Hi, I have the following system to stream roon to my Lyngdorf TDAI1120 and am just wondering what could be done to noticeably improve the sound quality which tbf is already excellent so mainly looking for weak areas and maybe an order for any upgrades.
NUC5i3RYK connected to a Netgear Orbi satellite (TDAI also connected via ethernet to this)
The ethernet cables are basic cat5e and the orbi / nuc power supplies are the basic ones they came with. So while i am happy with the sound i am simply wondering if there is a valid upgrade path? Is a nucleus far better than a cheap nuc eg? Would an audiophile switch be of benefit? Better cables, power supply etc etc or would all of this be a cost with negligible improvements in sound quality?
Hi Jonathon, all of the questions below may help to answer your questions.
where are you located?
What is your local electrical supply like?
How many other connected devices do you have on your network?
How much critical listening do you do?
Is your listening space treated?
What is your budget?
How will you gauge any changes in sq?
Hi @Glimmer I’m located in the uk, East Midlands but have no idea about the quality in this area. The room is also my office so has laptop charger, monitor etc but the orbi, Nuc and Lyngdorf are all on separate sockets however all running off the same ring/fuse in the consumer unit.
The music is either background and critical listening and it is the latter where I am interested to see if there are any improvements. As for room conditioning there isn’t anything specific other than help from bookcases etc but the Lyngdorf does a great job of dealing with this with the room perfect calibration.
The budget is flexible I have the amp connected to Harbeth P3ESRs so reasonably decent level tho not massively high end. As for hearing the difference yes that is the tricky one as instant a/b comparison may not be simple if changing the Nuc or power supply record etc but you can generally tell if the overall sound is better or worse. I added atacama gel pads under the speakers and that a huge difference for example
Speaker choice and placement is the biggest area that will affect SQ, then followed by DSP which you are already doing. The rest is negligble in my experience. But others will argue for cable, power and switch changes.
As I understand it the UK power supply is relatively well behaved with a minimum of peaks and troughs and as such requires less in the way of power conditioning than countries like the US.
The original power cables for your equipment will be more than adequate as long as they are well cared for and not abused (dropped/kicked/stepped on) and should not need replacing for expensive aftermarket items; unless you convince yourself that paying more will sound better! This is not always easy to avoid, advertising is effective!
Psychoacoustic’s are complex and rarely easily measured or accepted (I believe that listening to music in the early morning gives me the best sound, everyone else is still asleep and the network and power supply is at its most uncongested; however, is it the room that changes? Is it the power/network, or is it me that needs “measurement” applied to judge any changes?) Sadly, not everyone in my apartment block likes to be woken to my musical choices and so I have to moderate the volume to accommodate them even though it potentially takes something away from the experience!
So at the end of the day, room layout, seating/speaker positioning and acoustic treatments are more likely to make a tangible and cost effective way forward than upgrading cables and power supplies in the short term.
In closing, my Father was very friendly with a Professor of acoustics who solved his problems by building a listening pod in the back garden, it was a thing of beauty and sounded like it too; it had one chair that was in a fixed position and was only at its best with the door closed. I’m not sure who loved him using it more, he, or his wife who had the house to herself!
What you can do is add bass traps and Absorber panels … that kinda stuff. Using Dirac or lyngdorf is good but that will still improve if you take care of main reflections etc .
Thick carpet and curtains and stuff helps too.
But stuff like special pcs, streamers, ethernet regen, all kinds of nonsense filters is just a waste of money.
(Sonic transporter, ultrarendu, etherregen, usb jitter filters etc… audiophile usb and lan cables)