What is my weakest link?


My gear: All Ayre CX7e, K5Xe and V5Xe. Speakers are Maggie 1.6 and Cables are VD master series balanced ICs, AQ bedrock biwire, Cardas golden PCs. Front end is plugged into a 10-12 year old powerwedge 112 and it actually has it's stock powercord still. The speaker cables and powerwedge are carry overs from an old system.

The master's are new, replaced Cardas golden presence and really brought things to a whole new level.

I'm trying to figure out what to replace next. I eventually want to upgrade speaker cables, power cords and power conditioner but I don't know which would give me the biggest improvement in sound.

AQ bedrocks ----> VD Master series or Revelation biwire
powerwedge 112 ----> RSA Haley or Ayre LX5e
Golden PCs ----> not 100% sure yet but most likely more VD stuff.

what are your thoughts?
adhaney
9rw

I'm not sure what you mean by 'wall of sound'? I don't get this wall of sound you speak of with my system. What I do have is fairly accurate imaging with good soundstage width and depth and sense of players in a dimensional space. The front of the soundstage is back from the speakers and extends seemingly out past the back wall with drummers/background singers etc towards the back and lead/guitar up front or however people were placed.. and if two people are sitting together at a piano bench you can usually tell who's sitting closest. The maggies just disappear and you hardly know they are there. It could be a little bit more 3-dimensional but it's definitely not a 'wall of sound'

A pair of Watt/puppy 8s I demo'd gave more the impression of a larger than life 'wall of sound'...and didn't sound anywhere near as cohesive or image as well as my maggies.
OK, then try out different IC -- as in, different in design. Single core, for example. Many people make these and some people offer trials (one of these being an A'gon member -- jadem6).
OTOH, Adhaney, you [b]did[/b] write
I'm trying to figure out what to replace next. I [b]eventually[/b] want to upgrade speaker cables, power cords...
under the the thread title: "What is my weakest link?"
So, ALL of the people answered on topic. Cheers
how hard is it to stay on track with that? There were three choices.. and speakers wasn't one of them.

LOL. I re-read your post and you are quite right. Sorry...my bad. I think the Ayre LX5e would be an awesome upgrade.
Greg

sorry perhaps my wording wasn't too clear either. 'Eventually' as in I can't afford to replace all three at once so I'm doing them one at a time.

I actually think I answered my own question yesterday. I unplugged a PC from the powerwedge and that outlet cracked in half and a good portion of the plastic insulator came off. I moved the plugs to another outlet.. but it's loose in the wedge's case.

That can't be a good thing!