What have been your biggest wow moment upgrades?

An update to my last wow post..........

My LP12 this replaced a Rega planar 3 in the late 80's (purchased sh for £450) -  which it trounced - it is now getting on for 35yrs young ........ and has given me great joy over many years..it was mothballed 15 years ago ..... and brought out again, yes its not s good as the NDS .... but, it still sounds great .... this is a fabulous product....and there are some bargains out there to be had....+ there are amazing upgrades available. 

2 moments from last year,

the first was taking the step and adding a Fraim to the system from Quadasphire, every thing had more grip and detail - well worth the investment and second moment was replacing my much loved 200 with 300 non DR - that was a real WOW!

Upgrading my Naim Unitilite to a Superuniti, different league, changing my Arivas for  Allaes was the icing on the cake.

Nick

For me its the amps that have made the biggest difference - technics integrated to nait3, turning nait 3 to pre only then adding NAP140, swapping Nait3 for NAC72 (all into Epos ES11).  Biggest of these was adding the NAP140 but that might be down the the speakers proving a difficult load for the ES11's?). Sources throughout this period were CD players (Philips CD104 - Mission something or other - Cyrus dad7 + power supply).

I've appreciated the differences between digital sources and speaker cables but this has always been more subtle for me.  Never really heard much difference between interconnects. 

Get the amp / speaker synergy right and the rest will follow.

Each to their own I guess.

From CDX2 + NDAC and XPS to new source NDS with 555PS DR, and the move from normal cables to super lumina. And of course 252 non DR to 552 DR.

First listen to the Tablette 10. I actually said ‘wow!’ such was the scale emanating from a relatively (to my cherished S400) tiny sealed box.

G

Defekting from the Skottish company to Naim. Though I still have great affection for the Sondek.

Klyde, Sondek with Naim is a classic combination! It gets more sledging in these parts these days and there is a lot of competition for it. This combination still has the majik though (pun intended).

Enjoy.

Stu

Honestly the biggest wow upgraded I ever made was swapping from cheap apollo speaker stands to some Sound Organisation ones. I took my whole (pretty budget) system in to Acoustica in Chester thinking I was going to be buying a new CD player or speakers. First thing he said was " these speakers are OK, they can sound better than that" - put them on different stands and it was night and day. Then he swapped out what I thought was the best bit of my system (an old Musical Fidelity amp) for a NAIT 3 - second biggest wow moment. That was a brilliant VFM shopping trip and really taught me the value of a good dealer.

Everything else since then Marantz 52SE to CD3.5 to CD3.5/HC and 102/180/HC to Linn Majik DS to SU + 250 has been worthwhile but more incremental.

Probably the biggest change since those early ones was buying Linn Majik Isobariks which are wonderfully at home in our big but quite hard and glass living room. Funnily enough when the dealer installed the iso's very minor tweaks to speaker positioning had a big effect - bigger than most source changes I have made. We're all influenced by our experiences but my prejudice is that speaker/room matching and set up is VERY important and that has made me a bit sceptical about source first orthodoxy.

Moving to mainly streaming has been really enjoyable too.

There have been many in the last 32 years. To name a few, Linn Kandid cartridge, NAC 552 and recently B&W 804D3 loudspeakers. Without the first WOW moment I doubt I would have had the others.

Linn LP12, Ittok tonearm, Karma cartridge. Naim 32.5/hicap /250. Linn SaraLoudspeakers. At the Sound Organisation in York 1985.

Dave J posted:

The Chord Clearway is £10 a metre, though. You can hardly define an entire range based upon your experience at that level. I think you’d agree, you’re not really in a position to advise hastings on base upon such limited experience.

I notice that even Vertere offer cables at very different price levels, gosh!

But it wasn't only the clearway Dave J

The Sarum Super Aray at 2100 GBP/Meter wasn't as good to my ears as the Superlumina either.... 

Sorry.... Anyway it's all good, whatever one likes, it's ok, it really is.

And the stock Naim cables including the standard lavender/DIN-XLR/ NACA5 are very good indeed also.

as long as one is having fun with the music system

Over Christmas holidays I watched only 1 hour of TV and rest of many hours of musical fun was with my Naim systems.... 

I have as much musical fun with the small Chord Mojo/202/200 as I have with the big rig Chord Dave/282/250 

Funny you started this thread Bob as I have been thinking about it a lot lately because of my steady upgrade path over the last three years and was going to ask the same thing.

My upgrade path went like this, Cdx3.5/72/180/HC> Ndx/US/202/200 > added HCDR > added non Naim PS to Ndx> changed out NNPS for XPSDR > upgraded to 282 > and finally upgraded to 250Dr. All of these UG’s have been a step in the right direction and all have offered their their subtle and not so subtle improvements but the biggest one for me and VFM was when I came home and added the HCDR to the 202/200, I stood their and just went wow!

IMHO the 202/200 was alway lacking in warmth and bass and the HCDR sorted that out way more than I was expecting.

Thanks Bob it’s been great reading everyone else’s wow moments.

analogmusic posted:

Dave J posted:

The Chord Clearway is £10 a metre, though. You can hardly define an entire range based upon your experience at that level. I think you’d agree, you’re not really in a position to advise hastings on base upon such limited experience.

I notice that even Vertere offer cables at very different price levels, gosh!

But it wasn't only the clearway Dave J

The Sarum Super Aray at 2100 GBP/Meter wasn't as good to my ears as the Superlumina either.... 

 

 

But... you were comparing Chord with Vertere?! Make your mind up! ????

Adding PowerLines........

KR, J

For me

32.5 to 52/PS

2x135’s on briks to active with 6x135’s

LP12,lingo2,ekos2,Akita to Lp12,keel,Radikal,Ekos SE,Kandid

Briks to DBLs

Chord Sarum Super Array

52/PS to 552DR

Lyndon

1. Used NAC112, NAP150, FC2X inserted into my otherwise-satisfactory 5.1 Denon/KEF system.  "Transformed" my KEF-Q50s, as promised.

2. NDX-FM was a "wow", in that it did FM better than any tuner I have had before; and the ability to operate the entire system from phone or tablet is a huge upgrade.

3. Used Rega Planar3/Elys/Fono replaced worn-out Beogram 2000.  Never heard so little surface noise from my old favorites, and no price paid, it seems, in lost top-end!

Nick

lyndon posted:

For me

32.5 to 52/PS

2x135’s on briks to active with 6x135’s

LP12,lingo2,ekos2,Akita to Lp12,keel,Radikal,Ekos SE,Kandid

Briks to DBLs

Chord Sarum Super Array

52/PS to 552DR

 

Lyndon

 

Wow! Six-packed with LP12, that inspires me from the my college days since I read an article by Chris Frankand years ago (I think it was from a HI FI magazine circa 1987?).

There have been many, but three stand out:

- Replacing a Thorens TD160/Ortofon MM with the original Systemdek/Mission 774/Ortofon MC combo. I was set on an LP12 but KJ insisted I compared it with Mr. Dunlop’s wonder. The latter won hands down on the day. That nextel finish was a trial to keep neat though.

- Replacing an Arcam transport/DAC CD player with Naim’s CD2. A proper player, playing music with passion. I’d demmed it against the vaunted but funky-looking Meridian 206, but that made The Stooges sound like lounge lizards...so...no.

- Changing from NACA5, which I’d used since it came out, to Chord Sarum speaker cable. It was an awesome musical upgrade, but it was also a huge psychological step to pay that much for wire. Broke the dam though!

There have been three stand out upgrades for me too. These are:

1. Swapping out 2 HiCaps and replacing with Supercap on my NAC82 preamp;

2. Changing NAC52 for NAC552; and,

3. Replacing 2 NAP135s with a NAP500.

Which was the biggest step change in terms of musical enjoyment? Probably the NAP500. I was surprised just how much more controlled this was. Don't get me wrong, I think the NAP135s are superb, but the control, the clear start and stop of notes, the amount of air moved by the bass drivers when driven by the NAP500 were all beyond what I'd expected.

For me, changing from Audiolab pre and power amplification to Supernait.  I immediately realised what I had been missing.  The start then of a gradual change to a complete Naim system.  Superlumina full loom later added ... wow!  

The Cisco 2960 switch was a bit of a ‘wow’ moment too. Not that the uplift was huge, but the fact it was a palpable improvement at all surprised me.

G

1. Rega Plannar 3 to Linn LP12

2. Replacing Linn Aktiv Keltik system (top of Linn range in it’s day) with ATC SCM 50A active speakers. Massive improvement and far less expensive!!

3. Adding Chord Hugo to Naim ND5xs

At a dealer demoing an Audiolab 8000a.  Switched to a Nait.  The music suddenly made sense.

Going from two hicaps on an 82 to a Supercap.

Adding a 52.

Going from a Michell Gyrodec to a Roksan Xerxes.

Going from Royd RR2s to SL2s.  Such clarity and coherence.

Going from original Roksan Artemiz to Naim Aro.

In recent times:

1. Valhalla to Lingo on the Sondek.

2. Flatcap to Hicap on the 102

Changing an Akai Am2250 to a Nait back in the mid-80s.

Changing a Trio KD1033B to. Roksan Xerxes/RB300/K9

Changing a 140 to a pair of 135s (probably the biggest wow)

Changing a 72 to an 82

The Xerxes moving to a TMS