Looking for a true upgrade in sound quality

At Deer Creek Audio we believe Dirac Live calibration is one of the most powerful ways to gain dimension and accuracy in both the time and frequency domains.

Having performed Dirac calibrations on many high-end systems we have found than there are fundamental systems issue about 30% of the time. So we always validate the systems before proceeding.

In any case we recommend getting back to the basics and verifying the following:

• Component Settings
• Cabling Integrity
• Speaker Driver Operation
• Speaker Polarity 
• Relative Speaker Level Settings
• Crossover Function

@soix

+1

Backwash

++1 Soix, EVERYTHING matters

If you are on the DAC upgrade path, I doubt you could do better than a Denafrips Terminator Plus DAC (NOT the Terminator II as the Plus is a large upgrade).

There is one right now used for $4,900 on US Audio Mart, which has a list price of $7,600. It is a little over 2 years old, so the model has many of the latest upgrades....and the firmware is upgradeable via a flash. Also the unit has a 3 year fully transferrable warranty, so has a little under a year left on the warranty

If I had the money, and the DAC was my next upgrade, I would buy that unit (and I am a long time Denafrips owner of several of their products)

The rest of my system is pretty decent. It consists of a Modwright KWH 225I integrated, Tyler Acoustic Woodmere II speakers, an OPPO 105 for disks, Panasonic SP 10 TT with Dynavector SUT and Ortofon MC10 cart. All synergistic Reasearch Tessla apex cabling. Stereo Rythmic F12 subs. Room is lightly treated with GIC bass traps in front corners and some homemade absorption at first reflection points. The veiled portion of the sound is in the mid to upper midrange. Thanks, Allen.

This does not sound a whole lot like an issue with the digital front end or your Lumin (that threw a veil).

For starters, try plugging in your dac analog out into the different inputs of the Modwright amp, swap inputs with whatever you had your TT plugged into, etc.

Are you real sure that your TT isn’t sounding a bit veiled too dude? Are your ears being a lil extra forgiving there with the TT for some reason? Eitherway...the confoundance here is that a TT/phono stage plugged into the same flaky hybrid amp sounding fine is not a full guarantee that your amp has no issues (source output V being a lil different).

It is generally a good idea for any audiophile to have an extra pair of speakers, an extra amp, dacs, etc sitting around in storage to swap/identify/diagnose things easier by process of elimination. If you don’t, borrow/swap a SS amp (with no tubes in it whatsoever this time) from another guy in town and determine if it is a Modwright or a flaky Modwrong. I bet the Modwrong didn’t give you a input trim feature either.

No mention of acoustic treatments, speaker placement, or straight up better speakers?