What is your single top upgrade?

Mike,Mine would be changing the a4 to a5 cable, could not believe the difference this could make. I held off buying it for years as I did not think it would make that much sonic difference but I was wrong. As good as any other upgrade for peanuts.

Another big one was the Dynavector 10x40 mk2 for similar reasons that you have mentioned. I realise the Akiva would probably blow it away, but it is the most expensive cartridge I have bought to date, money well spent,

John.

Best Upgrade:-

Linn Sondek/Itock/Asaka

BestBuy (Bang per Buck)
Gray to Black SNAICs

I think the best one for me was adding an XPS to the CDX - totally transfomed the player from good to something special.
Adding a hicap to my old 72 was also a big upgrade.

Graham

82 one hi-cap to 82 supercap. Then I just had to have a CDS2.

Mark.

purchasing my Roksan Xerxes turntable was my biggest and best upgrade.

I originally demmed it against a Linn Lp12 through Naim amps. The musical range and depth of sound was amasing. So much so it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

This was back in 1986. I still have the turntable but it has gone through many changes. Still sounds excellent!


Regards

NB

Good call Mick. The Xps was up there for me as well.

Possabily the best value for money upgrade!


Regards

NB

Th meridian DAC I added to my CDP. Cost just £150 and made it sound like it cost a grand.

Going *way* back now, but I remember being stunned at the improvement when upgrading to QED 79 strand over the basic bell wire I had in my (early 80's ) Technics system. I think it was about £1 a metre, I can't think of an upgrade since that's made such a proportionate difference for so little cash.

Either upgrading a 140 to a 250, or a long time ago, getting a Michell hydraulic reference/SME/Shure deck after the horrid Goldring thing I had as a student. Sadly I sold it later (guess what I bought instead).

Hi All,
Sorry to change the main subject, I need help with deciding whether I should spend my £400 on Hi-cap or Dedicated Main spurs.

Regards,
Km

The mains.

Our power supply comes in via an overhead transmission line. Last year this snapped and had to be replaced. The new cable, about 100 metres of whatever Southern Electric use, trnasformed the whole system. Cleaner; more powerful; wider dynamic range; deeper bass; more detail, more coherence; more space around instruments and vocals; more life..... and it was free.

I wonder if they got the cable direction right.....

The next best upgrade was replacing the JR149s with the Isobariks...Cleaner; more powerful; wider dynamic range; deeper bass; more detail, more coherence; more space around instruments and vocals; more life..... and it cost a fortune at the time.

Cheers

Don

My biggest upgrade in terms of bang for bucks was adding the power supply to the pre amp. It helped that it was free and even bought would have cost me £120.

However, the best overall has to be the LP12. It broadened my musical tastes and led me to listening more.

Milan

Interms of the single biggest jump? - A tie between:

1. Getting my first properly set up LP12
2. Changing the SBLs for Shahinian ARCS

Lots of other lesser upgrades but these were the biggest two in terms of transforming the system over the last 25 years.

Steve

My system is fairly moderate.
P25/CD5/202/200/ES14 on particular rack.

My single top upgrade IMHO was the rack.

To move from a QED amp to NAIT2. (The rest at the time was Tohrens td 166 and AR39).

Arye

#1. Switching from CD to vinyl (CDS previously, vinyl only now)
#2. SBLs to NBLs
#3. 82/Super to 52/Super
#4. Adding Mana racks
#5. 82/Hicap to 82/Supercap

John

without doubt: Fraim. And here I’m mentioning only my imitated ones.

graphoman

Taking the grills off my Wharfedale Delta 30's after I'd owned my first 'hi-fi' for 6 weeks.

Everything else has been incremental in comparison. (Especially through 12 year old pink-hued glasses!)

Seth
Is Naim the only way forward?
Ahh, Ahh! I'm burning!!

1. 52
2. LP12 - P9

Meeting and marrying my wife. through her I was both introduced to naim and enabled to build the system and setup that we both totally enjoy. It has been a slow upgrade (the process took 5 years), but the best.

YMMV

Connon

Ittok to Ekos - probably because the similarity of the design results in a sound that is both instantly recognisable and clearly better in every way.

Other upgrades were more essential but I took them for granted much sooner - e.g. pre-lingo to Lingo, Audiolab 8000A to NAIT 1 and 32.5 to 102.

From 72/Hicap to 52/52PS. That upgrade got me into the auditorium.

Passive Linn Sara to Active Briks (one 250 to 3 250's) - not the cheapest one though!!

Smike

Linn Karik -> LP12

It Kan be done!

In progressing from a Logic Tempo E turntable and Audiolab 8000A amp/Dean Alto II speakers, to full LP12, 52/4x135's/CDS2/SBL's etc, the two which stand out, although they are more recent and thus possibly fresher in the memory, ave been the CDX to CDS2 and the 2X135's passive to 4x135's active.