Seeking advice on how to improve my system


After many years of just enjoying music, I have gotten the bug to improve the system after I upgraded my CDP to the Sony XA 5400ES. The rest of the system is a Conrad Johnson Premier 14 preamp, Mark Levinson ML 331 100 W/ch amp., Thiel 3.6 speakers, Kimber Kable Siver Streak from CDP to preamp, Kimber PBJ from preamp to amp (10 foot run), and Kimber 8TC speaker cables. Room is 14 ft by 19 ft with 9.5 ft ceilings, hardwood floor with a 12 by 9 wool area rug. A fabric upholstered sofa on one wall helps absorb the side wall reflections. Speakers are on the short wall, 3 ft from the side and 2.5 feet from the back wall.

What are the weak points in the system that I should attend to? If I should change an item or add an item what should it be? I am not ready for a complete system replacement right now. Looking for advice from those with more experience in systems to get the best possible sound.
st01
You have to determine what sonic characteristics you want to change. Then we can give you some advice as what to change. Do you want more dynamics, resolution, soundstaging, deeper bass etc, etc
If you're at the point where you're feeling vaguely dissatisfied with system performance, but aren't sure exactly why, I agree that power conditioning may be a good and likely place to start. But, before you accept coventional wisdom on it and start plunking down serious coin to get the gains you want, try this: go to the facebook page of Alan Maher Designs. You can't buy anything from him unless you friend him on facebook, but there's no other obligation. If you want the commercial, Alan makes a wide variety of gizmo's for systematically treating both system and home, but that's because he feels that one-box solutions necessarily fall down on treating RMI/EMI because they don't cover all the points of noise entry into the system - through home and system wiring, the components themselves, every appliance and power supply that's plugged into your home and even through the air. He offers some pointers on how his devices work at killing electrical noise, but don't bother coming to a full understanding before you try something of his because A) he is the only one that truly understands it and B) he doesn't have any patents on his gear so there's only so much he can openly divulge. Instead, just do this: look for a product he has called an "ION CBF". Ion as in the charged particle and "CBF" as in "circuit-breaker filter". This little dude tapes inside your circuit breaker box in about a 2-minute install (see his site for full instructions and Alan will answer any questions). Then you must wait 30 days - not 29 days, not 3 weeks, but 30 days. In the meantime you won't see what all the fuss is about - in fact (if you installed it right) your system performance will tend to go into the tank, but 30 days later your system's sound will be transformed - and in no small way either, just about everything will be better! I gaurantee it (everybody's system suffers from this kind of noise). Price?: $30, but I can promise you it will be the best 30 bucks you ever spent on your system. You'll likely be hooked on his products after that (I was), but the price of admission is as cheap as it gets for products that notably don't roll off frequency response or curtail dynamics as so many other kinds of power-conditioning products do. My advice is to do yourself a favor and give it a shot and see. Good luck.
Ivan you sound like a crazy nut who is trying to play head games with audiophiles lol.

Since you said you have a bug to upgrade I would say to try out some new wires. You could buy some used and you won't lose much if you dont like them you can just resale. Go for something in contrast to what you have now and see what you think.

If you wanted to do something big I personally would go for a top notch preamplifier. In my experience great preamps have rocked my world over any other upgrade. If you sprung for something like the CJ ART or ARC ref 3 I bet it would put a big smile on your face.
In relation to the quality of your system, 10 foot run of Kimber PBJ and the 8TC speaker cables seem like the weak point to me. I would definitively explore and play with alternatives. Check out threads on Anti-cables, Morrow Audio Cables.. to name a few. Some have a 60 day return policy (Morrow) so there isn't much to loose if it doesn't match with your system. I also second previous recommendations regarding AC power.
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned acoustical treatment. Whether you want to admit it or not the room in which you listen is the most vital component of your playback system and ignoring the effects it can have on the qulity of music played back in your space is tantamount to pure denial. Acoustical issues within your room should be addressed first, then everything else after. If you fail to address acoustical issues that may exist in yous listening environment then no amount of tweaking the other components is going to alleviate the sound quality isssues you may have. A good and reasonably inexpensive place to start would be Jim Smiths books or DVD, and then possibly moving on to the plethora of more tecnacal manuals that exist on the subject of room acoustics and how to tune them properly.