Does an upgrade make sense?
I may be coming down with the upgrade bug, and I’m open to suggestions. I’m quite happy with what I have—excellent imaging, musicality, dynamics. Maybe I could use a little more depth (left right is fine and speakers truly disappear), and maybe a touch more dynamics.
Almost everything I listen to is Qobuz streaming or hi res and flac files from a NAS (hard drive). My system:
Cambridge 851 Streamer/DAC
Bel Canto Pre5
Bel Canto Ref 500 monoblocks
Dali Mentor 6 floorstanders
Everything sits on maple plinths, Gaia iiis, or pucks.
Cabling is mid range Morrows. I previously had Kimber KS1116s but sold them as the Morrows sounded just as good, on the current set up.
What do I need to get more of everything? Speakers? DAC, Streamer? Amp?
I agree with moving on to separates from your Cambridge 851. Have 700 hours on my Puritan 156 with Puritan Ultimate power cable. A purchase that is well worth the cost. Curious what you have under your electronics? I have Black Ravioli Pads and Big Pads, and Stack Audio Auva EQ. Streaming by wifi or ethernet cable? Power cables? |
@mahgister It would be interesting to see what you could do fine-tuning this listening (or any listening) room. Ever consider hiring out your services? |
Never... First i am not a practicing acoustician doing it each week as a job... Second i do it ONLY one time, tuning mechanically a room for the speakers and not just equalizing the speakers for the room , takes me one year 7 day on 7 ... I did it for fun after retirement and because i could not invest money in audio anyway... Then TUNING a room is like a piano tuner tuning a piano tone chord after tone chord; but in a room i did it with a grid of resonators ( 100 resonators) ...And a balance between diffusion/absorption and reflection as in classical material treatment... I also use foldable screen to focus the waves in the right way to my listening position... The end results was no headphones could compare to my room acoustic not even my actual AKG K340 ... How can i do it for someone else ?😁 Each room dimensions, geometry,topology, various material acoustic content, influenced the resonators grid distributions and tuning... all this must be tamed and understood by the ears for the tuning process... There is no easy recipe i can apply in one week even a month as people selling and marketing acoustics panels or electronic equalization ... i must seat, listen, tune a bit , listen retune a bit , etc and this is done for my EARS not for other ears ( each inner ears filters are different ) .... 😊 A dedicated acoustically tuned room will cost, designed professionnally, around 100,000 bucks... No one can do that in few days...Not even a pro acoustician... Few months yes... And for me 1 year...I did not do it by habit for decade as some acousticians do... It is not putting panels onwalls , along with a ready made computed recipe...Balancing a room reflections is not enough , tuning ask for changing the zone pressures distribution... My room was resembling to an array of organ pipes, all around me, and beside the speakers, like a serpent with a head (right speakers) and a tail (left speakers) and i use pipes of different size, some big bottles too which are anyway natural Helmholtz resonators... We cannot do that in a living room...😁 Having experienced that, it is the reason i smile at people bragging about costly upgrades in a living room... Sound experience come with acoustic first and last not with cables and gear... But we dont have the time all of us , knowledge and the free room to do it... It is one of the main reasons why people always unsatisfied upgrade endlessly... They seriously think that cables can do miracles or dac at 15,000 bucks, instead of a 1000 bucks one, can do it but acoustic is anyway secondary for them , after buying panels at best all acoustic can do is done... Such is the audio marketing world... Which gear designer anyway could spell the acoustic beans TRUTH and saying so, putting his design in the secondary seat as a mere servant of the most important thing to do ? And which audio magazine can write: forget about costly upgrade, do your room ... And even if they say so, with what ? Acoustic panels ? Acoustic panels are very good and effective when well done but it is not enough to create a dedicated tuned room with a soundfield immersive enough to beat any headphone and with spatial holography .... The best scientific way to do it now exist if someone own an already well done acoustic , not a tuned room , only a well done acoustic is enough if he buy the BACCH filters of Dr. Choueiri... The greatest acoustic revolution in audio... Read about it... Forget any other upgrades... Acoustic is the sleeping princess, the kissing prince is your brain/ears, and the gear pieces are the 7 working dwarves...
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I have 4 inch maple plinths under the monoblocks and preamp. These are in a salamander cabinet and have rubber feet (when they were in the carpet I used spikes). I use IsoAcoustic pucks under the Cambridge 851N. Under the speakers I use IsoAcoustic GAIA iii (these were a big improvement over the carpet spikes they replaced. I’ve wandered all over the place with cables—Acoustic Zen, Nordost, Kimber Select and now Morrow level 4 and 5. I use Morrow power cables on the streamer and preamp but just the stock cords on the monoblocks — I’ve experimented with Nordost Vishnus and Acoustic Zen (Krakatoa I believe) and never heard much differences. I’m a cable believer. The Morrows work very well at a much lower price point and I like them because they are so flexible. My SP5 Biwire speaker cables made a big difference. But as far as the monoblocks go, nothing I’ve tried has improved their killer sound. |
