much more power to begin to 'sing'.

But.. in the early 2000's Focal stopped production of their polikevlar drivers (mine are among his latest speakers based on Focal).. and although Zoller did also use poliglass and other materials, his best transducers were always based on polikevlar mid/bass drivers and tioxid tweeters.. so he was in trouble.. He found some (also yellow) Chinese (!) drivers which he liked - they looked more or less like the ones here:

2 hours ago, DuckToller said:

Zoller's Synopsis 2 with RAAL tweeter, (pic from 2013/2014)
this in fact is a modular set up, consisting of
+ Synopsis 1 with RAAL for 2300 Euro (pair)
+ Synopsis Bass for 2900 (pair)
so starting prices 5200 Euro (pair)

but according to many people who heard them they weren't as good as his products based on the Focal polikevlar/tioxid drivers. I haven't heard them though, so this is not my opinion.

 

BTW his polikevlar speakers are usually on the bright side of reality, they are also very revealing and careful system matching is of high importance with them but due to these qualities they make the differences between both different recordings and different components almost  too obvious. Frankly - if someone doubts that different cables sound differently he should simply get a pair of speakers of similar class..

Speaking of cables - I used to repeat for years that IME as an ex-dealer based on demos (starting with $1k speakers), lending cables to my customers etc circa 75% of people can hear the differences between them. When a couple of years ago I read that Steve Guttenberg's (Stereophile) estimate on the same topic based on his experience as a dealer is exactly the same (!), I simply had come to the conclusion that it is very improbable it's a coincidence.. 

Ok, I think I have gone waaay OT so going back to the OP's question I will only repeat one more time that IMO loudspeakers plus loudspeakers/room interaction are in circa 85% responsible for what we hear. A certain Manfred Zoller distributor once said that in his opinion it's 90% but I guess you know the people who are in the audio business as well as I do - they often exaggerate, in particular in regard to the gear they sell.. anyway I somehow tend to think he didn't say the same thing to his ..Audionet customers... 

 

One last remark - IMO we need more people like Manfred in the world of audio 

 

[sphinxsix]

 

And one more thing - I've never had a chance to hear in my room the improvement which IMO is absolutely the best value improvement possible in audio in general but I'd personally advise the ones who don't have a carpet in their listening room to ..get one 

 

[sphinxsix]

45 minutes ago, jcbenten said:

More watts...I went from 66 watts/ch to 200 watts/ch by adding the Linn 2250 and this is far and away the biggest improvement in my system; over multiple DACS, CD players, and streaming methods from my NAS to the system.

I'm sure that OTOH in some circumstances changing a 300W amp to a 12W one can also result in a huge improvement 

 

[sphinxsix]

6 hours ago, esmit said:

@sphinxsixposted a picture of (which happens to be in the town I live too).

 

Errr.. sorry.. I just woke up  which picture, which town.? 

 

[sphinxsix]

On 4/2/2021 at 8:31 AM, esmit said:

And do put a carpet in your room.

Most definitely! 

 

On 4/2/2021 at 8:31 AM, esmit said:

goosebumps really come from source & loudspeakers.

IME loudspeakers usually make bigger difference than sources.

The last time I heard Totems, most of them sounded quite dark, I'm not surprised at all that switching to Dynaudio made quite a difference, I personally have a lots of respect for their speakers (they also don't use extremely cheap Polish drivers in their cheapest models like Totem used to do..). I'm also not that surprised that you couldn't hear e.g. differences between cables with Totems, definitely not the most detailed transducers on the market.