What has been your best tweak or upgrade in 2018?

in my system this year no question the DR on my 300 and some rather larger "tweeks" on my LP12

antony d posted:

in my system this year no question the DR on my 300 and some rather larger "tweeks" on my LP12

 

what were the LP12 tweaks antony d? I swapped out the mdf board of the wallmounted shelf it had been perched on for a piece of 6mm glass with quite startling results.

Jonners posted:

 I swapped out the mdf board of the wallmounted shelf it had been perched on for a piece of 6mm glass with quite startling results.

I presume you feel the changes are for the better? Coz that does fly in the face of the “received wisdom” for LP12s.

And when I tried glass, cups and balls under my Sondek, I was not happy with the result, so I reverted to lightweight MDF.

All interesting stuff.

I normally make big upgrades or equipment purchases very infrequently, but this year thanks to a little bit of good luck (for once) and things going well with work I have made three big upgrades:

First, an Oppo UDP-205 to replace my much-loved but ageing Marantz CD6004, and to give me a bit more versatility re high-res files, SACDs, Blu-ray audios etc. I was lucky enough to get one of the very last ones on sale in the UK. As a result of this purchase I later also upgraded my Chord Chrysalis interconnect to a Shawline, which made a huge difference.

Second, replacing my olive NAP 180 power amplifier with an olive NAP 250, an infinitely better amp, with loads of welly and boogie factor. The extra beefiness this gave my setup allowed me the opportunity to think about speaker upgrades for the first time in almost 35 years...

Third: After home demoing ATC and PMC speakers, I settled on a pair of Dynaudio Special 40s, which I have just purchased and which should be delivered imminently.

That’s simple I got my ND555 which replaced my NDS, a very significant upgrade.

Suzy Wong posted:

Jonners posted:

 I swapped out the mdf board of the wallmounted shelf it had been perched on for a piece of 6mm glass with quite startling results.

I presume you feel the changes are for the better? Coz that does fly in the face of the “received wisdom” for LP12s.

And when I tried glass, cups and balls under my Sondek, I was not happy with the result, so I reverted to lightweight MDF.

All interesting stuff.

Yes, it does fly in the face of conventional wisdom as you rightly point out Suzy Wong. The weight of the LP12 was making the board warp which is why I tried the glass. I had previously put a 10mm piece plus cup and balls between my CDX2 and Quadraspire shelf and the result was almost as good as a component upgrade. Maybe it was because the board had bent that the positive difference the glass made was so noticeable - better soundstage and the highs lost the trace of harshness they had before. Horses for courses as they say...

Kevin-W posted:

First, an Oppo UDP-205 to replace my much-loved but ageing Marantz CD6004, and to give me a bit more versatility re high-res files, SACDs, Blu-ray audios etc. I was lucky enough to get one of the very last ones on sale in the UK. As a result of this purchase I later also upgraded my Chord Chrysalis interconnect to a Shawline, which made a huge difference.

Second, replacing my olive NAP 180 power amplifier with an olive NAP 250, an infinitely better amp, with loads of welly and boogie factor. The extra beefiness this gave my setup allowed me the opportunity to think about speaker upgrades for the first time in almost 35 years...

Third: After home demoing ATC and PMC speakers, I settled on a pair of Dynaudio Special 40s, which I have just purchased and which should be delivered imminently.

 

Good decision on the Dyns, I own a pair of Contours and thought I would get shot for a more modern product. I tried ATC, ProAc and PMC and these old speakers surprised me greatly by showing them all a clean pair of heels. I have swapped out all my interconnects and speaker cable as well which were Chord and very good for WitchHat which I prefer but the improvements are marginal. Not really a game-changer as such.

A new Nova and Totem Forest Signatures for the main lounge system. Previous UC2/NAP100 and Totem Hawks moved to new media room with Panasonic 65 OLED and Cambridge Audio CDX blue ray. So, a great new system and a long wished for media room. Then had a chance at a mint pre-loved Uniti2, so that’s in the media room and the UC2/NAP is in the garage- converted to games room with my 35 year old Aucoustic Research 22BX speakers. Oh, and a great deal on HD800 Seinehesser headphones.

That’s me done for a good while, barring minor tweaks. May look at improving the headphone setup in the media room, the Uniti2 headphone is a bit pants.

I only made one upgrade in 2018 so it automatically qualifies as the best. I swapped my already excellent stand, a Quadraspire bamboo SVT with bronze upgrade for a secondhand Fraim. With the Quadraspire I had carefully introduced added levels to keep the power supplies and other bits apart, and to keep the 300’s burndies off the floor, but as there was only a base and three Fraim shelves I couldn’t have gaps and the burndies must sit on the carpet, albeit with pipe insulation around them. So I wasn’t expecting much for this massive investment of £200. As it turns out, the improvement was remarkable, with the sound becoming more lively yet even more natural. So, a great upgrade, and £200 well spent. 

I forgot something, besides my ND555 I also significantly upgraded my mobile experience by getting the Sony NW-WM1Z. I belief by the way the next year will not be a big upgrade year, but let’s see.

I forgot my Core, replacing iTunes on my iMac. Totally reliable now and better sound, so a win all round.

Lots and lots of changes this year so I will say that going from Black Box to Olive a move many consider a downgrade was the best upgrade I made this year.

Too many changes this year for me, 250dr, 555dr, Fraim, Phantom speaker cable and replaced my Proac Tab 10 with the signature version.

Probably the biggest change was the 555dr and the most I have ever spent on one component but the signatures allow the differences to come through, so a tough one.

Jonners posted:

Suzy Wong posted:

Jonners posted:

 I swapped out the mdf board of the wallmounted shelf it had been perched on for a piece of 6mm glass with quite startling results.

I presume you feel the changes are for the better? Coz that does fly in the face of the “received wisdom” for LP12s.

And when I tried glass, cups and balls under my Sondek, I was not happy with the result, so I reverted to lightweight MDF.

All interesting stuff.

Yes, it does fly in the face of conventional wisdom as you rightly point out Suzy Wong. The weight of the LP12 was making the board warp which is why I tried the glass. I had previously put a 10mm piece plus cup and balls between my CDX2 and Quadraspire shelf and the result was almost as good as a component upgrade. Maybe it was because the board had bent that the positive difference the glass made was so noticeable - better soundstage and the highs lost the trace of harshness they had before. Horses for courses as they say...

Tiger Paw will sell you the board from their Vulcan wall shelves for £29.99 probably expensive for a piece of board but it was a definite improvement over the glass that came with my custom design shelf.

Many changes this year - I downgraded the rack from a finite elemente to an old quadraspire for sonic reasons, replaced all power cables with a full Audioquest Tornado loom, temporarily played with a Niagara 1000 but settled now on a new Atlas power block. The two biggest changes were a swap of the Accuphase E460 for an E650, and the Bryston BDP2 for a Lumin U1. Next year, I’ll take another look at racks, probably staying with QS.

cheers EJ

As they said in dirty dancing - lots of changes

> 202/200 to 282/250dr added hi-cap dr and napsc

>lp12 changes ittok lv 111 to early ekos, kore, lyra cart to linn krystal

Most noticeable was to 282/250dr - just more everything, all going to harbeth 30.1 - a bit "polite" but easy to live with and not to be changed anytime soon. Ogling an ndx2 as vinyl needs changing too often, and not looking to upgrade cd5.

Well, 2018 has seen some of the biggest changes in my system for some time. Started with speakers; I had Allaes, which had served me very well and now reside in China! I demo'd over several months trying PMC, Dynaudio Special 40, Dali Epicon and more recently Marten audio stand mounts but have now settled with Sonus Faber Olympica 1's.

Next, having bought my NAP 200 new in 2005, it was well overdue a service or replacement. A 250DR was on the radar and made a very compelling upgrade, however whilst trying it, I stumbled across the opportunity to aquire an ex-demonstration Melco server.  Long story short, the Melco never left, which was great but depleted my power amp funds somewhat and didn't solve the power amp issue! So an immaculate pre-loved (2015 model) 250.2 was sourced and replaced the 200. The combination of the Melco and 250.2 far outperformed the change to 250DR alone, for only a few pennies extra.

Finally, couldn't resist the opportunity to try a Witchhat DIN to XLR when I saw one come up secondhand, so that completed the system changes for 2018.

2019?.. Well certainly nothing significant after all that! May have a dabble with cabling, particularly the corresponding Witchhat cables to take the signal from pre to supercap and see what that does.

Happy Christmas to all.

After a tour at Salisbury with other forum members in April I'd decided that I'd either upgrade my power amp with the DR upgrades or swap my NDS for an ND555. My dealer arranged an extended loan of a NAP500DR so that I could switch between it and my non-DR model to appreciate that upgrade. Well once that was installed I never went back to the non-DR version, just a NAP200 while my NAP500 was away for a week being upgraded.

The plan was for one OR the other upgrade. Well, then I had a short loan of an ND555. It went back, I cogitated for a week, then decided to go for that as well. Quite costly upgrades, but both deliver on their promise.

I changed my speakers from Guru Juniors to Proac Response 2.5.

I read lots off stuff on Forum regarding speakers but my problem was I only had approx £1000 to £1500 budget. This really meant second hand. The upside was that due to a house move I had a large dedicated music room and was not limited where to place speakers. These Proacs need lots of space behind them being rear ported and need space away from side walls. 

I bought them privately and  as they were local I was able to go and hear them first. Not the ideal scenario obviously but I heard enough at the demo to be fairly confident that once I got them home driven by my NAP300 and the fact placement was not an issue they would sound good.

The previous owner had bought these from new in 2002 had all the original packaging and also had brand new spare woofer and tweeter that he had purchased from Proac just in case. These had obviously been well looked after and cared for so I decided to buy them.

To be honest when I got them home they sounded so much better than on the demo straight off. Then I tweaked around with positioning and they are sounding great.

Well maybe I was lucky but I am very happy with them. I really hate changing speakers. Its fine to go and hear them at dealers etc but if you don't have budget to buy new or ex dem its very tricky.

Just like a previous poster, swapping out my black boxes for olive ones may have seemed a downgrade but combined with the step back to playing CDs from streaming i couldn't be happier....

......although I daresay the SBLs which replaced ATC SCM11s are playing a part in that

SR Plug fuses, supports and the Atmosphere power cable, yes half the cost of my Nova, but wow oh wow.

Also Raspberry Pi, Bubbleupnp transcoding Qobuz to WAV.

Apart from selling my old rig and getting a nova and atc scm11 the biggest bang for buck has been used Fraim glass, cups n balls. For £175 it’s  made a huge difference to musicality and presentation.

Replaced a Mu-So with Nova and Dynaudio Special 40s. Use the Mu-So as tv sound bar.

Then replaced the Power Line-Lite with Power Line mains cable. Enhanced the musicality of an already decent sound.

Bob the Builder posted.

Tiger Paw will sell you the board from their Vulcan wall shelves for £29.99 probably expensive for a piece of board but it was a definite improvement over the glass that came with my custom design shelf.

Ah, that's interesting - I'll have a measure up and if it'll work (my shelf is a Project "Wall-Mount It 5) and I expect the inevitable call to Cymbiosis will no doubt follow! Don't know if the Trampolin on the LP12 makes a difference to the support material but who knows. Funny the CDX2 loves glass over wood whereas those in the know seem to eschew it for wood or granite when it comes to the LP12.

hifi-dog posted:

Apart from selling my old rig and getting a nova and atc scm11 the biggest bang for buck has been used Fraim glass, cups n balls. For £175 it’s  made a huge difference to musicality and presentation.

Yes - it was reading your comments on this Forum hifi-dog which led me to do the same a couple of weeks ago. You were spot on - glass, cups and balls underneath CDX2 = a cheap upgrade with audibly positive results!