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Have you noticed as your system improves?

I have been working on making improvements to my system since 2021. (I got away from it for 10 years so the rig sat silent all that time and aged out) I have replaced my speakers twice in 2021 and 2024, my DAC, DDC, All the cables, speaker wire and PC’s. I added a streamer and ALSO the preamp/dsp processor is new. Just got a new amp in May. I have made upgrades to my wired internet access with switches, LPS and better cabling and Enos filter. I have an Audience Front Row Reserve USB cable on the way to complete that signal chain. The only thing not new is my CEC CD transport, it still works and sounds great. I have put a great deal of time and effort into my room acoustic treatments too.

 

So here’s the thing, and it’s been consistent once it all got settled and broken in. I don’t listen as loud as I did before all this or along the way. Not because it sounds worse but because it’s not necessary to hear deep into the recordings anymore. The resolution, PRAT, detail, soundstage is all there, and its really good. It’s a collective level of enhancements to achieve this. I want to preserve what hearing I have left, yet I am enjoying the music much more now, it simply just sounds better with out all the volume required before to hear what was going on. I used to have to turn it up to get it to sound good. Not anymore. Has this happed to you too?

128x128fthompson251
ghdprentice
6,871 posts
 

I notice I am also really sensitive (and very quickly responds negatively) to high frequency distortion as is so common in iPhones, low end systems and detail scraping solid state high end audio systems. Although technically I am sure my hearing in the high frequencies has been attenuated with age. 

curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim
4,563 posts
 

@fthompson241

I have done the exact same thing and I listen at the same levels.

I used to be 85-90 dB most of the time, now 75- 80 & maybe 85 on peaks

pwerahera
116 posts
 

You know you are there or almost 99% there when you don't need crank up the volume and you don't want to leave your listening chair when you start listening to your favorite CDs/Records. Yesterday, I just fired up my system and played Coleman Hawkins' Reevaluations: The Impulse Years. What a treat. This is a 2LP set well recorded and Hawk's play was sublime. An all star supporting cast has contributed to tracks on this set. Then I played Johnny Hodges' Rippin' & Runnin'. Rabbit kept me tied up to my chair until past midnight.Volume level was around 75-80 dB range.

My biggest fear is, my phono cartridge is very old and I am planning to change it. I am a bit worried that the new cartridge may take time to break-in and am not sure if it will sound as good as old one even after 200-300 hrs. 

So my advise to you is make sure you can get back to this position if further improvements/changes are not to your liking.

hickamore
651 posts
 

Ditto, ditto, ditto. You can now hear into the depths at lower volume. Surprising when you first notice this has happened. Then you grasp it's because the tech has become so much more refined.

jastralfu's avatar
jastralfu
323 posts
 

Sitting here at 12:30am listening at about 45db so my neighbors don’t hate me and I can hear all the details of the songs I’m listening to.  Sometimes I even hear new things pop out of songs I’ve listened to many times listening at lower volumes late at night.  It is better around 60db-70db but I can’t turn it up that loud late at night.  I rarely listen louder than that as I listen more or less near field since I have a smaller listening space.   My speakers really open up around that loudness as well and I don’t find the need to turn it up to hear more.

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