What has been your best tweak or upgrade in 2018?

Changing from ATC Passive to Active was a revelation this year . ATC's are a different speaker in Active configuration .

Hopes for 2019 are a combined Streamer / DAC / Pre . Will this be the year we see the fabled NAC372 ? I hope so .

No major equipment upgrades.  Several more minor additions including a used CDX2 (love it), SL DIN-DIN cable, Odin power cable.

Best tweak? The listening room is the dining room again for a few days and my comfy low chair has been replaced with a sit up properly dining table and chairs, bringing ears almost level with the top of the PMCs. Blimey does it make a difference; everything sounds nicer, more focused, more open, more relaxed. In short, it’s much closer to what it should sound like and what the demos sounded like. When it all reverts back from dining room duties it'll have to be a staged withdrawal to identify what’s made the biggest difference.

Seriously, I was expecting a bit of a change but not this extent. Time for speaker manufacturers to sell recommended seating too? There was a thread not so long ago about best listening chairs.

trickydickie posted:

In the past couple of weeks I moved from a bare NDX to a nice mint and serviced NDS from a highly respected dealer.  The difference as you would expect is not subtle and I am delighted with the change.

Thank you to all those people trading in their NDS's for a new ND555, I'm more than happy with a hand-me-down!

I recently did a similar upgrade,with excellent results.I traded my N272/250 DR for a 2016 NDS that the previous owner traded in on an ND555.Like you say trickydicke,not a subtle upgrade feeding my active Dynaudio’s.Also a significant upgrade feeding my Sopra 1’s with non Naim pre/power.

Replacing my venerable Allaes with a pair of pre-loved SL2s complete with new tweeters. Sweet upgrade. In 2019 I will hopefully get the DR upgrade on my two 250s. The best tweak or perhaps upgrade was having my dealer assemble the entire system after moving into my new house. 

Wide opening the door to my living/listening room has shown itself to be a great tweak for me. The energised pressure within the room now has a sort of Helmholtz resonator that's in accordance with the room acoustics..  

Great forum topic! My first tweak was an upgrade from an SU to a Nova. After a running in period (during which time I was worried I may have made a mistake!) I then made tweak no.2, which was to remove the toe-in of my B&W 805D2s. It sounded muddy and messy with the toe-in that worked for the SU, a simple change of speaker positioning made a huge difference :-)

thinking of a tweak in 2019 to replace the B&Ws with Dynaudio Contour 30s though!

bazz posted:

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. 

John's gear is amazing value. I've done precious little to my stereo this year. A Hi-Line from my nDac to 52 and a Ciunas ISO-spdif in place of the Ciunas converter I had before.  The Hi-Line was very worthwhile, the ISO-spdif quite a game changer.

A nice thread, as I had precisely one of each. This makes things a lot easier .

After several years of trying to rid my system of a certain treble hardness, this year finally saw a result. A Computer Audio Ground Control 1 proved to be the perfect solution to my particular problem. The higher frequencies are no longer grating, my ears, brain and everything else is just relaxed when the music is playing, unless there is drama inside of it. Nice and very nearly the end of my search, if not for:

A used pair of loudspeakers for a very nice price. I had the model 3.0 from Bauer Audio (dps), a tall three-way speaker. In its place now their earliest predecessors, the 1.0 if you want to call them so. Officially they are fj Dudes, a compact sealed two-way with a 17 cm paper cone woofer from Seas and a Hiquphon tweeter. Some might remember them from the early Linn speakers. They load the room better than every other pair I have owned or borrowed, irrespective of price, size and construction. The Dude really abides. And yes, the name is a reference to that dude.

Getting a Graham Slee Reflex M phono stage.

Taking the Tramp2 baseboard off the LP12.

BBM

I forgot to add one major purchase made in 2018 - the Chord DAVE.  It’s a phenomenal piece of gear & I can’t believe that I didn’t mention it. Highly recommended.

Graham Russell posted:

RussR 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

Hi Graham,

If I may ask are you getting the 2 box Tidal Camira ? I believe it can come with the optional clocking box ,I am very interested in the Tidal gear having heard some of it at RMAF 2015 along with hearing the Naim Statement at the local dealers home/show rooms .Also as I own a KDS Katalyst I am interested in how the two differ sound wise, I understand  you also use Vitus amplification ( I like Vitus Class A)

Thanks in advance

Russell

Hi Russell

The Camira I have is the new single box DMC DAC. Apparently it outperforms the previous one by some margin at a lower price. It is simply a better resolving, more natural player than the KDS Katalyst (which I previously owned). Obviously the best test will be to try one in your system and let your ears decide

Yes Vitus Class A is superb, especially when fed with better sources than Linn

 

Hi Graham,

Thank you for your reply, after I had posted the question I went looking at the Tidal site and then discovered that you have the new Camira dac ,that explains why I was a little confused as I had not realised it was a new dac as the name remained the same ..........

Thanks again Graham ,I will try and have a listen to the new Camira dac once I get my new room 11 months in this room and challenging as I am using Bob Carver ALS ( the new ones) speakers and twin sub rosa subs they are very natural sounding speakers and quite a change from my previous B&W 801D's ,hence the reason I am looking to change sources although I have enjoyed my last few years with the KDS and Katalyst has been a big musical improvement .I look forward to reading about you new TT as well as that has quite a bit of local input ( I live on the Gold Coast Australia) and would like to listen to some vinyl as I have a large collection in storage after the earthquakes in Christchurch NZ in 2011 my TT was trashed so it is either sell the vinyl or get another TT.

Please let us know how you get on.

Regards

Russell

Still got:

ND5XS/XP5XS/“Hicap”/NAPSC/Graham’s Hydra.

Dumped:

NAC202/NAP200/ProAc D15’s.

Changes:

Chord Epic speaker cable/Chord Shawline interconnects/ATC SCM11 speakers + Quadraspire stands/NAC282/NAP250DR/nDAC/second Hydra.

Difficult question. All of the changes have delivered a noticeable improvement so I’d have to go with the “most bang for the €” and that would be the NAP250DR. Or maybe the Epics. Or perhaps the ATC’s. Yeah. Definitely the ATC’s.

Oh wait...

As i Have written about on the forum this year has been an Ansuz upgrade year. Especially the upgrade to the new Mainz8 D2 distribution block was massive even though it replaced a Ansuz Mainz8 D,  that was good to start with. Currently I am changing my Powerlines to Ansuz mainz cables when my dealer has them for a good price.

Hmm.  A lot of changes.

Bought some Mk2 SBLs and as an impulse buy picked up an old 250 Bolt Down.  It sounded better with my NAC282 than the SNAXO/SuperCap/NAP200x2 had...

So I thought about selling the 200s/SNAXO etc.  Then I saw a NAXO2 for sale and bought it...

I couldn't easily find another NAP250 Bolt Down so I bought a pair of CB NAP 250s (and had them serviced).

Having at this time got a full CB system after the pre-amp I bought a NAC62 and frankly it didn't sound a lot worse than the 282 when played through the NAXO2/NAP250s.   So the NAC62 stayed.  And I purchased a couple of CB HiCaps to replace the modern ones.  I had them recapped and again, I didn't notice a great reduction in SQ, or maybe it's just that the visual pleasure of looking at a full CB active system that convinced me that my ears were happy...

Either way, I've sold the modern equipment and have kept the older stuff.

Have an issue with the NAXO2 at the moment so it's off being looked at and in the interim I'm using a NAP160Bolt Down (another auction site purchase).  What a lovely amplifier that is, not sure if I prefer it to the 250 bolt down.

So... I think the only constants in my system over the last year have been my nDAC and my GyroDec/SMEIV/KontrapunktH.  But I'm happier with it at the end of the year than I was at the beginning.  Importantly I think I've found a cure for upgraditis,

Hopefully for 2019 I just get the NAXO2 back working and plug it all back together and spend my time listening to music...

(and try not to convince myself that the NAC12/32.5/72 I've got should replace the 62...)

Naca5 speaker jumpers. And original stands for the speakers, they made a huge difference as well. And a wonderful halfbox PS for my 272.

ND555. Big fun from day one, increasing steadily. Cruising altitude now established. Probably.

Jonners posted:

Olly posted:

2018 was a fairly momentous year for me. I changed my Dynaudio Contour 1.3 mkII’s after many years and thinking I would always have them - for Special 40’s. They are well-named. 

I have an NDX2 on loan over Christmas & New Year. Some serious listening to do once family have gone, but it is likely to be the priority for 2019 if I can afford it. 

Olly

I too have been considering changing my Contours Olly - what will the S40's do that they don't and what have you found to be the best position for them in terms of walls and toe-in? Did you listen to anything else? I've tried ATC, PMC and ProAc and none could match the Contour to my ears.

Jonners

No I didn’t listen to anything else, I had the S40’s on trial last year and I was sold on them pretty much straightaway.  I went for the grey birch and I think they look fantastic. 

My system is currently (and for the forseeable future) in a spare bedroom, so it’s a quite a small room and I’m near-field listening maybe 5 or 6 ft from the speakers. The biggest difference to the Contours is that theS40’s are more transparent, so I’m hearing details more clearly than before.  Otherwise I would say they are typical Dynaudio - neutral, tonally even and generally remarkable for their unremarkableness. 

I’ve got them in less than ideal positioning - less than 1m from the rear wall and one in a corner - but provided you don’t want to listen at high levels they work really well. 

I don’t know about Totems and they may be a good option too but If you like the Dynaudio style it’s hard to think that you won’t love rge S40.  

Olly

Olly posted:

Jonners posted:

Olly posted:

2018 was a fairly momentous year for me. I changed my Dynaudio Contour 1.3 mkII’s after many years and thinking I would always have them - for Special 40’s. They are well-named. 

I have an NDX2 on loan over Christmas & New Year. Some serious listening to do once family have gone, but it is likely to be the priority for 2019 if I can afford it. 

Olly

I too have been considering changing my Contours Olly - what will the S40's do that they don't and what have you found to be the best position for them in terms of walls and toe-in? Did you listen to anything else? I've tried ATC, PMC and ProAc and none could match the Contour to my ears.

Jonners

No I didn’t listen to anything else, I had the S40’s on trial last year and I was sold on them pretty much straightaway.  I went for the grey birch and I think they look fantastic. 

My system is currently (and for the forseeable future) in a spare bedroom, so it’s a quite a small room and I’m near-field listening maybe 5 or 6 ft from the speakers. The biggest difference to the Contours is that theS40’s are more transparent, so I’m hearing details more clearly than before.  Otherwise I would say they are typical Dynaudio - neutral, tonally even and generally remarkable for their unremarkableness. 

I’ve got them in less than ideal positioning - less than 1m from the rear wall and one in a corner - but provided you don’t want to listen at high levels they work really well. 

I don’t know about Totems and they may be a good option too but If you like the Dynaudio style it’s hard to think that you won’t love rge S40.  

Olly

That'll do. Thanks Olly!

Sell all my Naim gear for a Linn Majik DSM and some money for the bank 

Changed from MA silver RX2’s to PMC twenty5 24’s, changed from van damme 6mm studio blue to witch hat phantom and added a nap 250dr last week. Everything is so much more coherent and pleasing to my ears, no longer fatiguing after a couple of hours listening. 

Dedicated mains supply was the only upgrade/ tweak for me in 2018. Good though.

Eventually getting a fireplace in what’s been a ‘hole in the wall’ for the last year. The added cosiness has improved the musical enjoyment immeasurably.

G

It’s never good to have to look for too long at a builder’s opening. 

hungryhalibut posted:

It’s never good to have to look for too long at a builder’s opening. 

Cracked me up that did HH!

G