What has produced the greatest sound improvement for you?

[jcbenten]

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.

[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 

 

[Dr Tone]

Different speakers.

[One and a half]

What has contributed to better sound, wow, let's see, not in any order

 

a) Dedicated Power Line(s)

b) Balanced Power

c) Speakers

d) DAC

e) Locating the digital music server a long distance away from audio equipment

f) Phono cartridge

g) Amplification (Pre/Power/Integrated)

 

If the chain is considered, each part can contribute, AES3, cabling, source mods as a whole.

 

I do know what wrecks SQ

a) USB audio

b) USB cabling

c) getting sucked into 'best' Cable/DAC/Gadget/Digital/Headphones Of The Month

d) $hitty recordings <- The most difficult to fix

[NOMBEDES]

I stopped reading audio reviews.   Immediately everything in my system improved.

 

Go figure!

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, One and a half said:

I do know what wrecks SQ

a) USB audio

b) USB cabling

c) getting sucked into 'best' Cable/DAC/Gadget/Digital/Headphones Of The Month

d) $hitty recordings <- The most difficult to fix

  +1

[AudioDoctor]

Buying a laser measuring tape and getting my speakers absolutely precise made a huge difference in soundstage.

[Teresa]

SACD and later DSD downloads.

[jcbenten]

6 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

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

 

Well sure but the OT is for personal experience....

[jiminlogansquare]

First, I would put engaging @mitchco of Accurate Sound to prepare custom DSP filters that both fixed a perennial problem inherent to my room (booming bass) and that then over several iterations corrected problems in the high end and with vocals that I didn't realize I had. 
 

Second to that would be upgrading my DAC to an Yggy two years ago, which was an eye opener with the level of detail I got compared to what it replaced. My more recent upgrade to a T+A DAC8 DSD provided a bit more of the same, but not the night and day epiphany like when I first heard what a true high end DAC can deliver.

 

Third was getting dedicated AC to my listening room. That startled me some with how much it improved the ability to reproduce dynamics and transients.

 

Fourth and related to the preceding item was getting a dedicated listening room that I could bend to my will, for the sole benefit of the sound. I had to sell my condo in Chicago and buy a house in Syracuse, NY before I realized this benefit. 

 

Fifth but not last I would say has been my own increasing patience and willingness to put in time and effort to make lots of changes to the system and the layout of my room, both small and large, and really listen carefully and systematically to understand and evaluate the changes in the sound those changes to the system and the room create. Be the change you want to hear, to coin a phrase.

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

11 hours 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 think it depends on what watts 🙂

 

Was the overall quality of the two amplifiers different apart from just the power rating? I would expect for example, comparing oranges with oranges, more watts will be beneficial if you have a difficult load. If you are a fan of class a then it also might mean how long the amplifier stays in class a

[Summit]

1. Setting up the audio system correct in a good listing room trumps everything else IMO. Many try to squeeze in too big speakers in a small room or worse sit too close to some walls which result in massive amount of reflections.
2. Fix bad mains power is paramount, because just like the course is never going to tests good if you start with bad raw materials, no audio system will sound good with bad mains power, leaking currents etc.
3. Get better source i.e. sever, transport etc
4. Get good anti-vibration racks, footers and room treatments (or EQ).
5. Now if you have done 1-4 it’s perhaps it’s time to start upgrade the other audio gear in your system.  

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

15 minutes ago, Summit said:

1. Setting up the audio system correct in good listing room trumps everything else IMO. Many try to squeeze in too big speakers in a small room or worse sit too close to some walls which result in massive amount of reflections.
2. Fix bad mains power is paramount, because just like the course is never going to tests good if you start with bad raw materials, no audio system will sound good with bad mains power, leaking currents etc.
3. Get better source i.e. sever, transport etc
4. Get good anti-vibration racks, footers and room treatments.
5. Now if you have done 1-4 it’s perhaps it’s time to start upgrade the other audio gear in your system.  

I couldn't agree more. One of the biggest things for me was treating the room with bass traps large enough to be bass traps and then playing with reflection and diffusion, speaker setup et cetera.

 

I've never been a fan of any DSP thus far and that includes digital room correction. I hear different but is not right to my ear (thus far). With regards DRC I realise that I am now probably a dinosaur in my opinion but I swear I can hear the direct sound from the speakers and not just some kind of summation or psychoacoustic effect of the sound waves interacting at my listening position. I hear the direct sound first and I don't like the alteration from DRC whether it be minimum phase or mixed phase or the next phase generation. I put a lot of effort into getting that direct sound and to mess with it basically messes with my head. The analogy here would be sitting in a reasonably intimate live venue listening to amplified sound. If I'm close enough to the artists I get a mixture of live and amplified sound, natural and artificial sound. It's part of what makes live performances still so attractive to me, there is still a realness to the sound which is hard to reproduce.

[Summit]

8 minutes ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

I couldn't agree more. One of the biggest things for me was treating the room with bass traps large enough to be bass traps and then playing with reflection and diffusion, speaker setup et cetera.

 

I've never been a fan of any DSP thus far and that includes digital room correction. I hear different but is not right to my ear (thus far). With regards DRC I realise that I am now probably a dinosaur in my opinion but I swear I can hear the direct sound from the speakers and not just some kind of summation or psychoacoustic effect of the sound waves interacting at my listening position. I hear the direct sound first and I don't like the alteration from DRC whether it be minimum phase or mixed phase or the next phase generation. I put a lot of effort into getting that direct sound and to mess with it basically messes with my head. The analogy here would be sitting in a reasonably intimate live venue listening to amplified sound. If I'm close enough to the artists I get a mixture of live and amplified sound, natural and artificial sound. It's part of what makes live performances still so attractive to me, there is still a realness to the sound which is hard to reproduce.

 

I've never been a fan of any DSP or digital room correction either. It’s a kind of “last remedy” if nothing else works (the standing waves is too big to be treated) with HW room treatments, or the budget/wife doesn’t allow proper HW treatments.

[jcbenten]

4 hours ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

 

I think it depends on what watts 🙂

 

Was the overall quality of the two amplifiers different apart from just the power rating? I would expect for example, comparing oranges with oranges, more watts will be beneficial if you have a difficult load. If you are a fan of class a then it also might mean how long the amplifier stays in class a

I was clipping.  The Keilidhs are 4 ohm loads and sealed.  Took the watts to open them up a bit.  I no longer clip and the music is more "dense"....best description I can generate.  The sound/tone is the same (to me) just louder and thicker (to the good).

 

I was using just the Majik (integrated amp) and the 2250 is a power amp.  I use the Majik just as a pre-amp now.

[daverich4]

In many cases I don't hear the difference in some of the things described here although I certainly have spent enough time trying. There are a few things that have made an audible improvement to me though. I had my Cary 280 V12 Monoblocks for more than a decade and was pleasantly surprised when I replaced them with an Audio Research Ref 70 SE. My system had always felt a little light weight to me and the REF 70 seemed to fill in the areas that were lacking. My system is in a dedicated/treated room yet getting convolution filters from Thierry @ Home Audio Fidelity smoothed off the wrinkles that I wasn't able to fix manually. However, like @Dr. Tone above, speakers are the one item that have always made a noticeable difference to me. Over a period of time I upgraded through 3 Martin-Logan models before purchasing Wilson Audio Sofia II's in 2007. They were set up for me by the Wilson dealer in San Francisco and when I brought them  with me to North Carolina I paid the Wilson dealer here to set them up for me in our new home. I enjoyed those speakers for 11 years but when the Wilson Sasha II's were replaced by the DAW last winter a number of dealers offered substantial discounts on brand new, warrantied Sasha II's and I bought a pair. The sound with them goes deeper and occupies a larger soundstage than I was used to. At my age I'm pretty much done upgrading the one thing that I can hear the most difference in so now what? Listen to music?

[cjf]

For me its been this....in the order listed

 

1.Speakers

2.Amps

3. Room

4.Room correction & 2 x Subs

 

• I bought the speakers but didn't realize their potential until I got the right amps
• Then, once I had the right speakers and amps, the room was only just OK so their potential was only partially realized until I got a new room
• Then the new room was too big and the Amp/Speaker combo was too small to properly fill the room with deep bass at the volume level I wanted  so I added room correction and subs

All problems now solved...I think 😅

 

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

11 hours ago, daverich4 said:

At my age I'm pretty much done upgrading the one thing that I can hear the most difference in so now what? Listen to music?

Sounds like a good plan!🙂

[Speedskater]

CD players! end of story.

[robocop]

Source, upgrading recently from an I7 4790K, quad core switch mode power supply to a Phasure Stealth MKIII Xenon 12 core with linear power supply. Both only used exclusively for audio. The MKIII takes the sound to an easy 3D level over 2D for I7. This is a far greater sound improvement, than I've ever had for a long time. The whole sound and everything within it, is improved to the point the former source can't compare in anyway. The I7 was a large step up from an I3 laptop. I suspect this difference is greater than upgrading Dac's, speakers and amplifiers. All are important no less, but the old story started by Mr Linn (Ivor Tiefenbrun) many years ago "Your System Is Only As Good As Your Source" No matter if it's analog or a digital front end, it's still garbage in, garbage out.

Best source I've ever owned!!!

 

Robert

[Rexp]

4 hours ago, robocop said:

Source, upgrading recently from an I7 4790K, quad core switch mode power supply to a Phasure Stealth MKIII Xenon 12 core with linear power supply. Both only used exclusively for audio. The MKIII takes the sound to an easy 3D level over 2D for I7. This is a far greater sound improvement, than I've ever had for a long time. The whole sound and everything within it, is improved to the point the former source can't compare in anyway. The I7 was a large step up from an I3 laptop. I suspect this difference is greater than upgrading Dac's, speakers and amplifiers. All are important no less, but the old story started by Mr Linn (Ivor Tiefenbrun) many years ago "Your System Is Only As Good As Your Source" No matter if it's analog or a digital front end, it's still garbage in, garbage out.

Best source I've ever owned!!!

 

Robert

Cool, how much did it cost you? 

[Summit]

5 hours ago, robocop said:

Source, upgrading recently from an I7 4790K, quad core switch mode power supply to a Phasure Stealth MKIII Xenon 12 core with linear power supply. Both only used exclusively for audio. The MKIII takes the sound to an easy 3D level over 2D for I7. This is a far greater sound improvement, than I've ever had for a long time. The whole sound and everything within it, is improved to the point the former source can't compare in anyway. The I7 was a large step up from an I3 laptop. I suspect this difference is greater than upgrading Dac's, speakers and amplifiers. All are important no less, but the old story started by Mr Linn (Ivor Tiefenbrun) many years ago "Your System Is Only As Good As Your Source" No matter if it's analog or a digital front end, it's still garbage in, garbage out.

Best source I've ever owned!!!

 

Robert

 

It’s true that your system is only as good as your source. What have been lost or damage can’t be fixed downstream and all that, but (and this is my point) the same is true for all parts in a system and a system can never sound better than its weakest part and all parts can be the "weakest". Which part of the chain that are the weakest depends greatly from audio system to audio system, or should I say ecosystem.

 

Nothing of this is are meant to be interpreted like that your source upgrade wasn’t the biggest sound improvement in your system. I ones got a total chock when I changed both my MC pickup and MC pickup amplifier – it sounded like a totally different and much much better system. 

[Summit]

On 8/7/2020 at 3:26 PM, Speedskater said:

CD players! end of story.

 

Interesting, what do you mean by end of story and also which CD player was it?

[tapatrick]

On 8/5/2020 at 4:30 AM, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

In your audio system, what has produced .. better musical experience?

The greatest improvement was in adding the recently released EC Designs U192 usb transport and Fractal DAC combination using their ElectroTos interface.

 

Finally I can relax as the residual 'digital' quality of playback which in my case was the main motivating factor behind the restless tweaking has been removed - resulting in a significant increase in musical enjoyment. Maybe the last 2% is the most important step after all.

[gmgraves]

The best sound improvements that I’ve made to my system lately is to 1) replace my Gen 2 Yggdrasil with a Gen 4 Yiggy. With it’s improved USB receiver and analog section, it sounds head and shoulders better than my old one. 2) Of course, replacing my HiFiMan Jade 2 phones with a pair of Stax SR300 (but still using the Jade 2 amp/power supply) was also a big step forward. 3) Finally, I replaced my Sumiko Blackbird cartridge with a Sumiko Songbird and can’t believe how much better of a cartridge it is. All in all, in spite of Fas42’s warning that upgrading equipment won’t improve SQ, and only his “method” can do that, I’m certainly enjoying the “non-improvements afforded by the changes in equipment I’ve made recently😉!