soix

Responses from soix

A/V receiver and Legacy Focus SE speakers
Yeah the Pass pre should be a huge improvement I’d think.  Definitely get that in there, and the XA25 may work given the relatively high sensitivity of the Focus — certainly worth a shot.   
Fritz carbon 7SE MK 2, Upgrade
After thinking about it and although I do think the Pulsars will provide some improvements maybe most notably in the bass and possibly in imaging and 3D soundstage they probably are more alike to your speakers than different overall.  So if you’re... 
TU-8900 upgrade
No idea about the transformer upgrade, but past that the cheapest/easiest thing to do would be to add a linear power supply (LHY, SBooster, Teddy Pardo) to the Node that will yield a nice performance bump.  I assume you’re using the DAC in the Nod... 
A/V receiver and Legacy Focus SE speakers
I should mention if you’re still happy with your current AVR and it has preamp outs all you really need is the integrated stereo amp and you’re good to go.   
A/V receiver and Legacy Focus SE speakers
Legacy Focus are very good speakers that deserve better than an AV receiver to realize their full capabilities.  From past Stereophile measurements the Focus drop below 2 Ohms once in the bass and again in the lower mids, which will be hard for an... 
Fritz carbon 7SE MK 2, Upgrade
I think you’re on the right track with the Pulsars, but I don’t even think you necessarily need the Graphene version and some actually prefer the original unlike the Perspectives where the Graphene is a clear improvement.  Plus you can get the ori... 
help needed for new headphone system
Given your tastes I think a tube amp may be your best bet.  Woo is obviously a great choice, and this Quicksilver amp gets great reviews and is considered quite a bargain at $1198 and also well worth a look.  For a DAC I’d look at the Denafrips Ar... 
Looking for input on an amplifier switch
Nice amp.  Congrats!  
Do some DACs "handle" sibilance better than others?
I find cheaper single-bit/delta-sigma DACs can have some sizzle up top and grainy/overdone sibilancs and less so with R2R DACs, but this is just a generalization and I’m sure there are exceptions.   
Has anyone here set up a system with tiered subwoofers handling different bass spectrums?
Several thoughts — as others mentioned your crossover is set way too high.  Your speakers I believe go down to 79Hz (-3dB) so I’d try setting it maybe around 80Hz - 90Hz and see what that does.  Also, I’d be hesitant to mix a ported sub with seale... 
Cardas or Nordost for Simaudio/Magico
I’ve got Matrix Ref, Matrix Ref ll, Silver Ref, Silver Ref ll, Satori shotgun bi-wire, and MC2.  I can tell you there’s a big difference between the Matrix ll and Silver Ref where the Silvers offer much more upper octave air/detail with a more tra... 
Cardas or Nordost for Simaudio/Magico
Which AZ cables are you using now?  
I2S Recommendation
Congrats.  Be interested to hear what you find.   
Do people hate Eversolo on here? Or is it liked some?
It’s inexcusable to me that a company has no customer service, and streamers are something where you may well need it at some point.  I have an iFi Zen Stream, and although it sounds good I have an issue I can’t resolve and their customer service ... 
Speaker choice
I’ll third the recommendation for Revival Atalante 5.  Well worth a good look.