Hi, When you upgrade your hifi system with new speakers, amps or a cart etc, you have normally a certain expectation about sound improvement. But sometimes you are blown away by the impact of a smaller purchase/adjustment/tweek. For example, my most unexpected sound improvement was when I upgraded the power supply for my turntable. Much more obvious improvement in sound than when I changed tonearm or cart. What are your most unexpected sound improvments?
Fuses on my Infinity Quantum Jr speakers .... The fuses i got are Schurter costing £1.21 ($1.67) including the tax per fuse ...these are the expensive ones !!!!!! as they come with all the safety compliance paperwork RoHS, UL & CSA but what the heck ...and i only had to buy a pack of 10...next day delivery a very reasonable futher £6 the thread i started is here .... Am i hearing things ? replaced the original 43year old fuses in speakers
This year it would be this. I use it on my Furman PC so my pre and all my sources get the benefit. I was not expecting anything or at best something I think I might hear due to expectation bias. But my speakers started projecting very realistic imaging 3' to the sides of the speakers. They never did that before and it was the only change I made so I'm convinced it's this unit.
Finally purchasing a micro line cartridge. I would have happily invested more money years ago if I knew what kind of a difference it would make in my enjoyment of vinyl.
Over the past two years I've done a massive overhaul of our combination stereo, 5.1 music, and cinema system. I've been genuinely surprised at the sonic significance of several upgrades but awestruck by only one. I recently replaced a fabric covered DIY Skyline diffuser I had built for the rear wall, 5 feet behind the MLP about a decade ago. The original 2D QRD DIY diffuser occupied 9 sq ft of wall space and had offered up an appreciable increase in "the spaciousness" of my system's sound. At the time I'd contemplated building additional units to cover more of the back wall but the single unit was a hugely time-intensive build and so I never got around to it. During the past two years' system overhaul though, my thoughts returned to that rear wall diffuser on several occasions. I had done a bunch more reading on acoustic diffuser theory and practical application in the intervening years and came to believe two things. Bigger (more surface area) would be better and swapping out my DIY 2D diffuser with its hemispherical scattering pattern for a 1D design that scattered sound in a cylindrical pattern would likely be preferable. I intended to go the DIY route again, likely with a Fractal Leanfuser design from Arqen but then I came across the wares of acoustic treatment start-up, Seven Audio on Fb and Ebay. After several PMed and emailed conversations with Lukasz, the owner of Seven Audio, I was totally impressed with the quality and design of his products, the incredibly reasonable pricing, and his willingness to customize his designs to meet my needs. After patiently waiting several months for the custom diffuser order to arrive from overseas it turned out my trust was well founded and well rewarded. Packaging was lightweight, clever, and seemingly bombproof. The five Seven Audio 1D Fractal QRD modules survived 10 weeks in transit from Poland, arriving unscathed and looking fantastic. The robust extruded polystyrene Lukasz chooses to use in preference to the expanded polystyrene used by everyone else was instantly and obviously better. I decided on a different install method from the keyhole mounts Seven Audio provides and used a single continuous french cleat. This made mounting the five units perfectly level a piece of cake. The best part though was hearing them in action and that returns us to the subject of this thread. The bill for my entire system-wide overhaul totaled many tens of thousands of dollars. Everyone of those dollars spent represented a step forward in performance. These diffusers amounted to about $1100 USD shipping and importation included. A fraction of the total bill. The sonic impact this larger (approx 27 sq ft) diffuser array had was mind blowing- wildly out of all proportion to the actual cost. The impression of space, depth, and image specificity thrown by good stereo recordings ballooned to occupy not just the front half of my 20' long room, but expanded in width, depth, and height to well beyond the physical dimension of my room. Fan-freakin'-tastic! I discovered the near magical benefits of effective room acoustic treatments on sound reproduction 30+ years ago. As is evident in my pics, am a firm believer. But just how spectacularly well these new diffusers worked out caught me by surprise once again.
Power supplies, definitely yes. Both turntable and phono stage (and in the past both DAC and headphone amp) have benefited from upgraded power supplies, but the prize goes to my Isoacoustic Gaia IIIs for most unexpected big increase in SQ and rather against my expectation at that.
I was considering spending money adding a subwoofer and bass traps to even out peaks and troughs in the bass response, until the lovely folks on this board suggested improving speaker placement. Sure enough adjusting placement using the Sumiko method corrected the issue, and it was free. Much improved bottom end. Kick drums can have a very palpable thump now, and the huge hump around 100Hz is gone.
Nothing before or since improved the sound of my stereo more dramatically than going from a Dual 1229 to a SOTA Sapphire with Sumiko Premier MMT arm. To put this in perspective, here are all the components I remember that I owned or still own: VM Model 562 record player Sherwood S-7900A receiver Dual 1220Q turntable/Empire cartridge DLK-3 speakers. Pioneer SX-880 receiver Kenwood KA-8100 integrated amp Klipsch Cornwalls SOTA Sapphire turntable Sumiko MMT tonearm Sumiko FT-3 tonearm Eminent Technology airbearing linear tonearm Grado TLZ-V cartridge Crown SL-2 preamp (times 5) Crown PSL-2 preamp (2 times) Rogers Studio 1 (times 2 sets) Rogers Studio 1A. ENTEC SW-1 subwoofer Threshold FET2 preamp Threshold S300 II power amp (times 3) Spectral DMC-5 preamp Perreaux Industries PMF-2350 power amp Spectral DMC-6A preamp Moore-Franklin Magnus preamp PS Audio 4.5 preamp PS Audio 5.0 preamp ProAc EBT (times three sets) Electron Kinetics Eagle 2A power amp (times 5) Electron Kinetics Eagle 2C prime ENTEC L-F10 subwoofer ENTEC L-F20 subwoofer ENTEC L-F30 stereo pair subwoofers Paradigm Studio 20 V3 speakers NHT Super One speakers (times 3) NHT Super Zero speakers NHT 2.5 speakers Klipsch SB-3 speakers Klipsch SB-1 speakers Crown PL-2 amp (3 times) ProAc Super Towers Crown PL-3 amp (3 times) Crown PL-4 amp Crown FM-2 NAD C372 NAD 312 NAD 3155 NAD M3 NAD C326BEE NAD T-753 Infinity BU-8 subwoofer Allison Acoustics AL-10 subwoofer Polk Audio PSW-10 subwoofer Klipsch SW-311 subwoofer Magnavox CDB-650 cd player Philips CD960 (times 2) I had a LOT of CD players. Rega Apollo Pioneer Elite DV70avi DVD Oppo BDP-95 Marantz CDR-510 cd recorder Marantz PMD-331 cd player Marantz PMD-371 cd changer Sony CDP-322M Sony CDP-CE375 Sony CDP-507 ESD Sony CDP-337 ESD Tascam CD RW900SL (times two) Tascam CD 200 Tascam CD 200SB Tascam CD-355 changer Onkyo DX-390 CD changer Onkyo recorder Teac CD P1500 CD changer Teac CD P1100 Klipsch Forte I Belle Klipsch Xiang Sheng 728A tube preamp (4 times) Klipsch Forte III Klipsch Heresy II Klipsch Heresy III Threshold FET One ProAc Response 1S ProAc Response D2 Proton AA-1150 Proton D1200 PrimaLuna Prologue Premium PrimaLuna Prologue Five Mod Squad Deluxe Line Drive Klipsch Cornwall III Marantz 32 Marantz 140 PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium PrimaLuna Prologue 6 ProAc 2S Klipsch Forte II Eagle 400 monoblocks Cambridge CXN/CXC Philips CDC 875 Threshold FET 10 (times two) Cary CD-308 HD Cary SLP-88 preamp Audiolab 6000CDT transport Sherwood S-6020CP preamp Adcom GTP-830 7.1 Tuner/Preamp Adcom GFA-7300 Threshold S150 McCormack Line Drive TLC-1 Deluxe Nuforce STA 200 Threshold S200 Threshold FET 2 II JBL L100 Classics Audible Illusions Modulus 1 Philips 7831 Receiver Cambridge CXA80
The KAB TD-1000 has proven to have multiple benefits. What I noticed first was how much tighter the bass became, how much quieter the background got, and just how it cleaned up the space between instruments. I assume the damping it provides nearly completely knocks-out resonant frequencies. Another benefit is how silky smooth cueing has become. I can now just release the cue lever and it softly lowers onto the LP. And then the tracking. On a specific track of a specific LP I own, there is a reliable skip, even with the VM95ML in use. After installing the TD-1000, the stylus sails right through that skip with no inclination of an issue. All this aside, I was not having trouble with sloppy bass, blurry harmonics, erratic cueing, or poor tracking, these are just the areas where the TD-1000 made a distinct improvement. I don't consider myself a drinker of the kool-aid, the KAB damper just kicks butt for very little expense.
The best, cheapest and easiest was a wall mount for the turntable. Incredible improvement (for me in this apartment) for about 30.00 euro!
That's great to hear. Many people either don't understand or haven't heard the amount of benefit that a better source component can provide. Some of the improvement that people think only speakers provide can be gained by switching out source components. I've been testing a Qutest DAC and just switched it out for a Denafrips Pontus II DAC that I got this week. My same system sounds much more full in bass response when appropriate with the Pontus than it did with the Qutest.
cartridge heashell lead wires. those 2 inch long wires that connect the cartridge to the removable headshell. weird but they are very important. i have always used a good quality set that came with a cartridge. unexpected because i did not know how good they sounded until i broke a connector and had to use a spare set, the stock Technics wires. holy cow did they sound horrible. i have ordered 4 different sets of quality lead wires since then and they all sound different! one set of high quality occ from audio technica, $44 one set of dh labs silver sonic, $60 one set of nordost heimdall from VAS, $40 and one set of silver leads off EB, $11 So far the nordost heimdall from VAS sound the best overall, smooth, warm and bassy. I would have never expected such an improvement and such a dramatic influence on the sound quality.
Furutech flux 50 Amazon.com: Furutech Flux-50 NCF Flagship Top End Performance In-Line Filter: Home Audio & Theater
I had 2 things, a Furutech powerchord and powerfilter and Marigo tonearm damping dots kit. The Marigo dots were a real surprise, easy to install, low cost ($50), no space required and hardly visible and they were able to improve my SME IV arm, which was the surprise to me! Your most recent system tweak, did it help or hurt the sound?
How do you explain this?? Makes no sense as long as they are made of decent wire, insulation, and construction.
different electrical properties, capacitance, inductance, conductivity, different conductor, insulation and connector materials and platings, different weaving.