What have been your biggest wow moment upgrades?

I've done several upgrades in the past 2 years after decades away from hi-fi. I started with a 272/200 with Rega Planar 3. Loved it all but buyer's remorse and an understanding dealer led me to upgrade the 200 to a 250DR. Wow! On the one hand, the difference was subtle, but the commanding grip the 250DR had on the full range of sound was astounding. Then I added an XPS DR to front the 272. Wow! Okay, again the difference was subtle, but substantive at the same time. I struggle to describe the different the XPS DR made - just an overall more refined sound. Cleaner highs and more substantive bass and utter silence in between sounds. Then I started to reflect on how much I've embraced vinyl since rekindling the hi-fi flame. When I began anew, the Planar 3 was enough of an investment to make quality sound, but my dealer and I agreed it was possibly a "starting point," until I decided whether I would really use vinyl regularly or go entirely with digital streaming. I upgraded the Planar 3/MM Fono to a Rega RP10 w/Apheta 2/Aria. WOW! I'd have to say this was the biggest improvement. Or, was it when I replaced the B&W CM9s with Harbeth 40th Anniversary Super LH5+? Aw, hell... I don't know.

Source first WOW applies here... spend crazy money and time to find out my ideal DAC / digital frontend with Playback Merlot and MicroRendu ( had NDX, NDS, HDX, Linn DS). No loudspeaker upgrade could touch this improvement (had Ovator, B&W, Focal Sopra now)

Second WOW moment was the pre-amp. NAC 282,252, Linn, Mcintosh and now Nagra. Never thought that this could lift the musical presentaton in such manner. 

A nice WOW was Linn Keel which brings more soundstage and a darker backround in the flow.

So thinking back, I still would spend most of the budget in source, preamp and than poweramp and speakers.

ralf

Have to say one of the biggest wow moments for me occurred quite recently with the purchase of my ATC SCM11 speakers. 

Ian.

Biggest by far was the XV1S, better than the Radikal, Ekos SE, Keel or Karmen but they were all better than the NDS (which has its merits, particularly at 192/24, is convenient and is currently playing the cricket commentary, but hasn’t touched the turntable for SQ or involvement).  The  XV1S is so good that I wore my first out inside 3 years and am a year into my second.

Urm - I think going from the Dyn Contours to the Kudos. 

Regards,

Lindsay

Bob the Builder posted:

With arguments in favour of source first, power supplies and now cables what have been your biggest wow moment upgrades?

Mine have always come from speaker upgrades and as soon as I have connected those speakers as well.

I'm not sure if it is because of my ears becoming accustomed to the new sound or speakers settling down but that wow moment always comes and then settles down.

Speaker matching for me is always the most difficult thing to get right but has always given me the most satisfaction when I have.

Totally agree with you Bob,

I have a vintage system and got some Focal Profil 77 floorstanders  brought second hand  for  £500 on the end of some Bryston pre and power amps and just adore them.You hear talk of Focal being to bright,but I never experienced this with them at all.I have put them on the end of my Nagra PLL and Dartzeel amps and they are magic with everything you play.

Funny enough have some Aiwa micro system loudspeaker coming from my work system and soon to be brought Denon integrated amp from a mate.So looking forward to putting that system together in a bedroom with a Technics SL 1210 and a Pioneer PDS 801 legeto link CD player.Should be fun when up and running.

I upgraded from Nac152xs/flatcap xs to a Nac52/supercap still using Nap155xs power amp. My reasonably specced Lp12 loved that. Old records sounded better more detail unbelievably so. That really was wow.

i replaced 155xs with nap300 but found this to be a very subtle change possibly as I kept the same guru junior speakers. I am thinking about a speaker change in the future which is why I took the opportunity to change  to nap300 to give me more options for speakers in the future.

"Source first", yeah we get the point to a degree, as if one would use a CD5si in a 500 system, Definitely an overused idiomatic term on this forum. "Speakers first"? Not so much about cost as finding the proper fit to a given room. I've toted no less than 12 speakers (ranging up to $7,000) in and out of my room over the past six years, sticking always with the $2,000 speakers I had from the beginning. Then bingo! I toted in a superlative speaker match that had far less to do with cost or my sources than with essential room interaction. $3,500 speakers suddenly fit my room like a glove with no change in sources

Better sources will expose a poor recording. Great, that's all well and good for those chasing black boxes with potential PSU upgrades, but speakers poorly matched to a room can confound the value of a quality source. I simply want to maximize my recordings for their musicality in my system, not expose them, and the speakers play a huge role.

My biggest Wow moment was when I upgraded from ND5 to NDX. It really is so much better sounding with my SN2.

Oh wait.... The most significant Wow moment was actually when I tried  stillpoints. They are the best investment I've made into HiFi.

I had a Berkeley Alpha RS 1 DAC for a month. The improvement in soundstage/details vs Hugo 1/ Alpha/NDX was also pretty amazing. Couldn't justify the expense.

I am hoping the big Wow moment is next month when I finally get to hear the Linn Klimax Exakt system. I've got some Bitcoins segregated for this possible purchase. 

I am always amazed at how power supplies open out the sound of sources and pre amps. My first HC on an 82 and more recently a Radikal stand out in the memory.

Stu

My first wow moment was primarily due to speakers - it was on first hearing of my first hifi system back in 1969, budget home brew though it was, was definitely a wow effect because it was the first time I had heard bass  at home (or at all!) - and that was before the speakers were built, the drivers mounted in makeshift cabinets made from cushions!  

Sticking with speakers, my first IMFs were particularly great as a step up, though my best recollection of my feeling was more of an “ah, now that is how music should sound” rather than a distinct ‘wow’ - though maybe that is a matter of interpretation of ‘wow’, and I am remembering back over 40 years! (To me, ‘wow’ is something stupendous, not simply a subtle improvement, however nice.)

After that my next IMFs, then PMCs, and more recent active combination of ATC mids with my PMCs have been more evolutionary improvements than wow factors.

However the one other wow moment in my hifi journey - and a literal one at that - was a source: Chord Dave DAC. I’ll never forget that moment when just a few bars into the first piece of music my son sitting beside me mouthed the word ‘wow’ almost under his breath, precisely echoing what I was feeling.

Everything is of course only as remembered over time, and only as heard with the rest of the system at the time. It would be interesting if I were able to assemble all my hifi upgrades from over the years in one place, and play each successively to compare all directly (and maybe see what might have been different if the various choices had been available to make in a different order).

When I first got a pair of Grado SR225 headphones a good few years ago.

Used on the headphone output of the Audiolab 8000A. With Technics SL1200 as source.

Such a full range immersive sound with awesome tonality.   My speakers at the time didn't have a chance in hell to replicate that out in the wild.

Actually I’ve just remembered another one - it was playing my system outdoors, so the effect was due to the ‘room’, or rather room/speaker interaction (absence of),  the sound quality primarily due to the excellent speakers for once being free to 'sing' in what they would have seen as an open space, with minimal 'room' interactions.

System itself was IMF Ref Standard Prof Monitor speakers - a large transmission line design - fed by Shearne Audio Phase 7 CD player or Thorens TD150 in custom plinth/ Rega RB300 arm and an ATC mc cartridge, through Musical Fidelity The Preamp 2 and Musical Fidelity P170 power amp, and about 40-50m of mixed, partly nondescript cable (2.5-6mm2).

Speakers placed on crates of some sort to raise a foot or so, on the front edge of a patio at rear of garden, facing towards the house, about 5 or 6m apart. Distance to house rear wall about 25-30m. Garden width between high thick hedges about 8-9m. Thick high hedge at back of garden 3m behind speakers. Main 'listening' area about 1/3rd to half of distance between speakers and house. Area between speakers and listening area flower/veg beds and lawn, listening area lawn. The music sounded stunningly real, clear, sharply focused but with huge soundstage, really deep, smooth detailed and well controlled bass: simply out of this world. Something that is my yardstick for music reproduction, but I know is unlikely ever to be achievable indoors

Biggest wow-effekt, new loudspeakers.

First big wow moment was my first change to my old system. I added the Hi-Line when it came out. I thought this was such an exotic item but this was many years before SL, DR and all that. It replaced the standard lead and looking back it was great bang for the bucks. It connected my then CDX2 to 282 with 300. It thought I had got the job done there and then. Detail, soundstage (not big on it myself) and clarity. Wow indeed.

Real biggie was some years later. By then I had CDS3 and RP8 as sources. Still the same 300 but swapped out the then 252 for the 552DR. Lots of folks have done more justice to the 552 than I can possibly write. This was a "cor blimey mate" moment and I geuss I will not experience it again.

The SL full loom was pretty tasty but this was done in increments so does not really offer a fair comparison with the above.

Dave

Biggest wow moment for me ever that I can remember was when a dealer swapped out a Hugo TT (this was on a 172/250.2 Dynaudio confidence C2 rig) - for a Chord Dave.

It just completely blew the Hugo TT into the weeds and I knew there I just had to have one (and feeling very upset at the financial outlay needed).

So I sold my Hugo and got a Chord Dave. 

WOW every single song I play on it.

It has to be source first for me, as the 172 is a starter preamp, but easily showed me the difference between a Dave and a Hugo TT.

I'm out of the preamp/amp upgrade path for now. Sorry Naim, but as you said yourself "source first" gives the biggest bang for the British Pound Sterling.

My experience anyway I'm sure other have different views....

Oh and second WOW - was swapping some non-naim interconnect cables for Superlumina - WOW, what a difference that made.

And another wow was swapping out a chord interconnect for Vertere Dfi ones

Real wow ! moment

Hi Line for me, it replaced a Van Den Hul The First interconnect.

I have a wow moment about this time every year when I see the latest price hike.

Karl

1. 555ps on NAC272

2. Nap500 replacing NAP250dr

3. SL cable from NDS to 552

Easy, putting a Chord Hugo into my system was a revelation. Huge huge bang for the buck and gave me a level of playback for digital files I would otherwise not been able to afford. Close behind would be the Apheta 2 cartridge on my RP8 which was a huge step up and installing TQ cables which I love in my system

1 - Replacing my speakers : from JMR "Emp Nano" to JMR "Abscisse" ( Jean-Marie REYNAUD).

2 - Adding a 555PS DR to the nDAC

3 - Adding high quality acoustic  curtains sheers to the living room. These sheers have an amazing alpha-p value of 0.8 (max. being 1)
     For those interested, the fabric is a high tech swiss product : "Streamer Pro" fabric from Annette Douglas Textiles.

Number 4 should probably be upgrading to 252 / SuperCapDR / 300DR (the boxes should arrive 2nd week of February)

In chronological order:

Hi-Line (since replaced by SL)

Chord Hugo (since replaced by Chord Hugo TT)

Martin Logan Electromotion ESLs

Getting my NAP 205.2 DR'd

From 2 x Hi-Cap to Supercap

From Linn Kans to Kudos C20s - huge leap !

TomSer posted:

3 - Adding high quality acoustic  curtains sheers to the living room. These sheers have an amazing alpha-p value of 0.8 (max. being 1)
   
For those interested, the fabric is a high tech swiss product : "Streamer Pro" fabric from Annette Douglas Textiles.

Here is some info related with the development of that special fabric :
https://www.empa.ch/documents/...13-801f-2312d43d78e9

Optimal placement of my Allaes done by my dealer.