What was the equipment upgrade you are most happy with?

[Willem]

My first CD player, in the early 80s. More recently, a Chromecast Audio.

 

[Turambar]

Regrettably, the next one.

This is the story of my (audio) life.

 

[JaccoW]

Better speaker toe in. I have been listening to my speakers for quite some time now but I moved them a bit further out yesterday. Amazing difference and a much wider sweet spot.

With regards to new gear, a better cartridge and turntable isolation. A marble slab and Isonoe feet made a huge difference.

Going from this:


To this:

 

[Barryfromholland]

Kef ls3/5a first good loudspeaker and loved it for 30 years, real classics.

a moving coil element, made my records sound so much better in the 80’s

accuphase 305, first real good amplifier. Now audiophonics purifi power amp, clean power.

bluesound Node plus Qobuz really a life changer, I love streaming music and reading this forum searching for music tips. Also love to read Amir’s visit of hifi shows and different music and how it sounds, trying myself having all music now.

finally after a lot of big floorstanders back to 2 way bookshelves (dynaudio heritage specials) and enjoying the relaxed and precise sound it produces, a KEF LS3/5a on steroids.

 

[Deleted member 19122]

Popcorn Hour A500 which allowed me to organize and stream all my flacs,DSD etc multichannel and stereo music from an app on my phone.Nothing like hitting random and being re-exposed to music you had forgotten you have

 

[Mart68]

Moving house to one with a much better room acoustics-wise.

Getting a record cleaning machine and cleaning the records I had bought as a teenager, which had accumulated a lot of crud over the intervening years.

Sorting out gain staging and discovering that CD really is 'Pure, perfect sound forever.'

Upgrading speakers to JM Lab Focal Electra 926 (not upgraded from any specific speaker. I had, and still have, lots of speakers).

Getting a power amp that could drive those speakers properly.

By comparison everything else I have done and tried, which is a lot, was a total waste of time.

 

[Scytales]

OK guys, guys, make sure to state which speakers you upgrade from, and to, and how do you "Feel" it

I apologize.

I recently changed from Cabasse Iroise SCS to Cabasse Catalane 500.

I own Cabasse Iroise SCS from almost 20 years. I always was impressed by the ability of this loudspeaker to reproduced natural sound characteristics, especially transients, compared to other brands of loudspeakers I have listened to. That produces a very live-like experience when listening good recordings of natural music, mostly classical. I was not alone, as visitors feel the same thing. Nevertheless, on the long run, I have built some dissatisfaction with the spatial reproduction and overall balance from time to time. I generally attributed this short-comings to the room acoustic, my successive listening rooms being far from perfect.

Meanwhile, I have learned by former Cabasse key employees with whom I begin to be in touch that in the great turmoil following the retirement of Georges Cabasse (the founder of the enterprise) in the 90s, there actually was a split in the engineering team between those faithful to the commitments of the founder and those who adhered to new engineering guidelines. The two teams actually engineered at the same time different families of loudspeakers, even with the same drivers. I learned that the Iroise SCS was a product of the new school of thoughts, whereas the Catalane 500 was a product of the old school. Curiously, the two loudspeakers were from the same time frame and coexisted in the Cabasse catalogue, but in two different ranges.

So, following an advise of one of this Cabasse's ex-employee, I decided to give a try to the Catalane 500.

To my surprised, the two loudspeakers produce remarkably similar overall sound. The first minutes I listened to well known materials through the Catalane, I thought there were the same as the Iroise. But, further listening obviously showed me that the shortcomings I had previously identified with the Iroise almost disappears with the Catalane, which, furthermore, does very much produce a more articulated and full-bodied mid-range.

Today, the way I analyze things is the following - with the Iroise SCS, there are discrepancies between the direct sound and the resulting in-room ambient sound which alter the stereophonic effect. There are also localized accidents in the frequency response which systematically produce harhness or boominess with certain materials, especially those having great dynamic range.

Anecdotally, I remember the speach of a Cabasse representative at some hifi show in the 2000s, who explained to me that the first generation of the two-ways coaxial drivers embarked both in the Iroise and Catalane actually shows problematic resonances in some listening rooms, a problem that was discovered and addressed from the second generation of this driver. But I wonder if this problem, if true, was not intrinsically in the driver, but instead in the way it was implemented.

 

[manisandher]

That one time when you upgrade part of your system and you were beyond joyful and get your money worth every penny, what did you replace ?

Easy. Bypassing the passive crossovers in the speakers and going fully active. I will never buy passive speakers ever again... even for my desktop setup (where the small Genelecs do the job brilliantly).

Mani.

 

[Willem]

My first system, in the 1970s, was a Quad 33/303 amplifier with a pair of Quad ELS57 electrostatic speakers, and a Linn Sondek LP12/SME?V15iii turntable. I still have it as a backup system, and it is still excellent. The first upgrade was an early Philips CD player (since replaced by first a DVD player and then a basic Bluray player which of course all sounded the same).
More recently I replaced the speakers with the modern Quad 2805 electrostats. Those are clearly better, but not dramatically so. The next step was a refurbished Quad 606-2 power amplifier, and that cleaned up the sound when playing dynamic music at higher levels in our new very much bigger listening room. Next was a B&W PV1d subwoofer, which disappointed until I bought an Antimode dsp room eq unit. The latest updates were a Chromecast Audio (love it) and an RME ADI-2 DAC to replace the by then fifty year old Quad 33 preamp (refurbished in the meantime, of course). So all in all, in essence I have had two similar systems over a period of about fifty years, plus some new sources when those became available.
I am now waiting for my B&W PV1d subwoofer to come back from repairs, and I am planning to add the Kef Kube8b subwoofer from my study. Funds permitting (we are in the middle of a big investment in home insulation and heat pump installation) the next step will be to add two more subwoofers for a total of four, and move from the Antimode 8033 to Multi Sub Optimizer.
As someone trained in finance I think the itch to continuously upgrade is financially not that smart. Think hard, buy something good once, and keep it for a long time gives you more bang for the buck over a lifetime. To be honest, I cannot possibly think of a further upgrade that would give a meaningful improvement to the sound quality of my system. We may get new sources, but that wil be all.

 

[Trell]

Over the years, several in fact, but we do tend to remember the last few ones the best.

For my home office I bought Genelec 8330A + 7360A subwoofer along with the GLM Kit for room EQ. This was a major upgrade on all fronts, really. I even bought a pair of 8330A for my wife as she liked the sound of them so much. She almost never use headphones anymore.

 

[delta76]

Easy. Bypassing the passive crossovers in the speakers and going fully active. I will never buy passive speakers ever again... even for my desktop setup (where the small Genelecs do the job brilliantly).

Mani.

why is that? is it because it sounds better or simpler to setup, or both? what passive speakers did you have and what active ones now?

 

[daftcombo]

Cleaning your ears is the cheapest and most impressive hi-fi improvement available.

 

[tinnitus]

((acourate)) software for DSP FIR filtering. Digital Crossover and Roomcorrection.

 

[Beershaun]

Adding an svs sb-2000 subwoofer to my setup.

 

[itz_all_about_the_music]

Cleaning your ears is the cheapest and most impressive hi-fi improvement available.

Ceruminosis? Or are you kidding?​

 

[manisandher]

why is that? is it because it sounds better or simpler to setup, or both? what passive speakers did you have and what active ones now?

I've bypassed the internal passive crossovers in two of my speakers now - my pretty expensive Tune Audio horns, and a cheap pair of used Impulse H2s (British speakers from the '90s). In both cases the uptake in SQ was profound. Why might this be? Well, for a few reasons I suspect:

1. ability to use multiple amps, one for each driver (reducing IMD?)
2. ability to use higher-order filters in DSP, and so keeping drivers in their sweet spot and reducing over-lap between drivers
3. ability to perfectly time-align drivers using DSP
4. ability to attenuate signal digitally at source, thereby eliminating the need for L-pads, which seem particularly detrimental to the sound

And yes, DSP makes dialling things in so much easier. I'm not a speaker designer though, so there may be more.

The downside is that you'll need multiple amps and either an analogue crossover or a multichannel DAC. If you go the latter route, you'll need to get your head around the DSP software. Using something like miniDSP is an option too (though I've never tried it).

Alternatively, you could just go the active speaker route. @amirm has reviewed a number now across a whole array of budgets. We have three pairs in the house:

- Genelec 8010AW with 7040APM sub
- Genelec 1029A with 7050B sub (still going strong after 15 years or so!)
- JBL LSR305P mkII

All three are superb IMO.

Mani.

 

[manisandher]

Over the years, several in fact, but we do tend to remember the last few ones the best.

For my home office I bought Genelec 8330A + 7360A subwoofer along with the GLM Kit for room EQ. This was a major upgrade on all fronts, really. I even bought a pair of 8330A for my wife as she liked the sound of them so much. She almost never use headphones anymore.

Genelecs are just superb.

 

[delta76]

Have my eyes on Focal Solo 6Be, but maybe I will just buy 8320A instead. When the time comes, when the time comes