What have you been working on in 2020?


New system? Getting into DIY? New bands?

I’d love to know what you’ve been doing that is audio-related this year. Dare I hope some of you have gotten soldering guns? Heat guns? Cables or caps?
For me, I’ve gotten into Roon and the Pi 4. Finally set up my combined 2-ch/HT set up with a new HT processor, and done a little blogging on Roon and subwoofers.  Last night I took my Pi 4 apart and added tiny little heat sinks to the RAM, USB and Ethernet chips.
erik_squires
Figured it was finally time to stop saying that I would learn how to play guitar someday and picked up some gear. Slow going, but having fun with it.
This year with both of us working at home full time, I got a beyerdynamic A20 and DT770 headphones. So she can watch her TV in the family room while I bliss out in the living room.
I swapped out my speaker cables and most of my old interconnects from Monster for Marrow SP4 and MA4. (Only the long interconnects from pre to amp remain. Saving $$$ to replace those eventually)
When I installed the new cables I took everything out of the cabinet the system lives in and added isolation feet under all the components and rerouted all the cables to get the AC away from the interconnects.
Updated my cartridge from a Denon DL103R to a Hana EL. Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!
When I installed the new cartridge I retuned my Linn LP12 Valhalla and M&K/Rabco tonearm. That thing is a bear to get just right but when you do it's delightful. (Reminds me: I need a new battery)
And as always, I spent the entire year that I have a wife who loves the music (if not all the gear) as much as I do!
Cheers...

I’ve gone a bit in the opposite direction perhaps, somewhat counterintuitively I’ve found myself working more and with less free time in COVID times so I’ve gone the “time is money” route and invested in some expensive upgrades (speakers, amp, preamp, cables - only the DAC has survived) to get closer to “happily ever after” and not have to tweak and fuss so much. I have to say the plan has been a success and the system is sounding really wonderful. It was a lot of money but I’m happy with the returns.