What equipment changes have made an obvious and dramatic change to your system? And to what do you attribute the change, and are you sure it’s real?
This post is inspired by me making a new purchase which made zero or huge difference, referenced here.
I have made system changes that have made a dramatic difference in what I hear, specifically moving from an AV system to a dedicated 2 channel HIFI system. I went from a non-existent soundstage to a 3D soundstage, it was an amazing and obvious difference. Honestly it changed what I previously believed HIFI could do.
Since then, I’ve switched cables, switched DACs, switched things others apparently hear huge difference in. I don’t. I hear people on fora claiming switching a wire makes a HUGE difference. I don’t buy it. But maybe I don’t hear things others do.
What is real? Apologies to moderators.
8 Likes
Torben_Rick
(Torben - A Dane living in Hamburg - Roon Lifer)
2
@Kelly_Burkhart - You are asking tough question on a Monday morning
There are MANY people in different fora that can hear BIG improvements when they change a small thing in their setup. If you add all these BIG improvements together … than it would make the BEST sounding system in the world I find all of that very hard to believe.
BUT I did have a nice “Oh my …” last week
I have been spending a lot of time trying to understand different noise elements that potential could have an impact on SQ. And after many small steps I did get that feeling - Oh my … - last week.
Have been working with SFP/FMC, ferrite bead, Eupen EMC/COM Ferrite filter cable and AUTH line filter. The combination of these elements gave me in the end the “WOW”
Chuckling at the results, I just wished, that more audiophiles would partake in such endeavors to cross-check their system and listening abilities, some of them posting wild anecdotal reports about all the jaw-dropping modifications to their systems with such high confidence, while getting mad at anyone doubting these assertions.
I had taken the test with my comparatively very modest and untweaked system.
Found it impossible to make up my mind via speakers, but thought I could just discern the differences via my two decades old Sennheiser HD600’s, driven directly by my cheap lowly Chi-Fi SMSL300MkII in preamp mode from it’s balanced line output (no dedicated headphone output available ).
And as I lost my listening notes, I had to ask Arch for my results, who replied …
Hi Marin,
You chose Sample A which was indeed the 24-bit version with a “1” for “How much difference did you hear?”
That’s good! A realistic answer .
That’s a meager 1, out of 10 for being absolutely positively confident…
Getting back to the OP, my first and only real OMG moment was, when I bought myself a professional audio measurement system in the late 90s, to optimize my audio DIY attempts not just by ear…
I saw the title and thought it would be about the times I have caught a sleeve on my stylus or blown a valve!
5 Likes
Torben_Rick
(Torben - A Dane living in Hamburg - Roon Lifer)
6
I have always followed the principle:
If there are measurement showing an impact
if I understand why there is an impact
than the time has come to look close into it. If not, I don’t spend time on it.
That is why:
My switch “only” cost 220 EURO
My Ethernet cables “only” cost max 12 EURO pr meter.
My power cord cable only cost 17 EURO pr meter + power plugs
If you understand German - I assume based on your location that you do - and want to know more about the ““tweaks”” that I have used, then visit “Open-End-Music” forum:
Being brutally honest, even switching over to a fully Benchmark Media front end didn’t sonically change much. I now have about the same power available as with my previous amp, no tubes to tinker with, much less idle power consumption and a smaller, neater setup. The previous amp weighed ~ 90 lbs, so moving it to dust the rack was a workout.
For me it was initially room treatments, then a little tweaking in REW.
The difference in soundstage and placement of vocalists and instruments was literally jaw-dropping.
When I’ve finished the new speakers, I’ll delve back into it, probably in greater depth this time around.
I used to regularly hear dramatic differences in the analogue domain. Switching to digital, not so much in recent years. But electronic convolution (REW) has made a big difference mainly by sucking out a persistent base boom. Physical room treatment is not practical in my case as the listening room is the living room but presumably it would have a similar effect. I did find that I had to experiment a lot with parametric EQ to put a treble lift back in that the convolution had also removed or flattened out. But I put that preference down to my aging ears preferring a small treble lift. After standardising on filters I now find that my dacs ranging from 35UD to 5,000USD are interchangable. Although if I listen very closely I can convince myself that my 35USD chromecast sounds slightly less “refined” than the rest.
Funny, Eupen is the manufacturer. They actually do make the cables, also for audio high end cable companies.
I never had an OMG experience with a cable.
My top two OH!! Wow!! moments were:
When I first went to Rocky Mountain Audio Fest and listened to the DCA Voce connected to a HeadAmp BHSE fed by a Schiit Yggdrasil in a quiet listening Room. Could not believe the detail and response.
The second was when I finally added a Subwoofer (in the correct position) to my 2-channel system (I lived in apartments for a most of my life and finally moved into a house after retiring). I can finally turn up the volume and bass!!!
Funny that the Voce is not getting as much love anymore.
OMG moments (they somehow depend on the upgrades timeline):
biggest: the amp change, from an Yamaha integrated (RN303D) to a power amp, NAD C 298
big: REW with a mic (still have to pay for a professional service)
so so: new speakers, adding a sub and adding the second sub
small but there: HQP and NAA
My biggest OMG moment was when I realized I had spent US$1520.50 on Moon Audio Silver Dragon and Black Dragon headphone cables. This was for my Focal Clear, Sony WH-1000XM3, and Dan Clark AEON headphones. I sold the Dan Clarks along with the Silver Dragon cable for them. I actually bought two Silver Dragon cables of different lengths for the Sony.
Actually, the headphone cables were worth the price IMHO.
But, and here’s the problem, the site is, to be perfectly honest, not very good. You can glance over it to get the gist of it, but really the best way to go about it is to contact Thierry directly via the site. His customer support is very good. He engages directly with you and is very patient about explaining exactly what you need to do vs. what he will do for you.
In a nutshell, you’ll need to buy or borrow a good USB calibration microphone like a miniDSP UMIK. Then you download a free measurement software package. Thierry gives you some test tones that you load into Roon just as if they’re regular music files. You then use Roon to play the test tones while the microphone and the software package “listen” to the tones coming out of your system. The software will write what it “heard” to a file. You send Thierry that file. His software crunches that data and creates a software filter that you load into Roon and engage when you listen.
Of course, there’s details there that I’ve skipped over, but Thierry is great at explaining all that.
Also, don’t hesitate to tell him you’re not 100% satisfied with the filter he sends you. He will keep tweaking them until you are.
Great product and great guy to work with.
4 Likes
Torben_Rick
(Torben - A Dane living in Hamburg - Roon Lifer)
18
No, I don’t believe so, but I’m not certain. Thierry actually supports more than one free package. He might know whether there’s an iPad version available.
Yes, absolutely. The filter he sends you loads into the Core and you associate it with the endpoint that corresponds to the Linn.
Room treatments for me but with Dirac. Not sure whether REW or Dirac are equivalent or one is better, however I now have 5 different settings I can switch between. Made an enormous difference, that and my Harbeth speakers…
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