What makes the biggest difference in sound quality?

Great post and true...Thanks...

All tweaks effective or not, and some are effective, are only  secondary tools...

Controls of vibrations and a decreasing of the house level electrical noise floor matter more than ANY tweaks...

But passive material treatment of the room and especially active mechanical acoustical control of the room EXCEED in S.Q. improvement almost any other upgade of gear...

This is my personal experience...

The only luxury in audio is a dedicated acoustically controlled room...

i never read any audio magazine anymore now....

There are days when I listen to music and something sounds off. I immediately panic thinking maybe I blew a tube or something. Then I go to a different recording and I say ok back to normal. So I get where your comments come from and I agree.

There are so many comments on room acoustics. My room sucks but there is nothing major that I can do about it. My guess is that most audiophiles suffer from the same dilemma. So we use every tweak imaginable to help...HFT’s, Townshend Podiums, Fuses, 1260 enhancer, fuses, magnets, stones etc. All of these tweaks would not be necessary if our rooms were acoustical sound. I wish I could improve the acoustics in my two-channel room but it is also my great room/kitchen. You make do with what you have and just enjoy the music.

If you take into account your room is a constant and suitable arena then for me speakers/amp interface is the biggest impact. Speakers first then amplification.

Thanks for the question, Ted,

Well-grounded, clean electricity is a great beginning point for a sound system.  The biggest difference in sound quality is the interaction of your loudspeaker choice(s) and the room in which they are used.

Happy New Year.  More Peace, Pin  

Run an A to B to C comparison of 3 sources on my integrated / DAC Devialet 250.

1. mac mini + Lifatec Glass Toslink
2. mac mini + Intona USB Isolator + Oyaide Continental 5S USB cable
3. Project CD Box RS2 T + Kimber Kable KCAG Coax

The test involved instant switching between the 3 systems, playing for 2 mins each for maybe an hour. Same song s running on all 3 sources.

System 3 edged slightly, with system 1 (optical) second, but the differences were very subtle. To the extend I could hardly remember them had I played the systems each on a different date.

I suspect most quality DAC makers have managed to isolate the digital input from any artefacts that may come along, to such an extend that interconnects have a much lesser impact than say power input and speaker cables.

As everyone has pretty stated everything matters and is important, but that is where i differ with most. Most feel speakers is the most important and not to say they aren’t they for sure are but i believe in putting more emphasis on the front end. Preamp, phono preamplifier or section, amp, source equipment, cartridge, turntable, tonearm, digital playback, speakers then cables. Yes quality of power and power cables also make a big difference, but speakers are down on the list for me because you’d be shocked how good even average speakers can sound with great equipment, where as great speakers with modest electronics will sound very mediocre to poor. Not to mention the importance of setup and calibration ! Speaker placement is the single most important aspect in getting good sound.