Upgrade with best price/performance ratio

Similar story, best price/performance ratio: Blutack on shelf supports to isolate wooden shelves. Second best, powercord for my amp made with parts from Home Depot ($17). Third best, Fusion/Auvio interconnects from Radio Shack ($15-20). Honorable mention, ash chopping block placed under my CDP ($18 on clearance from Home Depot). Not sure this counts, my brothers old Thorens TD150 MkII (free).

I didn’t think so at the time, but constant urging from some friends of mine here said “just try ‘em… and see for yourself”.

Some of these I was talked into, other’s came to me naturally.

So here goes…. From low to high:

Fubar 2000…. Free
Speaker positioning … free but tedious
Dedicated 20A ckts …. $25 ea when ordered with the new house
Plywood platforms for rack bases and speaker stand bases and sub woofer. $20
Herbie’s Peak tube rings….$ 20ea
Herbie’s Iso cups w/Ebony balls …. $20 ea. new
Bright Star Iso nodes under shelves on racks…$ 25 new
J River Media Center…. $40
1 Click DVD Copy Pro …$50
Stereovox XV2 digital cable. …. $ 110 preowned
VD Power III pc….. $100 new
M2Tech Hiface 24/192 BNC… $187 new
Oyaide T510 BNC digi cable….. $220 new
Phase Tech PC 6.5…. $30 used/ $250 to rebuild
VooDoo power cords… assort’d prices
Phase Tech PC 10.5 speakers…. $600 used
Odyssey Stratos plus, SS amp…. $1250 new
Bel Canto DAC III… $1700 preowned
Butler TDB 5150 5ch amp…. $17500 preowned
Dodd 120w MK II mono blocks …$2500 preowned
Thor preamp TA 1000 MK II…. $3400 preowned
Silverline Sonata IIis…. > $4,300 … new.
Dedicating & optimizing the listening room… $6K so far

Most of all though...
Being an American sitizen, Honorably discharged Veteran, single again & now retired…. Priceless

Yes, speaker positioning and appropriate connection to floor - very high on the price/performance list (very low p:p ratio). I also felt replacing all fuses in my amp with HiFi Tuning silver fuses and adding aftermarket PC to my CDP provided big performance boosts for not tremendous amount of money, but both were well over $100 so a higher price/performance ratio compared to those I listed above.

Furutech fuses make a surprising difference for the small investment whcih they require.
(disclaimer: I am a dealer)

Jim Smith's book Get Better Sound for $25 or $30 is great also. i do not sell that though :-)

Room treatments. Nothing can sound right in a bad room.

Ferrite snap-on core noise filter. About $2 each. Put one on each end of all
digital cables and power cables saved me from buying audiophile brand cables.

Replace batteries in my Vandy 5 crossovers. It is not really an upgrade, more like
a maintenance but the effect is really day and night.