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Products you added to your system in 2021 that made most impact to your music enjoyment

As 2021 comes to an end, just thought it would be cool to share some of the most impactful audio upgrades in your system this year?
Here’s my top 5 list…

1. Pass Labs XP-12: Upgrade path was from Rogue RP-1 to Rogue RP-5 and then to Pass XP-12 that was the final touch. Huge improvements across the board. Mates well with my Rogue ST-100 tube amp.

2. Phono Cartridge: Goldring E3 MM to Hana EL MC. Clarity, presentation, dynamics in spades!

3. Phono Pre: From the built in phono pre in RP-1 and RP-5 to MoFi UltraPhono to Sutherland KC Vibe MkII. Lowered noise floor, increased resolution, dynamics. The KC Vibe MkII is almost double the cost of the MoFi and it’s the one of the few upgrades where an improvement was proportional to the cost difference. At least in my system. Records that seemed noisy become more listenable. A great little phono pre. 

4. Audience AU24sx speaker cables. These speaker cables are a clear window into a recording. Nothing hidden, nothing exaggerated. 

5. Power Cords: Acoustic Zen Gargantua for preamp and amp. Lower noise floor, increased resolution, natural sound, expanded soundstage

Honorable mentions:

1. Acoustic Zen Absolute Copper interconnects. In my opinion the AZ cables don’t get the respect they deserve on these forums anymore, overshadowed by some of the “flavor of the day” newcomers (without going into specifics on brands).

2. Puritan PSM156 power conditioner. 
3. Supra Cat8 Ethernet cable.

4. Lumin U1 Mini

5. MoFi LP#9 Stylus Cleaner. Better than the Onzo ZeroDust although I still use the Onzo between the sides. 

128x128audphile1
dirgordoncole
7 posts
 

Thanks @reubent —glad you enjoyed it.

in regard to the Blusound Node—I haven’t lived (tinkered) with it long enough to make any sort of honest, evaluative conclusion.  However, I am a bit ambivalent about it, but that may be on me for buying $600 box hoping it would fill-in all of my perceived gaps.

The pros—it’s easy enough for everyone in the house to use.  It presents with more  power and body than my iPad.  The included HD radio stations are pretty great!

The jury is out, however, in regards to playback.  (Confession #2–I am fairly certain Vinyl is my preferred source material (inner-ring distortion not withstanding))

At the moment, I am streaming Amazon HD and the buffering is untenable for me.  This is my biggest issue.  I don’t think I’ll be able to make a helpful comment on playback fidelity or musicality until this is sorted.  I’m not ready to lay this issue at the foot of the Node, Amazon HD, or some aspect of my internet connection.  But, I’ve never had the issue of buffering whilst streaming in the past.

it’s a smidgen annoying that Apple Music HD isn’t supported (as that is the preferred service for my family members).  I may re-up with Tidal and see how that runs, so watch this space.

@reubent do keep us abreast of your phono journey.

Any constructive help on optimizing my node is appreciated.

DirGordonCole

stuartk
2,886 posts
 

Symposium shelves and footers were a great bang-for-buck addition but the Hegel H390 that I acquired a couple weeks ago has. without exaggeration, lifted my system to another level. 

4krowme's avatar
4krowme
542 posts
 

It has mostly been about different phono preamps. One is still on the way (I started this about 1 year ago).

reubent
7,005 posts
 

@dirgordoncole  - Hi Gordon. I hope you get your connectivity issues resolved with the Node. Lots of people love it. However, I've also read many accounts of people having networking issues via wifi. They typically say connecting via ethernet resolves the issue. Don't know if that is possible for you, even as a test. If it works, but you don't have the ability to connect via ethernet in your preferred location for the node, perhaps you can install a mesh network and connect the Node via ethernet to one of the mesh's nodes.

BTW, I'm streaming via a Raspberry Pi3 based DIY streamer and it works great. It's really inexpensive. If you get frustrated with the node, and want to investigate a mesh network, or a change of streamers to a DIY Raspberry Pi based unit, just let me know. Would be happy to discuss...

jwpstayman
401 posts
 

So - in 2021, I purchased a Wolf AudioLuna R server, ripped all of my 1200 cd's o the hard drive, added an Eleven Audio Sagra DAC (R2R) and upgraded the pre to power interconnects to Shunyata Research Sigma V2.  Also added a Gold Note PH10 and PSU10 power supply for lp playback with exceptional results.  Now a truly reference system that has gone up several notches in performance.  

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