My God you knocked the walls out to give them more room to breathe 
Now thatās the level of commitment we expect from Audiophiles.
They look great 
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She thought bigger speakers would fill the space and look more homely. I didnāt argueā¦.
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Oh no, never argue ā¦ 
āMD
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Great decision and she is right for once 
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Bought a used Power amp Krell KSA100S to support my power hungry big speakers Magnaplanar 3.6
What a blessing! Class A amp fits my needs,
this together with Roons equalizer is just perfect.
Also I switched my streamer to Sonore UltraRendu V1.2 from a Bluesound n130
Wish ya all the best this new Year and hope for more peace!
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Four purchases for me:-
EAR MC4 moving coil step-up transformer (Iād been looking for a used one for a while) it replaced a DIY head amp - I met Tim de P and have always rated his transformer expertise as second to none. My power amp is also based on one of his designs.
Roksan Xerxes 10 (an upgrade from my older Xerxes) I moved the Artemis arm and Lyra Delos cartridge across. Just completed this and havenāt compared it much yet. But the Xerxes 10 is more future proof.
A well priced used Allo DigiOne signature with Shanti power supply. I used the Shanti on my Katana, and switched out my base Digione - mainly because I preferred the case!
I havenāt investigated whether the Pi2AES or Digione Sig is best with the RME in my main rig - but I donāt expect to be able to tell the difference.
The Katana is wasted driving ceiling speakers in my kitchen. But it was good to get it running as optimally as possible - before Allo gear becomes hard to find.
And finally a Pi to run @DrCWO ās rooExtend - mainly to use his RME ADI volume extension - but Iāve found myself using a couple more of his extensions.
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A pair of Wharfedale Linton speakers which I love. I was originally planning to spend 2 to 3 times as much but listened to the Lintonās and loved their sound. Listening to them as I type.
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Very nice system!
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Only updates in 2023 were in the AV side of the house. This is now also our CD/SACD player for the very rare occasions that discs are spun, so I guess it counts.
We also chose a ******* big television (Sony A80K 77 inch)
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Wow I have neve seen ESL 63ās without their outer cover , I had look twice .They look ā WELL , my pair were wonderful until the rarefied atmosphere and dryness of Johannesburg got them.
I have a headphone sorta year
Sony WF 1000 MX4 IEMās (bought because I knew I had 8 weeks in a neck collar coming and normal headphones wouldnāt fit)
Focal Clear Mg
HifI Man Arya Stealth
Not to mention a 1 Tb SD card for my phone (to go with the Sonyās for the hospital stay)
I suspect thatās me done for a while
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I think you might be commenting on my Quad ESL-63sā¦.yes, they have their socks pulled down to protect them from cat claws. On my first set of Quads, which I had rebuilt about 5 years ago, the socks were really shredded in places because my two young kittens would race through the house and when they hit the living room they would climb my Quads. When I bought the US Monitors, I decided to protect those covers by rolling them down to the bottom of the speakers.
I prefer their appearance with socks, but they donāt look too bad without, thankfully.
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In 2023, I sold my trusty Brocksieper Minara speakers and the JL Audio Dominion d110 subwoofer, which I needed for a bit more low bass, and bought Canton Reference 5 k speakers. A lot more foundation, but sometimes I miss the extremely finely resolved highs of the Accuton tweeters that the Brocksieper have. All in all, the Cantons play very nicely with my ModWright KWI 200 amplifier.
I converted my old ānot worth mentioningā Panasonic BluRay player into a transport by connecting it directly to my DAC (via toslink cable > converter > coaxial cable > DAC), so I can enjoy listening to CDs again.
I have replaced a few cables here and there.
And then just before the end of the year I bought a FiiO M11 Plus LTD, which I now use to listen to music wherever my system is not, or if my family needs the living room for watching TV, for example. I sold the stationary Matrix Audio mini-i Pro 3 and my old Onkyo DAP (DP-X1) because it didnāt work properly with Roon either.
My wishes for 2024 are a new cartridge (Hana MH) for my turntable, and Iām saving up for a Meitner MA3 network player or a T + A MP 2000 R Mk II multi source player. But that will take some timeā¦
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Thank you.
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I can see the socks at the bottom now i look closer .
They are wonderful speaker , back in the UK I had a full Quad system 34 preamp/405 II power amp and ESL 63 . Along with a Linn LP12/Ittock/Troica , Linn Karik CD and a Nakamichi CR7e cassette deck.
Them were the days eh ā¦
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Are things any ābetterā today Mike? 
Different but still good in those day I was mostly speakers now I am totally headphones but does mean you can experience "the bestā without breaking the bank .
What was that line , āyou canāt take it with youā. With no kids itās relatives , the dogās home or hi fi
No Brainer 
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Just turned 80 here so had to think hard about:
Replacing my 15 year old great sounding Conrad-Johnson GAT preamp with their new ART 88 preampā¦ turned out to be wonderful improvement.
The Nordost Valhalla 2 speaker cables left the system for some new Wireworld Platimum Eclipse solid silver cablesā¦ much warmer. The Wilsonās love them.
Replaced the non functional JL Audio f113 sub with a pair of B&W DB subs, also a great move.
Now for that Apex upgrade for the Bartok? Maybe in 2024.
Great listening and a Happy New Year to all !
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This is the first year I have spent any money on my audio system for a long time - ~24 years for the most part, but having retired at the end of September 22, it was also the first year that I started using my HiFi system so extensively as I have been this year.
It started early in the year - in a very low key way. I bought a USB power controlled mains switch (switches on whenever USB power is supplied) and a european plug USB charger to plug into the mains output on the back of my Denon 3802 AVR (old now but still good for audio - at least on ādirectā). This enabled me to get the active sub-woofer to power on automatically whenever the amplifier was turned on - a major convienience improvement.
Then I bought an Arcam ST60 streamer with a view to migrating to rips of my CD collection - now complete. Of course this introduced me to the possibility of using Roon - which I initially setup on my Synology 1019+ (because itās always on). So after evaluting the use of Roon (vs the alternatives available on the ST60) for a couple of months, I then decided to buy a NUC (NUC11TNHi7) in order to run ROCK and invested in a Roon Lifetime subscription.
Finally, my headphones (an old pair of noise cancelling headphones bought originally for air travel when I was travelling on business and rarely used out side of that until this year when I started using them to listen to music/video when the other half was busy with activities that precluded using the room HiFi) gave up the ghost, so I bought a pair of HiFiMan Ananda Nano headphones, a Fiio K9Pro (ESS), a Raspberry Pi4, and a chair side table to setup a headphone station.
Lastly, I have had a pair of old Mission speakers lying around doing nothing so I bought another Raspberry Pi4 - this time with an DigiAmp+ HAT in order to set up a basic Roon endpoint in my dining room - previously a music free zone. This is only a very basic system but it works exceeding well for the intended purpose - lowish volume background music while eating with company (or even playing board games on the dining room table) when there is a need to talk over the music.
So at the beginning of the year, I had no ability to stream music (except using the various computers and phones around the house none of which are a satifactory listening experience). Now I have a Roon system with two high quality and one adequate quality endpoints with the possiblity of using the computers and phones as still futher endpoints if the need arises.
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First I enhanced the digital side (an Innuos Zen) with the chord one-two punch of Hugo TT2 and M-Scaler.
Then, after a lot more deliberation, I decided to further invest in Vinyl, even though I only started 3 years ago and only have about 200 LPs.
I would have described my listening habits as 30:70 favouring Digital but analog went up significantly since the arrival of a white (!) Rega P10/Apheta 3 plus Aria Phono Stage.
My stereo amp is a Parasound Halo 2.1 into B&W 702.
Any tipps for 2024 ?
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Wow! Very nice system setup youāve got there.
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