2. digital
  3. 1294970410

a better digital front

Need I lil help here. I am in the very infantile stages of selecting my next "step up" up grade. So here is what I currently own front to back. Meridian508 24 bit cd PLAYER> Harmonic Tech magic link 2 (xlr ic)> Pass Labs x0.2 pre> Harmonic Tech magic link 2 (xlr)ic> Pass Labs x350.5 amp > Harmonic tech pro 11 speaker cables> Thiel 3.6. I am wanting to upgrade my digital front. My question is what would garner me, my desired objective? A dac? Could I use my Meridian as a suitable transport, in tangent with a worthy dac to acheive a stepped up improvement in audio quality (liquid, detailed, non-earfatigueing). As of yet I have not set a budjet boundrey as I would like to know all of my options from top to bottom. I could spend a good nickle on a digital front, while if that same nickle garnished me better results at the speaker end.
Here is what I am hearing: I am enjoying my sound greatly. However some times there in the music I hear some subtle barried detail that I can just barley hear deep down in the area that makes an "auiophile, a audiophile". May be timber decay or snare decay, or the voice harmony boundries that are just so ever almost there (defined, and seperate... but fused together do to the fact that there is just better gear out there to help raise more vails. I know the Thiel 3.6 is a far cry from where I want to go, how ever I'd like to first explore what I will need digitally to just bring out that WOW factor both NOW, and when I finally upgrade my THiels. Apples and Oranges I know. But some reason my gut says do the digital first, and speakers at some other point. I could be wrong and will entertain that notion.
But any purchase from this point on needs to be stepped up improvement. or I'll just stay with what I have. I hate spending hard earned cash for minimal improvemnts at this point. I'd rather spend 5k for the desired step up than 1k for minimal gain. There is a lot of areas for improvement here, and I'm at the point where I'm just gonna have to invest ,and I have to make good educated decesions in order to avoid the pit falls of high end mis-matching.kinda want to hear any and all opinions. KNowledge is power : ) thanks for reading
max_pain
tsciame
88 posts
 
The single most dramatic change I made was upgrading wires!

Google "crimson r.m. Music-link". Start with the speaker cables, and then change out every interconnect. They take some breaking in but you will be amazed by the performance of these little known gems. When I swapped out my HT Pro 9 it was like getting a new pair of speakers!

Trust me on this one.

Tony
buconero117
2,311 posts
 
Soulbrass, I agree too. Tom has hit it just right. However, I would add that since it is all about the music, MaxPain needs to spend more time in exploring new music media. For every dollar I currently spend on gear, I spend 100 on acquiring new music media. I love to find new artists, old ones and often I am amazed how I've missed so many great musical talents. A few weeks ago I discovered Katherine Jenkins. Wow, what a voice. This weekend I played her Blu-Ray 'Believe' at the O2. Tells you there is a lot out there, and it is not in the gear.
lokie's avatar
lokie
528 posts
 
Really great advice from Tom. Should be required reading for anyone wanting to upgrade a component. I also like the advice of working on your power and buying more music.

I just got a boost in clarity with a non-shielded power cord on my pre-amp. I would tinker around with lowering your noise floor with good power delivery as mentioned by Tom.
erikminer
433 posts
 
What Tom said is good..So things to do that will really help. First off do you have dedicated AC lines.. BIG improvements in low level details. Figure $300.00 to $500.00 to have a professional install dedicated line(s). what you want are 20amp breaker, 10ga Romex, High quality outlet ie. Oyaide R1, Furutech GTX..and don't let the electrician talk you out of 10ga wire they just don't like working with 10ga cause it's so stiff. You don't mention power cords or line conditioning.. HUGE improvements available there to all aspects of SQ, better bass, macro and micro details, lower noise floor, everything. A good choice there would be all Shunyata just can't go wrong with Shunyata, their products are consistently excellent. Do those things and then reevaluate I think no I'm sure you'll be very happy with the improvements.
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
I have had wild success by matching the 47 Lab Flatfish with an Audio Note 2.1 DAC. I have run a variety of all sorts of sources through my system and non even approach this pairing's height of performance.
More to discover