Which item has the biggest lasting factor as other components upgrade?

My speakers have been with me from well before I even discovered Naim and still going strong. They make me appreciate my most recent upgrade which is the addition of a CDX2 to the last years upgrade to Supernait. Skipping the XS line alltogether.

Must admit, I'm keen on auditioning some speakers, especially Spendors D7 and Wharfedales Jade5.

I forgot to add that highly unlikely I will upgrade the CD555. As my Naimed Sondek, It will outlive me.

yeti42 posted:

The item that's lasted longest is my NAD 4020A, I would have upgraded it years ago but we've been 5 years from the end of  FM for the last 10 years it seems. My Elite Rock has held its own since 89 seeing new suspension and going from RB300/Eroica L to Aro/Proteus losing its paddle and trough along the way and seeing a cheap stepup transformers and a Sansui AU217/Mission 700s become a supercapped superline/552/500/NBLs.

Yeti,

I am also a NAD 4020A user and use it at the weekend to listen to sport on m.w.

It's a lovely piece of equipment.Love those green LEDs and the valve like glow behind the tuning scale . Haven't tried it on f.m as have a A@R Cambridge T21 and Naim 01 for that.

kuma posted:

I forgot to add that highly unlikely I will upgrade the CD555. As my Naimed Sondek, It will outlive me.

 

Even to the point when it becomes 'pre-historic'?

Now I have a little more time, a little more explanation about the speakers.

When I bought them in 1986, I always intended them to last a long time and bought what most people would consider a mullet; but there was sound engineering and audio reasoning to the decision:

CD was in it's infancy and getting a slight improvement in SQ meant a many times increase in cost, however, just wait a few years and the SQ improvements will come thick and fast.  I was building my own amps, successfully by then, and that could handle most speakers that aren't a specifically difficult load.  However I knew that in time I'd stop building my own amps when the mainstream manufacturers caught up with the technical requirements to make an amp work well with CD.

I listened to a lot of speakers (13 different ones), most I dismissed due to glaring sonic flaws, some because they were too difficult a load for any 'normal' amp (or pretty much anything short of a overblown Krell).  Some were marked down because they were introducing the 'wide dispersion' tweeters to make the sound-stage wider than the speakers; and, although popular, this is a flaw that causes room integration problems.  The SP2 were among the last I listened to,  their main sonic fault (relatively) was a softness in the bass.  However they were a particularly benign load, used the Scan D2008 tweeter, polyprop main driver cone and film caps in the crossover.  The absence of components that have limited life (such as electrolytic caps, foam surrounds or paper cones) suggested longevity.  Also as a result of the load characteristics, I knew that they would make the most of the of the simpler and limited power amp designs of the time (including mine).  Hence they could serve me well without limiting the performance of the amps I could afford to buy or make until I could afford much better other equipment.

They were always intended as a long term purchase - I expected 15 - 20 years, but it's only now 30 years later that I think the rest of the equipment I have may be starting to exceed their capability; but there again the last £1500 speaker I heard didn't even come close.  The biggest ageing factor in the speakers has been a hardening of the suspension, reducing the bass extension; in other ways they've aged very gracefully.  The current model of the SP2 is £2700 and whilst there are changes they have been progressive tweaks rather than any major change to the sound.

Loudspeakers again here. 

I walked into a hifi dealer in the mid-80s and heard a pair of Epos ES11s playing jazz in the background and was immediately hooked. I bought a pair and lived very happily with them for 10 years or so, driving them with an Exposure XX integrated. I loved that system to bits (and I still have the amp and speakers tucked away) but in the mid-nineties I wanted a bit more scale with the same voicing as the ES11s so the fairly recently announced Epos ES22s were the logical upgrade.

I moved from Exposure to Naim with the ES22s, driving them initially with a 102/180. They are still here after 20 years, now driven by 252/SCDR/300. They have certainly not been embarrassed by the changes to the electronics over the years but with the upgrades to the amps and sources now being NDS/555 and a Rega RP8/Apheta2 I do feel they are getting slightly long in the tooth. Thing is, the idea of changing them is pretty daunting and I don't have a good feel for what the alternatives might be that can deliver the same scale in such a compact package.

I think this is why speakers are the most commonly-listed component here. Auditioning and choosing speakers is a big investment that is much more difficult (for me, at least) than a box upgrade.

Adrian_P posted:

 

I think this is why speakers are the most commonly-listed component here. Auditioning and choosing speakers is a big investment that is much more difficult (for me, at least) than a box upgrade.

Well said. I sometimes wonder whether something other than NBLs might work better in my very odd room (much as I love them), but the thought of shifting loads of great big speakers in and out is pretty daunting and is of itself a reason to stick rather than twist.

oscarskeeper posted:

Adrian_P posted:

 

I think this is why speakers are the most commonly-listed component here. Auditioning and choosing speakers is a big investment that is much more difficult (for me, at least) than a box upgrade.

Well said. I sometimes wonder whether something other than NBLs might work better in my very odd room (much as I love them), but the thought of shifting loads of great big speakers in and out is pretty daunting and is of itself a reason to stick rather than twist.

As an NBL user myself I can empathise fully. I've just spent most of the afternoon moving my NBLs, reducing the toe-in and moving about 1" further from the rear wall. They're on Chips on an oak floor too, which makes it more challenging. Then I had to adjust the spikes to ensure they're still vertical, reposition the Chips so that the spikes are perfectly central etc.. What a faff! And how my fingers ache from easing up the speaker in each corner as I adjusted the spikes (which has to be done numerous times, checking the verticality with a spirit level, checking they're not rocking and so on). They appear to sound a bit better though with less bass bloom.

Nick from Suffolk posted:

kuma posted:

I forgot to add that highly unlikely I will upgrade the CD555. As my Naimed Sondek, It will outlive me.

 

Even to the point when it becomes 'pre-historic'?

Sure.

It probably already is.

kuma posted:

Nick from Suffolk posted:

kuma posted:

I forgot to add that highly unlikely I will upgrade the CD555. As my Naimed Sondek, It will outlive me.

 

Even to the point when it becomes 'pre-historic'?

Sure.

It probably already is.

Donate it to a museum in your will. 

A solid silver interconnect made by a small supplier in Leeds. Never bettered by leads many times the cost & remains the most immediately noticeable upgrade I've had. 

Kans, if you like them and they are a Marmite speaker, there is nothing else to replace them at all.

Me, I love them!

Being of the 'source first' persuasion, I would normally say get the very best source and it will outlast the rest of the system. But there is s problem with this. Source components and indeed source media have evolved and developed far quicker than other components down the chain with the slowest evolution arguably at the speaker end. This might be why others are voting for speakers together with the sheer aggro of auditioning and heaving around a load of heavy boxes in order to make the upgrade decision. For these reasons it is understandable why 'speakers might stay in systems longer. My 'speakers have outlived upgrades (sometimes multiple upgrades) in all other components for sure.

On balance however I would vote for the pre amp as the component with potentially the biggest impact and greatest longevity due to the vital role it has in any system and the rather slow technological development of this component. I have experienced some of the biggest leaps in SQ when upgrading my pre amp. The pre amp upgrade also seems to facilitate SQ enhancements from upgrades elsewhere in the chain. Looking back, I should have leap-frogged one or two preamp upgrades for this very reason.

My reasoning has resulted in my system being a bit Monkfish-shaped now but I am very happy with it.

My two-penneth.