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Seeking ideas about how to improve my system

Hi all.  I recently purchased a pair of Hifiman Susvara headphones, and the experience of listening to them is absolutely sublime.  I particularly enjoyed the clarity of detail and the very realistic timbre of the instruments.  Tone, timing, and spatial representation were wonderful.   I listen primarily to jazz, classical, bluegrass, and, though much less than in the past, rock.  Favorite musicians include Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer, Brad Mehldau, Mark Knopfler, Mark O’Connor, Joshua Bell, and many cellists.  
BUT, I would like my full system to produce that kind of experience too!  I’m looking for any and all feedback as to how to tweak or upgrade my system so that I can moved towards this type of experience.  I would expect to spend up to $20K, possibly more, over the long run (meaning years), so I am expecting a process and would also like feedback as to what to do first.  My room is about 20’ x 20’ x 9’ as a very rough estimate.

my components:
Sonus Faber Sonetto V’s
2 REL Ti7’s
Lyngdorf TDAI 2170
Manley Chinook phono amp
VPI Prime Scout with upgraded platter and tonearm, on a Townshend seismic platform
Ortofon Quintet black mc cart
Modwrighted Marantz SACD player and power source
Chord DAVE DAC/amp/preamp
Aurender N100C network streamer using Qobuz
Audioquest Rocket 88 speaker cables
Shunyata power cables (a mix)with Shunyata power distributor 
Shunyata, Nordost blue heaven, and Cardas clear interconnects

My analog end became downright unimpressive after I added the DAVE and the Aurender to my digital end, but the Susvara bests it all (in SQ, I realize it is just a headphone and not a full system).

Looking forward to responses.

  • — akajek






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ghdprentice
6,969 posts
 
I only have a few minutes. But sounds like I was where you were a year ago.
.
I upgraded my headphone system to an Aurender N100, a brand new Ayre DAC, and Woo 300B high powered amp... Focal Utopia, Sennheiser 800s... anyway, the rich warm detailed experience bested my main system. Hence... I upgraded my Sonus Faber Olympica to Amati Traditional... then a cascade of other upgrades. I had a VPI Aries turntable. Which I upgraded to a Linn LP12.
.
My current main system is Aurender WE20SE, Audio Research REF CD9se, ARC REF6 SE preamp, LP12 Akura, Koetsu Rosewood Signature, ARC REF3 phono stage and ARC REF160s
.
I have spent a lot of time on the sprung vs unsprung turntable. Ultimately choosing a sprung. I would say my analog end is a bit better than my digital end. Both are astonishing... about 31K for the analog, and 41K for digital. I will probably do the $10K upgrades to the Linn to the top level. Off the top of my head, I am thinking a table and cartridge upgrade will do it. I'll try and come back to this later today.

oldhvymec
5,101 posts
 
How's that room treatment? Any heavy curtains or something to control the bass and blistering highs? I'm hearing a big square box from here that the slap test would say a lot about..

What say you OP? An room treatment, carpets, furniture or drapes?

1/2 of the listening experience is the ROOM, the other half is everything else.. 

Your headphones proved that... :-)

Regards
tablejockey
3,901 posts
 
Your gear if fine.

It's your speaker setup(not your speakers) and room.
If you don't have those things out 4-5 feet and 3+ feet from the side walls
you're not hearing what they can do. Room itself addressed with appropriate damping/duffusion. Address those issues, then you can decide if whatever existing equipment is deficient.

If the setup is in a living space-strike out. Do what  you can with speaker placement and open a beer. Additional cable/tweaky doo dadds will just drain your wallet-if that's what you want.



eziggy
137 posts
 
Have you considered trying out any other speaker cables?  In my opinion it could be your weakest link.  I had the Rocket 88’s a while ago, then upgraded to AQ’s higher line (higher gauge copper) which produced a far larger range from treble to bass.  It made a huge difference.  I ended up upgrading to Mont Blancs, Oak, then Thunderbird before decided to go with a full loom of Ansuz cables.

Also, for your interconnects, where do you have the Nordost Blue Heaven connected?  Analog or digital?  I had Blue Heaven speaker cables in my system and while, to me, it sounded crisp on the highs, it lacked mid-bass and bass.  It may be different on interconnects, just something to consider.  You have very different types of interconnects, have you tried swapping them around?
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