What has been your best tweak or upgrade in 2018?

boom posted:

Merry Christmas everyone, it has been a lot of fun being part of a very passionate bunch of individuals, boarding on the side of mad.

Best wishes.

Only "boarding" boom? I'm a certified window-licker me! 

- Audio Desk Pro Vinyl Cleaner

- getting my 10 year old Superline serviced

Richard

Out 252/SuperCapDR, in 552, brilliant.

New Year's resolution: short and sweet posts.

Happy Christmas all.

My best upgrade this year was changing from 300 DR to 500 DR - gamechanger really

Hmm - for context I need to include last year as well:

2017

nd5xs to nds (both with 555) huuuuge improvement getting me back to boogie factor of cds2 

olive 250 to 300 (non dr) huuuge improvement 

2018

SBLs moved upstairs and replaced by SL2s huuuge improvement 

Quadraspire to Fraim (some was fraimlite converted  to full fat) - added second 300, snaxo and hicap to go active.  Not sure how much improvement this brought as there was a two month gap from listening to previous system, so not possible to make objective comparison, other than to say that drums sound spectacularly good now

2019?

552 dem coming for a visit (the bank hopes I don’t like it) and Geoff of acoustica is going to strip down and rebuild the whole system.  Will be good to hear what it can really do...

NDS to ND555 was biggest improvement, however replacement of Unitiserve and FramLite by Uniti Core and Full Fraim make a difference as well.

Playing a selection of Christmas music as we decorate the tree.

Merry Christmas everyone!

ATB.  George.

Two changes this year, Olive Supercap replaced my Olive Hicap, and a bit later in the year the 82 was replaced by a 52. Both big steps, the 52 was the bigger upgrade. 

14 hours of pull down and setup of mana, additional extra 3 sound stages of chocolate. Most enjoyable and fantastic results for the old Olive boxes and SL2 speaker. Given me the vision of going active as these SL2 are only just starting to show there true colours.

Dedicated mains - probably the most VFM upgrade i've done. Source first !

Like some one else mentioned...this year was the one I ditched my lp12 and got off the merry-go-round

And it is a relief to do so

Money released made the following changes possible

272 / xpsdr became .  252 / s/capdr and NDS /xpsdr

So big change to my digital streamer source

Then I pushed the boat out with a new P8 Rega with apheta 2 and aria phono stage ...its not a top flight Lp12 ...but its much more relaxing to own

555DR on nDAC and 252.

Masses of tweaks from Naim glass, cups and balls to extra space around 252, moving nDAC away from above 252 (even if with empty shelf between them), and finally moving the right hand Sopra  2 a few inches.

Thanks to all you guys and girls for your posts.

Happy Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.

Richard, Thank you for keeping us all in order and all your great advice.

Phil

I posted about my upgrades but forgot to say that I also added some very good isolation tweaks that helped bring the bass under better control and brought more focus and depth to the soundstage. I changed the spikes on my speakers to isoAcoustics Gaia II isolation feet. I also used them in the place of the spikes on my turntable. For the latter I'm still trying to decide whether I like the Gaia III or the Orea Indigo pucks better. These helped about as much or more than the Fraim did. They are that good.

OH another tweak -- adopted Roon.  ND555 is Roon Ready and I put an Allo DigiOne raspberry pi on my UnitiQute2.  Very satisfying!

Thats a super easy question to answer: ND555! What a machine! Game changer & last piece in the puzzle...

//Jonas

In 12 months I’ve gone from

CDX2, 112x, 150x system with Totem Hawk speakers

to

Uniti 2 and Hawks

to

272/250DR with Totem Forests 

to 

272/250DR and non-Naim XPS with PMC 25.23

to

272/300DR and non-Naim XPS with PMC 25.23

It’s been a busy year!!!!!

I bought Herbie Audio sliding feet and moved my Focal 1038s 6 inches forward- nice upgrade????.   Low budget this year

david 

Graham Russell posted:

RaceTripper posted:

Graham Russell posted:

Moving on from Linn sources. KDS replaced by Tidal Camira DMC DAC and the LP12 has just gone in anticipation of a new deck in the New Year

Any idea yet what you'll get?

Yup, Dohmann Helix 2. Ordered and arriving very soon

Graham- VERY interested is your impressions of your new deck when it is up and spinning... I have been trying like a dog to get a demo of the Helix 2 here in the States - very scarce atm. The Minus K technology is very intriguing to say the least Will you be using the Schroder arm? Cartridge? Please report back if you can...I would love to get some feedback from a Naim guy with prior LP12 experience. Thanks in advance.

ATB,

Mark

varyat posted:

Graham Russell posted:

RaceTripper posted:

Graham Russell posted:

Moving on from Linn sources. KDS replaced by Tidal Camira DMC DAC and the LP12 has just gone in anticipation of a new deck in the New Year

Any idea yet what you'll get?

Yup, Dohmann Helix 2. Ordered and arriving very soon

Graham- VERY interested is your impressions of your new deck when it is up and spinning... I have been trying like a dog to get a demo of the Helix 2 here in the States - very scarce atm. The Minus K technology is very intriguing to say the least Will you be using the Schroder arm? Cartridge? Please report back if you can...I would love to get some feedback from a Naim guy with prior LP12 experience. Thanks in advance.

ATB,

Mark

Mark

I'll be happy to share my thoughts in January. The Helix 2 is a stunning piece of engineering and technology. Yes I'm getting the Schroder CB arm with Lyra Etna and Allnic H7000 phono.

I moved on from Naim a couple of years ago but will post here if that's still ok.

Graham

Graham- Thank you and very much appreciated! If you would not mind, could you mail me to keep this topic off of the Forum ? I don't want to start any trouble with the moderator My address is in my profile...

Thanks again!

Chris Dolan posted:

My best upgrade this year was changing from 300 DR to 500 DR - gamechanger really

Well done, Chris. One of my main upgrades this year, too. And Ole of course...

For me this year it was rebuilding my Behringer digital active crossover, upgrading all the analog circuitry, voltage regulators and clock.

That, and the prior acquisition of another Bryston amp at a bargain price (no other bids on eBay due to misspelt name!) finished the setting up of my triamp system. 

Delayed due to job upheavals at the turn of 2017 into 18, but once that had settled a few major changes occurred this year.:

Nait 5i replaced with 250DR, and at the same time;

ND5XS replaced with NAC N272

Then over the summer & autumn -

CD5 sold (miss it a bit)

Project RPM turntable & CA pre-amp sold (not missed one jot)

XPSDR added to 272

PMC Twenty.23 replaced with PMC Twenty.26

XPSDR replaced with 555PS

Almost setttled with that but there's a chance the PMCs will go in the next 12 months for something that fits the room a bit better, and then beyond that the ND555 is on the horizon but would require a 282 and probably at least a 300DR to realise the full benefit, so who knows.

gsr posted:

In 12 months I’ve gone from

CDX2, 112x, 150x system with Totem Hawk speakers

to

Uniti 2 and Hawks

to

272/250DR with Totem Forests 

to 

272/250DR and non-Naim XPS with PMC 25.23

to

272/300DR and non-Naim XPS with PMC 25.23

It’s been a busy year!!!!!

Busy indeed. Looks slightly scary....

Bought a second hand John Kenny Cuinas DAC on eBay for AUD $300, which included about $200 worth of USB and interconnect leads. So quite a bargain, and a very nice DAC. 

Quite a few bits came in this year, notably the first 500

but the standout was a trip to Leicester where the LP12 gained a Stiletto Skorpion and a Lyra Etna 

early in the new year I will be having my Mastergroove upgraded to full SR spec so that may be the standout for 2019

lyndon